PPL questions

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by tizzyfit

I spent 2 days at PPL in Houston having my awning replaced and 6 new batteries installed. While the service work was being completed, I wondered through every diesel pusher they had on the lot. I too saw several with obvious water intrusion and a few that had cigar/cigarette smell. Most of the units had more wear and tear than I expected for their age. I did speak with one of the finance people regarding their then prevailing interest rates for rigs over 10 years of age and they had lenders available for those rigs. I did see one Country Coach that I'd have been very happy to own but it was so far out of my price range, it wasn't worth pursuing. All considered, it was fun seeing so many diesel pushers in one place.

Tizzy thanks for the reply. So were you in the area when you needed a new awning or did you buy there and replaced what needed to be fixed. Thanks for sharing about your observations. Good info on loans. I am hoping to have money ready before (if) I go. Thanks Happy travels

Ron

[W5CI]

I sold a Travel trailer thru PPL, it was a great experience. they got exactly what they told me they could sell it for. My brother traded for a DP there and had a good experience also. yes I would recommend them especially if you are wanting to sell

[tizzyfit]

Originally Posted by rvethereyet

Tizzy thanks for the reply. So were you in the area when you needed a new awning or did you buy there and replaced what needed to be fixed. Thanks for sharing about your observations. Good info on loans. I am hoping to have money ready before (if) I go. Thanks Happy travels

Ron

Hi Ron, the original awning ended up in a tree in Mexico 8 months prior to having the new one installed at PPL. I actually purchased the awning online through PPL parts, made the appointment, and drove to Houston to get it installed. At the time, PPL parts had the best price on a 20' electric awning by sever hundred $$. While there, I had the 4 6volt house bank and 2 12volt chassis batteries replaced. Oh, they also replaced the 2 slide toppers as well. Enjoyed dealing with all the employees I encountered. Friendly and knowledgeable people.

[Slice]

I bought my 08 Phaeton from them. Here are my thoughts not in order

Sales guy sucked never returned calls etc.. i was a serious buyer too...

I low balled offer too, they called owner and he final approved.. Had title in hand so told me he was desperate to sell...

their inspection of said Rv SUCKED and person showing us was even worse..

I got lucky and everything worked... EXCEPT upon PDI one of the hoses to the rear jacks split and spewed oil everywhere... I said seller Fixes it or I walk away,, he did...

I did have my own inspectors. two of them one for chassis one for house.. i also got feeling PPL did not want outsiders inspecting for buyers but screw them...

OF the coaches we looked at., some you could not walk into the stench was too much. like it was drug out of the barn and thrown on the lot... lots of dirt etc still on the floors.. smoke odors pets etc...

on mine We looked at it after it had rained and sure enough, had a water drip above cabinet, It was disclosed that it had leaked in the same spot before and was fixed but i guess not good enough, I looked it over and determined that a cable ran up thru the roof for satellite was the culprit..
I knew i could fix it with proper caulk etc... It also help in my low ball offer with a list of other items that needed attention..

they did finance it for us with a 19 yr loan decent interest rate.. we have excellent credit, and they tried to push extended warranties too...

here is my two cents: IF you Buy from PPL make sure you PERSONALLY show up and inspect said unit... do not take their word for it... there are lots to choose from....

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by danny285

I sold a Travel trailer thru PPL, it was a great experience. they got exactly what they told me they could sell it for. My brother traded for a DP there and had a good experience also. yes I would recommend them especially if you are wanting to sell

Thanks Danny, sounds like you all had a great experience. Thanks for sharing. Happy Travels

Ron

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by tizzyfit

Hi Ron, the original awning ended up in a tree in Mexico 8 months prior to having the new one installed at PPL. I actually purchased the awning online through PPL parts, made the appointment, and drove to Houston to get it installed. At the time, PPL parts had the best price on a 20' electric awning by sever hundred $$. While there, I had the 4 6volt house bank and 2 12volt chassis batteries replaced. Oh, they also replaced the 2 slide toppers as well. Enjoyed dealing with all the employees I encountered. Friendly and knowledgeable people.

