This is what we did on our motorhome when new. While some of it may not be applicable, since you've never purchased new before, some items about dealing with write-ups and follow-ups may be of some value.
Ray
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My thoughts on PDI's and dealer responsiveness:
YOU MUST take control of the PDI process (pre-delivery inspection). DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, RELY SOLELY ON THE DEALER PDI!
You must do your own. Dealer PDIs usually are cursory and maybe a few hours long because they have other things their people need to do.
What we did on our motorhome:
We took three full days to do our PDI. Our dealer was very accommodating because we told them in advance what we were going to do. My wife started at the back while I started at the front and we each worked to the other end.
The first day was on shore power and city water at the dealer. A major issue we found was that the bed slide was binding a bit. It would stick on one side briefly and then jump to catch up. The more we ran it, the more it bound up. That is unacceptable, even though the dealer said it was "normal". We later found where multiple screws and staples were sticking up too far from the bed platform's carpeting and causing the binding.
The second day was on generator, propane, and tank water at the dealer. For an Onan 5500 generator, your first oil change is at 20 hours and yes, running it for six to eight hours during this day of the PDI will get you close to your first generator oil and filter change.
The third day was to scrutinize the exterior, from the undercarriage to the roof, very, very closely. Remember, any dings, scratches, cracks, etc. that you report after you drive off the lot will be deemed to have occurred after you took delivery. Don't go there.
The dealer tech gave me a large piece of cardboard from a refrigerator box to lie on while underneath the motorhome. I probably spent a half-hour underneath and found wires hanging loose, a broken screw on a propane bracket, and hydraulic lines rubbing. Take a lot of pictures so you'll know how things looked when new. Climbing up the ladder I saw a large jagged gouge in the rear cap. It appeared someone had come down the ladder with a tool in their pocket or something.
Yes, we found many things the dealer missed and they were OK with that because we did their job for them.
- DO NOT ACCEPT DELIVERY AND THE TITLE UNTIL every problem is either fixed or until you know when and how a problem will be repaired. We left ours at the dealer for a full month until most things were repaired.
Once you make the final payment to the dealer the warranty starts.
Your initial goal is to get as much as possible resolved before the warranty clock starts. That gives more time for other things to break while under warranty...
- DO NOT schedule a trip immediately, before PDI defect repairs are completed, thinking you'll check more things over on your first trip and the dealer will have a more comprehensive list.
"GetItHome-itis" WILL cause you a LOT of grief as things go unresolved. It also can leave you stranded somewhere.
But once you have a post-repair delivery date, schedule a few days on the road because there is a lot that can only fail once you've actually used it a few times. We went to a local state park for three days. And then do it again.
- DO NOT LEAVE THE DEALER WITH ANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ON HOW A SYSTEM WORKS. You will regret it. If possible, video the dealer rep while they explain things to you. Those are always good refreshers.
- During your PDI, turn EVERY screw gently and write up every one that will not fully tighten. We found several. Open every cabinet. Look behind the drawers with a flashlight to see if anything looks wrong. We had a drawer that needed pushed harder than the others to latch and it turned out the drawer was hitting on some wiring behind it. Literally, go through everything with the proverbial fine-toothed comb. And then do it again.
- Build your tool bag during your PDI and leave it in the motorhome. You'll need some S-tip screwdrivers for all of the square-headed screws on these things. I bought this one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
- Read voraciously on various forums to learn about problems others have had and specifically look for them on yours. I found a lot of things common to others once I knew to look for them and I refused delivery until they were corrected.
- If the dealer tells you something like "They all work that way" and you think it's wrong, DO NOT ACCEPT THAT. Get it made right. Write it up repeatedly if you need to.
- When, not "if", the dealer says "We're waiting on (the manufacturer) to approve the warranty claim" or to send parts, whatever, IMMEDIATELY ask them for the claim number and other details. Tell them you will personally call the manufacturer the next day to find out what the delay is. Almost every time I did that the dealer's rep said "There's no need. We'll call them again today" and voila, by magic things moved faster. Once or twice they did tell me to call and said they hoped I had better luck. As the customer, I did.
- Run every appliance for a while when you're doing your PDI, not just on and off a few minutes later. We had an air conditioner that would trip a breaker after a few hours of operation. We found that on the second day of our PDI. We brought along a few clothes to test out the Splendide combo washer/dryer and it was fortunate we did. That thing vibrated so badly it shook the hold-down bracket off the wall.
- ALWAYS WRITE UP EVERYTHING, NO MATTER HOW MINOR. You are establishing a written history to help protect your interests in the future. If you have to repair something, WRITE IT UP and ask the dealer to double-check your work to assure it was done properly.
The goal is to get EVERYTHING, no matter how "minor", listed in the manufacturer's warranty system. Again,
no matter how minor. One item I thought was very minor turned out to be major and required that the entire refrigerator be replaced.
- Take a LOT of pictures so there's no question about how something looked when new. Those pics will help you later if nothing else.
- ALWAYS re-report something that is still awaiting repair. DO NOT assume that the dealer is keeping track of those pending items.
- IMMEDIATELY REPORT ANY WATER LEAKS! If you call it in, follow-up with an immediate email so there is a written record of your contact. Many warranties only cover seals and similar for 90 days, not the full year.
If you see even a small dribble of water where it should not be, REPORT IT! Water is very destructive and you have no idea how long the problem has existed, just how long you've seen it.
- Provide the dealer with a good, written description of every issue and include pictures if applicable. Dealers almost always need to submit pictures with their warranty claims. Make them your pictures. Your goal is to enable them to duplicate the problem and to make it easy for them to do so. Step by step instructions on how to make something act up helps them a lot.
Over the first year, I had 98 pages of problems although a few were carryovers (not repaired on a previous service appointment for some reason). There were a lot of pictures in that 98 pages so it's not quite as bad as it seemed.
I wrote everything up in Microsoft Word and kept every item in its own section with its own title so there was no doubt where one issue ended and another began. I then saved it as a PDF and emailed the PDF to the dealer about a week before our appointment. That made it easy for the dealer's service writer to just copy and paste what I wrote into their ticketing system before we arrived.
Just be darn certain to ask the service department if they passed your original write-up to the techs that will work on your unit. Ours would not so I ended up printing it out and leaving it on the dash when we dropped the unit off.
- Upon leaving a service appointment, ALWAYS schedule the next one so you'll have a slot. There are months-long delays at dealer service centers and your goal is to jump to the head of the line on your timetable.
YOU must be your own advocate. Be persistent but not rude or disrespectful but don't let them ignore you or walk on you. If that happens it's OK to get a bit upset.
Good luck!
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