Fair Price for a PDI?

[bobter3]

First time posting... I work for a dealer not a rv dealer but an equipment dealer. So for us the PDI is part of the cost of doing business and if we find problems then we start a warranty claim and get paid for our time and parts from the manufacturer. That is where we make additional money. Does grand designs not pay for the problems you find?

This!! I suspect that dealers do PDI after paperwork/ownership changes hands so they can then charge for the work they need to do.

[Canyonlight]

Never pay for a PDI from the dealer you are buying from. A no charge PDI is one of the conditions if you want to do business with me.

How do you know ? It may not be spelled out as a charge for PDI but how do you know it is not built into what you pay ?

Dan

[sande005]

First time posting... I work for a dealer not a rv dealer but an equipment dealer. So for us the PDI is part of the cost of doing business and if we find problems then we start a warranty claim and get paid for our time and parts from the manufacturer. That is where we make additional money. Does grand designs not pay for the problems you find?

This! My previous Jayco was bought because the company owner was very proud of the fact that he had the highest warranty claim rate of any Jayco dealership. They went through the unit in detail, and submitted a claim for everything and fixed it before I showed up for my PDI. Win for them - a happy customer with no returns, and reimbursed for all or the majority of the work they had to do. Unknown whether my current GD dealer does the same, but given the high level of completeness, I suspect so. It would be what a successful dealer should do....

[huntr70]

First time posting... I work for a dealer not a rv dealer but an equipment dealer. So for us the PDI is part of the cost of doing business and if we find problems then we start a warranty claim and get paid for our time and parts from the manufacturer. That is where we make additional money. Does grand designs not pay for the problems you find?

Yes, they do pay for warranty items, but not an inspection, since they "do a pdi" before it leaves the factory.

[GaryS1964]

My dealer charged $695. A total rip off but they refused to eliminate the fee. The next closest trailer was 300 miles away and the lowest price offered was $2500 more but no PDI fee. So I paid it. I think they did the PDI the morning I came to pickup my trailer. They hooked it up to power and water and said everything works. Wrong. A couple of minor things were found during the walk through. A major item, refrigerator freezing everything, was found on the first shakedown trip. I haven't been back to the dealer since I picked up my trailer and probably never will return unless I'm left with no alternative. Fortunately GD allows a local independent RV service center to do warranty repairs.

[bdelcurto]

My dealer charged $695. A total rip off but they refused to eliminate the fee.

If this was disclosed prior to negotiating the final purchase price, I think that’s one thing. If it was after, that’s a deal breaker for me.


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[bertschb]

What would you say is a far price for the PDI for an Imagine XLS trailer?

Zero. I don't pay for PDI, freight or "document fees".

I will say my dealer (Blue Dog RV in Redmond, OR) has done an excellent job prepping all three of the Grand Design 5th wheels we've purchased from them so we found almost nothing while doing our PDI's.

[GaryS1964]

If this was disclosed prior to negotiating the final purchase price, I think that’s one thing. If it was after, that’s a deal breaker for me.

It was part of the original quote so I knew about it from the beginning.

[dryfly]

In the RV industry PDI's are talked about a lot. It's become a "standard procedure" in the buying process, and sadly is a necessary evil. The discussion of who should be responsible for it, who should pay for it, and how much should it cost is really kind of weird.

What happened to the days when you purchased a product and assumed the seller was delivering the item in good, working condition? When the buyer is paying good, hard earned money should he really have to worry that the seller is negligent in delivering a product that may have been built in an inferior manner?

In fact, now it is so common place that the dealer is actually charging for doing his and the manufacturer's job. In purchasing a vehicle sure, we walk around it and make certain there are no scratches or dents. We make sure all the accessories we paid for are on the car. But we don't spend half a day going all over the vehicle looking for defects. And we sure don't pay someone else to do it. And the dealer doesn't bill for $500 claiming he had to do it.

My personal opinion is RV buyers are getting ripped off, and now they have come to expect it, and are willing to pay for it. This, and the over all quality of the current crop of trailers will eventually come back to haunt the industry. I apologize for this rant!

[daltontrio]

What would you say is a far price for the PDI for an Imagine XLS trailer? How much did you pay? Do state laws come into play with the price of the PDI?

We recently purchased our 375RES. We had an “all in” price from the dealer so it did not matter to me how they allocated the dollars across their various cost centers, (e.g., PDI, Doc Prep, Cleaning, etc). I do understand their need to cover expenses somewhere in their margin. However, since we were purchasing a unit that was 500 miles away, and it was our first RV to ever purchase, we did hire an independent inspector to do a thorough inspection about a week before our scheduled delivery. That cost was around $600 and worth it IMO.