The awning in a tree sounds like a story I liked to hear more about. Thanks for sharing

Ron

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by Slice

I bought my 08 Phaeton from them. Here are my thoughts not in order

Sales guy sucked never returned calls etc.. i was a serious buyer too...

I low balled offer too, they called owner and he final approved.. Had title in hand so told me he was desperate to sell...

their inspection of said Rv SUCKED and person showing us was even worse..

I got lucky and everything worked... EXCEPT upon PDI one of the hoses to the rear jacks split and spewed oil everywhere... I said seller Fixes it or I walk away,, he did...

I did have my own inspectors. two of them one for chassis one for house.. i also got feeling PPL did not want outsiders inspecting for buyers but screw them...

OF the coaches we looked at., some you could not walk into the stench was too much. like it was drug out of the barn and thrown on the lot... lots of dirt etc still on the floors.. smoke odors pets etc...

on mine We looked at it after it had rained and sure enough, had a water drip above cabinet, It was disclosed that it had leaked in the same spot before and was fixed but i guess not good enough, I looked it over and determined that a cable ran up thru the roof for satellite was the culprit..
I knew i could fix it with proper caulk etc... It also help in my low ball offer with a list of other items that needed attention..

they did finance it for us with a 19 yr loan decent interest rate.. we have excellent credit, and they tried to push extended warranties too...

here is my two cents: IF you Buy from PPL make sure you PERSONALLY show up and inspect said unit... do not take their word for it... there are lots to choose from....

Thanks for sharing Slice. So it sounds like they don't want to talk on the phone, so being put on a list of some kind is probably out of the question. Again, sounds like inspections are very very important.

[WendyG]

Originally Posted by rvethereyet

Thanks for the info Wendy. I have had a lot of boating experience. Boat surveys are extremely well done. From reading the forum not so good for rv inspections. I was wondering about smells and such. Gotta get there and smell for yourself I guess. Where did you end up buying from? Thanks again

Ron

While I like our rv, I really did not like the dealership. I'd much rather buy from ppl if they had the right one on the lot.
I did not call to ask questions before my visit, so I do not know if odors or water intrusion would have been disclosed over the phone. I simply booked a dirt cheap fare on a discount airline and went down.
There must be good inspectors, but just because they are independent does not automatically mean they are good.

[barmcd]

Originally Posted by rvethereyet

Thanks for the reply. Very helpful. Sounds like you got a good deal and everything worked well for you guys. I see you are from texas. How many time were you able to check the lot before buying or did you ask the salesman to put you on a list when what you wanted to buy was on the lot. I am from NC and would have a hard time getting there every time something of interest was put on the board. So they charge $450 to have someone show you everything works. Were you allowed to check it out yourself? What happens to make an independent inspection difficult. Thanks again for your help.

We kept checking their on-line inventory and when we saw one we were interested in we drove over. We live about 3 hours away. When we bought our RV from them in 2003, it only took one trip. When we were looking for our current motor home, we made multiple trips, but were consistently disappointed by the condition of the MH we were contemplating. We found our RV somewhere else. Their condition ratings are very subjective. You can't tell anything form a picture of an RV.

I would say their salesmen are not the most reliable people--I think they have more than enough walk in business and following up with customers who didn't buy isn't high on their priority list.

You can't check out the coach yourself--they are not plugged in and they didn't want to move one to a location where it could be plugged in until you commit to buy. At that point you can pay for their PDI. Some of the display coaches have systems disabled so people can't turn them on. You can't move a slide in or out for instance. In our case they said our inspector wouldn't be allowed to turn things on either. The first time we said fine, we'll gamble that everything works and bought the coach. We never really got serious about any of their RVs the second time so it wasn't an issue.

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by WendyG

While I like our rv, I really did not like the dealership. I'd much rather buy from ppl if they had the right one on the lot.
I did not call to ask questions before my visit, so I do not know if odors or water intrusion would have been disclosed over the phone. I simply booked a dirt cheap fare on a discount airline and went down.
There must be good inspectors, but just because they are independent does not automatically mean they are good.

Thanks Wendy, I appreciate your help.

