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Elation has turned to Deflation. Went to pick up the new Forester yesterday morning. Spent a couple of hours going through the PDI with the dealer, noticed a couple of small issues which the dealer immediately took care of. Finally, we were ready to take it on the road. As the sales person put it in gear and started pulling out of the lot, a deluge of water began pouring out of the ceiling into the front cockpit. Not a drip, but a torrent of water. I was sitting in the passenger's seat and got drenched while the sales person, sitting in the driver's seat, got even more wet than I did. The water was running down the inside of the windows, the windshield, the visors, the map lights, the handsfree microphone, the backup camera monitor, everywhere. His comment was "well, this isn't good!". He pulled it into the service bay to have a technician look at it while we decided to go to lunch.
After returning from lunch, he said the good news was that the water had not penetrated the interior and that none of the wood had gotten wet. I asked to look at it and they took me out to the coach which had the entire cockpit stripped. I found it hard to believe that the interior panels or insulation could not have gotten wet. When I stuck my hand up between the metal ceiling struts and the bottom of the overhead bunk, I could feel dampness on the plywood. After looking more closely, I noticed water stains on the plywood of the overhead bunk. At that point, I told the sales person that I had to pass on the unit.
I can't imagine that they could have taken this unit out to a gas station to fuel up the tanks (diesel and propane) without noticing water coming from the cab's ceiling. Fortunately, I had not signed the final papers yet and the dealer was pretty good at saying they understood my reluctance to move forward. The sales person even called a friend at another dealership to ask if they had a comparable unit.
I didn't want to buy a unit which likely had problems out of the factory, or leaving the motorhome with moisture problems to cook in the South Florida heat.
So, the search resumes. I really liked the Forester but I'm not sure I'll be able to repeat the attractive deal I was getting on this unit. This dealer was also more than 2 hours away, so I'm more inclined to buy from a local dealer. Just thought I'd share my update with those of you who were so warm and welcoming to this forum.
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