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Old 02-25-2009, 08:22 AM   #1
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I was recently out of town and I stopped at a large mega-store RV dealer to see what’s new for 2009-2010 and look over the ‘fairly-new’ used inventory. I told the salesperson right up front that I wasn’t really in the market, just killing time, so he allowed me to look around at my leisure. Of course, if you spend too much time on one specific motorhome, the salesperson magically appears to answer those questions you might have. I came across a used 2008 diesel-pusher that I liked and sure enough, the salesperson told me that I was ‘in luck’, that it was ‘on sale’ and ‘looking for a new home.’ He had me come over and sit at his desk, to ‘work out some numbers’, just to see if this diesel was in the ball park’. Out comes the write-up sheet: name, address, phone number… ‘do you have a trade-in’? Sure, I don’t have it with me but I have a 2005 Winnebago… tells me ‘okay’, do you know what chassis brand it is? ‘Of course, it’s a W20 Workhorse…’ He then says ‘oh, oh’… and pulls a big binder out and opens it up for me to scan. He tells me that Workhorse motorhomes have been having ‘a lot of problems’ and ‘it’s kind of hard to sell them or take them in on trade right now’. I ask him ‘what kind of problems’ and he shows me a section of the binder that has printed pages of customer complaints from the NHTSA website… I flip through a few pages and then he tells me to ‘look at this’ and then goes to a section that has a whole lot of pages in clear-sheets, printed from this very website regarding all the Workhorse Brake Issues… (I recognized a few but pretended I wasn’t familiar with the problem.) Bottom line, he told me that the store didn’t take in certain model year Workhorse motorhomes and suggested I try to sell it on my own. So I told him that since I wasn’t really in the market that day, no problem, but what would my motorhome be worth if I tried to sell it. He brings out the sales manager, who then reiterates that they don’t want my motorhome at any price. I question the ‘at any price’ statement and he tells me that the trade-in value would be low NADA value on a comparable Ford, minus $20 thousand because ‘no informed buyer’ wants it; it also gave the store room to re-do the entire brake system at the previous owners’ expense. The sales manger claims that his experience is that it will sit in inventory forever and then he explained to me that the dealer currently has two lawsuits pending against it: he claims that one buyer is suing because ‘the store knew, or should have known about the Workhorse brake problems and didn’t properly disclose it to the buyer’ and a second suit filed by a bank, claiming the buyer let it go to repossession because he couldn’t resolve the brake problems with Workhorse Corp. The bank took a heavy loss and was going after the dealer for, again, not properly disclosing a commonly known safety defect. While I too doubted that either suit will prevail, the sales manger said that they have spent ‘thousands’ in defending themselves because Workhorse isn’t taking any financial responsibility or repairing any brakes. I was disappointed to hear all of this of course, and told him that it didn’t seem like good business to essentially refuse to accept certain chassis motorhome trade-ins but he claims that’s exactly his point: taking certain model-year Workhorse motorhomes is a bad business decision, and that he knew about it first-hand.

While I’m sure it’s perfectly legal on refusing certain motorhome trade-ins, that dealers don’t want to be stuck with ‘turkeys’ as they had put it, how does this impact Workhorse owners and where does this put us if you want to trade-in?
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Old 02-25-2009, 09:23 AM   #2
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Good thing we don't have Edsels!
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Old 02-25-2009, 09:56 AM   #3
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He brings out the sales manager, who then reiterates that they don’t want my motor home at any price.
Richard 34A if that is the dealers decision then You should name the dealership and save us from wasting our time going there. Also your statement shows that they keep an eye on this website and they will be able to count the number of perspective customers they lost. I surely would not patronize a dealership with that policy.
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Old 02-25-2009, 10:57 AM   #4
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I don't balme the dealer. It's truley a case of CYA. If someone ever gets killed because of this ongoing redicules situation, and they're the ones that knowingly sold them this MH they may very well be named in the suit. Now I would call that bad advertizing!!!!. It's only a matter of time until someone is seriously injured or killed by this issue.
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Old 02-25-2009, 11:19 AM   #5
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I would say, as someone who has been in sales for a very long time that this dealer, if they were being honest, has a really big problem dealing with some facts mixed with customer perception and misinformation. However I think they were loading on the spin.
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Old 02-25-2009, 11:25 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally posted by -Gramps-:
customer perception and misinformation.
Huh?
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Old 02-25-2009, 11:49 AM   #7
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Same story?

If the dealer will not take 05 or later Workhorse trade-ins because they know "no one" wants a Workhorse because of the fact that some 04 and earlier models have had brake problems, then I think the dealer has a real problem. Its a bit like a car dealer not taking a Ford car as a trade in because no one wants any Ford because the Pinto used to blow up and the Explorer had a cruise control fire problem. Wouldn't be a very sensible policy for the dealer to do that now would it?
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Old 02-25-2009, 11:52 AM   #8
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Got ya. You're right.
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Old 02-25-2009, 12:46 PM   #9
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Richard, you really should name the dealer. Otherwise, any body could just say that any anonymous anybody could say any thing.
That way one of us could stop there and see if they tell us the same thing.
I think dealer need the cash now lots more than they need trade ins but if what you say is true, it's kind of a good thing that the dealer does'nt want to sell a used MH that they are afraid the new owners won't be happy with.
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Old 02-25-2009, 01:48 PM   #10
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I wonder if they tell about the early Ford V-10 spark plug problems, the ( I believe ) National RV delam problems, the fifth wheels with frame problems, the trailers with Chinese tires or under rated axles. Dealers like the one in the instance described above should be avoided. Most of what Richard was told was statements using MOSTLY 2nd and 3rd hand information. They must not have any customers to spend this much time and effort on a looker who told them he wasn't buying. Good dealer to avoid when we find out who he is.
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Old 02-25-2009, 03:06 PM   #11
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I was at a dealership here in Fl recently and told him I wasn`t interested in looking at anything on a Workhorse chassis.When asked why I cited the brake issues and Workhorse`s denial that an issue exists.I don`t believe I am misinformed on this and this brake problem is certainly not a perception.


Quote:
Originally posted by -Gramps-:
I would say, as someone who has been in sales for a very long time that this dealer, if they were being honest, has a really big problem dealing with some facts mixed with customer perception and misinformation. However I think they were loading on the spin.
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Old 02-25-2009, 03:29 PM   #12
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Spoonman, read my second post. I was referring to this alledged dealer's knowledge and sales technique with possible buyers not to anyone who owns a Workhorse chassis.
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Old 02-25-2009, 06:20 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally posted by -Gramps-:
Same story?

If the dealer will not take 05 or later Workhorse trade-ins because they know "no one" wants a Workhorse because of the fact that some 04 and earlier models have had brake problems, then I think the dealer has a real problem. Its a bit like a car dealer not taking a Ford car as a trade in because no one wants any Ford because the Pinto used to blow up and the Explorer had a cruise control fire problem. Wouldn't be a very sensible policy for the dealer to do that now would it?
I think it would be a liability to sell a product with known brake problems.

BTW Gramps you post on RV Net.

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Old 02-25-2009, 08:04 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fred and Bonnie:

BTW Gramps you post on RV Net.

Fred
Why, yes, I do, I just happen to use the same screen name cause it was available.
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