PPL Consignment - Great Experience

[2gypsies1]

Just a FYI: We sold our motorhome within one month at PPL. They were great to work with and we'd highly recommend them. Everyone there was highly personable and helpful. It's a very professional organization.

[MrWizard]

consignment is NOT out right sale

consignment would have resulted in you receiving more money
but you would have too wait until it was sold to the buyer

obviously you did not want to consign, you wanted them to buy it at the consignment sale price

[frankdamp]

You were remarkably fortunate. We just had our first (and hopefully, only experience) with consignment. No names, no pack-drill, but I think we got scammed.

After the initial inspection the dealership estimated an "asking price" of $28500 and was confident they could get around $25000.

The rig was immaculate inside, had a one-year-old replacement fridge and only 18,000 miles from new in 2002. It had some minor cosmetic issues, needed a re-seal of the rubber roof (estimate $450) and the generator wouldn't run (a fix estimated at $350).

After three months of no activity, we finally got a bid of $14,000. less than half the dealer's initial estimate. We rejected it immediately and were told "Come pick it up". My lawyer asked them if they were unilaterally abrogating the contract.

We eventually settled for a selling price of $15,800, $9000 less than NADA wholesale, because we were sick of dealing with these clowns. When I signed over the title, they had surreptitiously folded over the bottom tear-off section, which is the Washington State "Seller's notification of Sale", intended to protect the seller if the buyer doesn't re-register the vehicle. They seemed a bit ticked when I unfolded it and tore it off.

When I got home, I realised there was no entry in where the Buyer i/d was supposed to go. I called, and the dealer said "Just put our name on there", which I did. I later realised that, because the dealer's name was on the Notification of Sale, and the check I got was theirs, I had legally sold the rig to them.

i'm still working with the State of Washington Vehicle Licensing Fraud people to find out if I was really scammed. Based on my experience, I wouldn't EVER use consignment again.

[magicmantx]

We bought our first class C from them several years ago. We also purchased an extended warranty as we had never owned an RV before. The RV turned out to be great and we used it a lot with no issues up until a couple months before the warranty was to expire the Gas gauge sending unit went out this was early november and the warranty was set to expire at the end of the year. We dropped off the RV to have the warranty work done and asked to have it checked over for any additional work needed . We also let them know we would be leaving on a trip the week before christmas and would need it back the week before to prepare to travel to see our children. (We only live about 15 miles from PPL) Long story short we had to hound them up until the very last minute that we could possibly leave to get it back and nothing was done except change the fuel pump and supposedly the wiring harness.We made our trip with no issues as well as a couple other weekend trips later in the spring. Our next long trip was to SD to the sturgis rally. After leaving the rally we decided to take a side trip to Colorado on the way back home. We had a brake failure in the mountains(Totally my fault as I had never driven a RV in the mountains before) After spending a week and a ton of $$ on towing and repairs I was ready to head home. We made it to the interstate and the RV completely went dead. .So once again I spent another high tow bill and was dropped in a RV repair lot in Golden Co. with lots of other poor people trapped there. A lot were full timers who were at the mercy of the repair place and we were dropped there on a saturday night. After discussing our issue with the others there we were told to look at 2 weeks to get it looked at. I got up the next morning and started to diag the issue. After checking a few things I quickly found the fuel pump was not running so I uncovered the wiring going to the fuel pump and was shocked at what I found. The harness had been cut and all the wires were just twisted together no splices no tape nothing. It blew all the fuses and the fuel pump relay. It also blew the ECM relay. I fixed it and drove home. luckily they left the wires long enough to cut off and splice in new wires. Upon returning home I took what was left of the burt wires and took it to their service manager. basically was told there was no way they would have done that and offered no help . I was out a 1600 tow bill not to mention nearly burning down my RV or worse. Never set foot on there lot again and never will.

[DraginRat]

They may be a good place to sell, but I would not trust them if I were buying. They flat out lied about a couple major systems on the motorhome we bought. They told us they were working, when in fact, the air lines had been cut and could not even had been mistaken for working by the most incompetent of techs. They also tried to charge us Thousands of dollars for a part that cost $140.00.

