Brian 26
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2013
- Messages
- 574
I am selling an outobard motor fishing boat and the long distance buyer wanted a mechanic's inspection before he drove up to buy it. I agreed, on the terms that he mailed me a deposit, paid for the inspection, he had to buy it if the report came back good which I was confident it would, and it had to be on a weekday evening (that part did not work out and I ending up having to take time off work).
Everything came back good and the buyer says he is picking the boat up on Saturday, however I have a few problems with the check the dealer did.
-The reputable chain dealer charged the buyer $159 labor and $7 shop fees for this "Pre Purchase Check". From the time the mechanic picked the boat up in the lot, uncovered it, and dropped it back off in the lot with the cover back on was 35 mintues. In this example alone I think the buyer got taken for a ride becuase their hourly labor rate is $119.
- They told the buyer the batteries were "good", they have a date on them from 4/2007, I would not consider 7+ year old batteries good. I suspect the mechanic just saw the volt meter read over 12 and called it good.
- They told the buyer the tires were "good", the tread is good but tread doesn't mean squat with trailer tires. The tires are dated 2002. I would not consider 12 year old tires good. I suspect the mechanic just saw the tread and called it good.
-The mechanic did a compression check and reported the numbers this I think is very benificail to the buyer. They also ran the motor and reported that it ran good. However they did not do a leak down test.
-They reported back the navigation and trailer lights worked which is nice but by my math that buyer paid an hourly rate of $274 for something anyone can do with no tools required, a complete waste of money IMO.
-The mechanic checked about 15 other things but they were nothing more than visual checks from what I can tell. Carpet - OK, Fuel Tank - OK..... things like that. This mercury motor does not have an onboard diagnostic computer for the mechanic to check.
In the case of this out of town buyer he was at the mercy of the dealer to pay whatever they charge but to anyone who is at least a little mechanically inclined and looking at buying a boat I would recommend reading up on the subject and doing the check yourself, compression gauges can be bought at any auto parts store, and doing a water test will clue you in some things a mechanic can not test in the shop. I'm sure there are other shops out there that do a better check than this, if it was my $166 I would call around and try to get the mechanic on the phone to see what he will do and what his results were. In this case the buyer only got to talk to the service guy who was looking at a sheet full of check boxes and very few notes.
Hopefully this write up helps any buyers out there that were thinking about paying a shop to check out a boat.
This was my first trip to a dealer in a long time, here are some other things I noticed while there:
They do not make my boat anymore, the 225 is the biggest open bow Glastron makes, they use to offer a 235 (mine) and a 255, I rarely see those on the water so I guess it makes sense they discontinued them.
The new paint schemes and styling of the Glastrons is very sharp however the floor plan is identical to the ones from the 2000s. You can buy a clean low hour 2000 Glastron 195 for $10k and then put $1k into new interior, or a 2014 205 for $35k (after taxes and fees) and they will function the exact same. Of course you'll have higher repairs with the old one but $24k can buy you a lot of repairs.
They STILL put the GM 5.0 V8 in boats.....when buying new and you have a choice of engine I really can't see why you would get that over the 5.7. I do not know what the cost difference is.
New boats are expensive, MSRP for the Lund Pro V 1975 with a trailer, 200 verado, kicker and terrova trolling motor is $70,400. By the time you add front and rear Sonar/GPS, tax and dealer fees you'll be around $75k. I think that is a great boat and you could have it for a lifetime but $75k for a 19' tin boat is crazy. There was a sale going so the boat could be had for less now that is late season.
My 4 year old son and I were in the showroom for about 30 minutes, I only saw 3 other customers the whole time and two salesman and receptionist. Besides the service guy that checked me in no one said a word to us. One sales guy was kicked back in his chair eating a candy bar and the other was on his computer. I'm in sales and if that was me I'd be chatting up every customer that walked in on a slow day like that.
Everything came back good and the buyer says he is picking the boat up on Saturday, however I have a few problems with the check the dealer did.
-The reputable chain dealer charged the buyer $159 labor and $7 shop fees for this "Pre Purchase Check". From the time the mechanic picked the boat up in the lot, uncovered it, and dropped it back off in the lot with the cover back on was 35 mintues. In this example alone I think the buyer got taken for a ride becuase their hourly labor rate is $119.
- They told the buyer the batteries were "good", they have a date on them from 4/2007, I would not consider 7+ year old batteries good. I suspect the mechanic just saw the volt meter read over 12 and called it good.
- They told the buyer the tires were "good", the tread is good but tread doesn't mean squat with trailer tires. The tires are dated 2002. I would not consider 12 year old tires good. I suspect the mechanic just saw the tread and called it good.
-The mechanic did a compression check and reported the numbers this I think is very benificail to the buyer. They also ran the motor and reported that it ran good. However they did not do a leak down test.
-They reported back the navigation and trailer lights worked which is nice but by my math that buyer paid an hourly rate of $274 for something anyone can do with no tools required, a complete waste of money IMO.
-The mechanic checked about 15 other things but they were nothing more than visual checks from what I can tell. Carpet - OK, Fuel Tank - OK..... things like that. This mercury motor does not have an onboard diagnostic computer for the mechanic to check.
In the case of this out of town buyer he was at the mercy of the dealer to pay whatever they charge but to anyone who is at least a little mechanically inclined and looking at buying a boat I would recommend reading up on the subject and doing the check yourself, compression gauges can be bought at any auto parts store, and doing a water test will clue you in some things a mechanic can not test in the shop. I'm sure there are other shops out there that do a better check than this, if it was my $166 I would call around and try to get the mechanic on the phone to see what he will do and what his results were. In this case the buyer only got to talk to the service guy who was looking at a sheet full of check boxes and very few notes.
Hopefully this write up helps any buyers out there that were thinking about paying a shop to check out a boat.
This was my first trip to a dealer in a long time, here are some other things I noticed while there:
They do not make my boat anymore, the 225 is the biggest open bow Glastron makes, they use to offer a 235 (mine) and a 255, I rarely see those on the water so I guess it makes sense they discontinued them.
The new paint schemes and styling of the Glastrons is very sharp however the floor plan is identical to the ones from the 2000s. You can buy a clean low hour 2000 Glastron 195 for $10k and then put $1k into new interior, or a 2014 205 for $35k (after taxes and fees) and they will function the exact same. Of course you'll have higher repairs with the old one but $24k can buy you a lot of repairs.
They STILL put the GM 5.0 V8 in boats.....when buying new and you have a choice of engine I really can't see why you would get that over the 5.7. I do not know what the cost difference is.
New boats are expensive, MSRP for the Lund Pro V 1975 with a trailer, 200 verado, kicker and terrova trolling motor is $70,400. By the time you add front and rear Sonar/GPS, tax and dealer fees you'll be around $75k. I think that is a great boat and you could have it for a lifetime but $75k for a 19' tin boat is crazy. There was a sale going so the boat could be had for less now that is late season.
My 4 year old son and I were in the showroom for about 30 minutes, I only saw 3 other customers the whole time and two salesman and receptionist. Besides the service guy that checked me in no one said a word to us. One sales guy was kicked back in his chair eating a candy bar and the other was on his computer. I'm in sales and if that was me I'd be chatting up every customer that walked in on a slow day like that.