[rvethereyet]

Originally Posted by barmcd

We kept checking their on-line inventory and when we saw one we were interested in we drove over. We live about 3 hours away. When we bought our RV from them in 2003, it only took one trip. When we were looking for our current motor home, we made multiple trips, but were consistently disappointed by the condition of the MH we were contemplating. We found our RV somewhere else. Their condition ratings are very subjective. You can't tell anything form a picture of an RV.

I would say their salesmen are not the most reliable people--I think they have more than enough walk in business and following up with customers who didn't buy isn't high on their priority list.

You can't check out the coach yourself--they are not plugged in and they didn't want to move one to a location where it could be plugged in until you commit to buy. At that point you can pay for their PDI. Some of the display coaches have systems disabled so people can't turn them on. You can't move a slide in or out for instance. In our case they said our inspector wouldn't be allowed to turn things on either. The first time we said fine, we'll gamble that everything works and bought the coach. We never really got serious about any of their RVs the second time so it wasn't an issue.

I know they have a lot of RV's. I guess keeping them unplugged is a way to keep things from getting broken, keeping down the cost and keeping tire kickers a free day of entertainment, but... so you gotta make an offer to buy before you can get it hooked up to see if everything works? That is tough. Thank you very much for the education.

[wingnut60]

They work on volume and there doesn't seem to be much personal 'care' given to a walk-in customer. We visited the New Braunfels location to look at a '14 DRV that was the model we were looking for--had it had a gen prep we would have seriously considered making an offer, but no thought given to detailing it for sale. Bought a '15 from KS RV Ctr that was hooked up and could check everything out. PPL is a great place to shop pricing for a used unit--they move so many of them, not hard to see what the market is for most brands/models of RVs.
The have 4 locations now, even more inventory to go over...

[dkwalsh]

We live in Michigan and bought a 2006 Georgetown sight unseen(other than pictures on the internet) from them in 2012. We, too, low-balled the offer and PPL went to the owner and they countered. We feel we got a great deal. We paid PPL to do an inspection to make sure things worked and they did. We had no issues--everything worked like it should. The only two negatives were PPL claimed the unit had an outside shower and an arctic pac, neither of which was true, but that was not a deal breaker. The other thing is we ended up getting charged a fee twice. I don't remember the specifics, other than we made some kind of deposit and then got charged for it again. All it took was a call to PPL and we got a prompt refund. On the flip side, we got a lot of extras with the unit we hadn't anticipated. We got a full tow package, 6 new tires and a few other accessories. The rating was fine. We planned to be prepared to walk away if it wasn't what was promised, but all was fine. We still have the unit and have had no major problems since it was purchased. I know we got lucky, but all in all, our experience was easy and we would do it again.

Good luck!


Debby

[JC2]

Originally Posted by Slice

I bought my 08 Phaeton from them. Here are my thoughts not in order

Sales guy sucked never returned calls etc.. i was a serious buyer too...

I low balled offer too, they called owner and he final approved.. Had title in hand so told me he was desperate to sell...

their inspection of said Rv SUCKED and person showing us was even worse..

I got lucky and everything worked... EXCEPT upon PDI one of the hoses to the rear jacks split and spewed oil everywhere... I said seller Fixes it or I walk away,, he did...

I did have my own inspectors. two of them one for chassis one for house.. i also got feeling PPL did not want outsiders inspecting for buyers but screw them...

OF the coaches we looked at., some you could not walk into the stench was too much. like it was drug out of the barn and thrown on the lot... lots of dirt etc still on the floors.. smoke odors pets etc...

on mine We looked at it after it had rained and sure enough, had a water drip above cabinet, It was disclosed that it had leaked in the same spot before and was fixed but i guess not good enough, I looked it over and determined that a cable ran up thru the roof for satellite was the culprit..
I knew i could fix it with proper caulk etc... It also help in my low ball offer with a list of other items that needed attention..

they did finance it for us with a 19 yr loan decent interest rate.. we have excellent credit, and they tried to push extended warranties too...

here is my two cents: IF you Buy from PPL make sure you PERSONALLY show up and inspect said unit... do not take their word for it... there are lots to choose from....

Very well written and good info for those potential buyers that should take the time to read.