Our experience at their New Braunfils lot was like something you see in a movie about used car salesmen.

Ken Gasbarri

And, I have the paper work to prove it.

[Kennedycamper]

Sold our last TT in 2 weeks, and got more for it than I would've.

[2gypsies1]

Our buyer flew in from Florida so obviously he was looking for the 'right' one as there are plenty for sale in Florida.

No, they don't leave the hundreds of RVs plugged in and neither do they give a warranty. They do go over the main components thoroughly with the customer and the customer is free to bring in someone else if they choose. The customer had questions of us and we answered. They were satisfied. This is typical with most consignments, I'm sure. Regardless, all we wanted was to sell it and they did. We're happy. There's no sales pressure to the potential customer.

We arrived with the motorhome with a price in mind by doing our research. PPL thought it was low so we agreed to up it. Glad we did!

[chiefneon]

Howdy!

We're fulltimers and after we took delivery of our new Toy Hauler this year we had ordered we placed our old 5er on consignment with PPL and left Texas. Our 5er sold in less than a month and the funds deposited in our account within a couple of days. No hassel great experience dealing with them. Alot of their sales come from folks that are outside of Texas ours was which shows their advertising works. Would not hesitate to use them again.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon

[John_Joey]

afrescop wrote:
They have a great business model: Cost free inventory and 10% profit on every sale. Better than most new dealer's profit margin. Heck, they don't even have to pay the electric bill to keep them hooked up.

Plus no warranty given or implied. Of course you can always "buy" an extended one.

Appearance rating of "fair" and "good" is very subjective. They have their fair share of turds on their lot just like any consignment lot would in the US if you're a buyer.

[afrescopXx]

oldmattb wrote:
We sold two RVs at PPL and were satisfied with them. We have not bought from them, but have shopped there many times. Some coaches are pristine, some rough, but it is always a learning experience. Had they had specifically what we sought at the time, we likely would have bought there.

I have never heard of PPL buying a coach - could this have been a misunderstanding?

Matt B

No misunderstanding. Look at their web site. It specifically says they do buy RVs. Essentially they offered less than 50%, at that time a few months back, of what we paid new little more than a year later. I know there is depreciation and then there is outright poor business practice. This was 50% off the new sales price, not MSRP.

They have a great business model: Cost free inventory and 10% profit on every sale. Better than most new dealer's profit margin. Heck, they don't even have to pay the electric bill to keep them hooked up.

[John_Joey]

Texas has 11 months of RV'ing an PPL is next to a huge (Houston) market of potential buyers. Works well for a person trying to sell a rig from another part of the country.

From a buyers point of view, they are no better or worst then any local quality consignment lot. Don't think I would waste my money to travel to Houston unless the rig was hard to fine in my local area.

[oldmattb]

We sold two RVs at PPL and were satisfied with them. We have not bought from them, but have shopped there many times. Some coaches are pristine, some rough, but it is always a learning experience. Had they had specifically what we sought at the time, we likely would have bought there.

I have never heard of PPL buying a coach - could this have been a misunderstanding?

Matt B

[Mr_Mark1]

2Gypsies, I'm glad to hear about PPL as I had a friend who sold his coach there a couple of years ago with a pretty good experience. We, too, were going to consign there but I understand that they don't plug their units in. My friend had a lot of solar on his roof and the salesman told him his was the only one that would start without a boost.

I just couldn't leave our '08 Monaco without power as we consigned in late August with Motorhomes of Texas in Nacogdoches north of Houston (MOT keeps the units plugged in with the air on). They don't put the slides out unless a customer is looking at the coach so no risk of the toppers being damage in a fast arriving storm.

Ours took 90 days to sell and we were happy.

PPL carries a lot of coaches and I like the fact that they show what the coaches sold for for the last couple of years.

Safe travels,
MM.

[afrescopXx]

They gave me an unbelievably low buy offer for our RV. If I had accepted their offer they would have made a 61% profit when the coach was resold! I know they are in business to turn a profit but give me a break. 30% is the usual markup on brand new MHs.

[Dog_Folks]

Thanks much for posting.

We are thinking of a purchase there.