Corky 8 Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 When I change my Motorhome it is normally through a dealer, more for convenience than anything , I've only once and bought New on that occasion I though I knew its history, but on all other occasions its been previously owned model's with only the Dealers information plus the Look's of the Motorhome also any Service History available, I've had to go by, On purchasing our Present M/H I decided having the previous owners Name and Address I would drop him a line and enquire to if he had been satisfied with the Motorhome and would he point out any faults I should check on, I have received no reply and now I'm feeling Guilty of being Intrusive, thinking the previous owner could have demised, and I've then giving the surviving partner a task they never asked for. If the Shoe was on the other foot as has Happened in the past I have replied to letters of this type being as Truthful as possible, What is you Opinion on this subject. am I out of Order ? Would you reply to an Inquiry about a previous Motorhome you owned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caddies104 Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Hi Corky Could be they are on holiday with the cash they now have?? Or ??? Next please... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Corky 8 - 2013-12-15 1:29 PM When I change my Motorhome it is normally through a dealer, more for convenience than anything , I've only once and bought New on that occasion I though I knew its history, but on all other occasions its been previously owned model's with only the Dealers information plus the Look's of the Motorhome also any Service History available, I've had to go by, On purchasing our Present M/H I decided having the previous owners Name and Address I would drop him a line and enquire to if he had been satisfied with the Motorhome and would he point out any faults I should check on, I have received no reply and now I'm feeling Guilty of being Intrusive, thinking the previous owner could have demised, and I've then giving the surviving partner a task they never asked for. If the Shoe was on the other foot as has Happened in the past I have replied to letters of this type being as Truthful as possible, What is you Opinion on this subject. am I out of Order ? Would you reply to an Inquiry about a previous Motorhome you owned. Yes, I would. First van was sold via dealer and heard nothing from new owner. Second van was bought privately, and I handed over bills, service records, invoices for tyres etc etc. Demonstrated with water, gas and electrics working - the full tour. Had I received a letter asking for info following sale by the dealer, I would have answered truthfully. Why would one not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coachman Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I would also reply to the new owner. But how about this one, five years after selling a Cortina estate the owner asked what mileage had I done in when I sold it to a dealer in part exchange !. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve928 Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Brian Kirby - 2013-12-15 3:12 PM Yes, I would. (snip) Why would one not? I'm with you Brian but sadly we don't all live our lifes to the same standards. There's a poster on here who has mentioned repeatedly that he knowingly traded-in his van with an undeclared serious fault on the basis that a problem passed onto some other mug is a problem solved. In fact he seems quite proud of the fact and mentions it repeatedly. I'm guessing that he may be one of the ones that wouldn't bother responding to the next owner.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spospe Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I supply a 'handover' sheet with each van that we part-ex. This sheet mentions all mods that I have done and where items, such as additional fuses and switches etc. are located. This sheet seems to be appreciated by the next owner and I have heard from the dealer that it helped them make a sale. What do I get out of it? A feeling of virtue. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pampam Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I think it's great if someone can give you the information on their old van that you now own it would be good if there was a site where you could put in your reg number (of potential new van) and the ex owners could put their opinions on it .that would give you a clue as to what you might be taking on but on the other hand if they have an axe to grind with dealers they could say it was a bag of spanners even if it was a good van: I had a salesman phone me to ask me what mpg my old van did the customers were sat in front of him: then he asked why I part exed it when I told him the comfortmatic gearbox was kaput he couldn't get off the phone quick enough (he hadn't done his homework)the gearbox had been on the garage floor for three months!! Pp :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cattwg Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Corky 8 - 2013-12-15 1:29 PM I have received no reply and now I'm feeling Guilty of being Intrusive, thinking the previous owner could have demised, and I've then giving the surviving partner a task they never asked for. When writing to any stranger this is always an unknown situation. I would certainly reply truthfully to a request for information from a prospective buyer. When selling anything I work on the following principle. If it’s a private sale and I know of a fault then I always tell the prospective buyer. However the private buyer must be aware and also realise that the item is second hand. If there’s a serious fault or the item does not work then it’s sold as ‘for spares or repair’. I then sleep at night and there is no come back. An example would be, several years ago we sold a caravan and I pointed out slight damp ingress that I was aware of. This may well have been found anyway – he still bought the ‘van. If I’m part exchanging i.e. selling to a retailer then I don’t disclose faults – I’m selling to a professional who should know what to look for and the price paid will reflect the fact that he has to allow for the possibility of problems. When he sells it on then there will be a guarantee to safeguard the buyer. Cattwg :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyishuk Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I have had no, and would not have, a problem with offering information. I sold a Swift Kontiki to M Jorden Caravans with a problem stated to them with the Fiat side of things. It cost me dear as the price was knocked down. It was either that, of wait for Fiat to prove there was a problem then approve investigation and repair. This information was not passed onto the purchaser, (or MJ C thought they had fixed it) Fiat had nothing on record for the vehicle. Owner contacted me, and I told him the full story and supplied copies of information from Fiat I had passed to the Dealer. He was not happy as he had paid top notch for it. Likewise if there is a Rapido 709F with a registration I recognise, quite happy to exchange notes. Rgds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rayjsj Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Yes, I would always be willing to tell of past problems and resolutions , history etc., never a problem. In fact some times it would be nice to know where the van has ended up and who with. Just as long as they didn't expect any involvement from me in cost of repairs etc., they can have as much info as I could give them. Ray Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 Cattwg - 2013-12-15 6:09 PM If I’m part exchanging i.e. selling to a retailer then I don’t disclose faults – I’m selling to a professional who should know what to look for and the price paid will reflect the fact that he has to allow for the possibility of problems. When he sells it on then there will be a guarantee to safeguard the buyer. Cattwg :-D Agree... I've only ever bought/traded-in with a dealer and although like others, I've still handed over full documentation/receipts for mods/work undertaken etc ,when we traded our last van in, as in my opinion it was a cheap and nasty piece of dog sn*t, I certainly wasn't going to highlight my thoughts to the "professional" dealer(...as I doubt he'd share similar thoughts with me about a vehicle he was selling) He inspected it..gave us a price..we accepted it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I would, I had a buyer of a Renault 5 turbo I owned ring me up to ask about mileage. It turned out the dealer I sold it to had clocked it by 10k miles. He wasn't happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowie Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 pepe63 - 2013-12-15 6:51 PM Cattwg - 2013-12-15 6:09 PM If I’m part exchanging i.e. selling to a retailer then I don’t disclose faults – I’m selling to a professional who should know what to look for and the price paid will reflect the fact that he has to allow for the possibility of problems. When he sells it on then there will be a guarantee to safeguard the buyer. Cattwg :-D Hi all; never traded a van in; just cars, and never enjoyed the experience! I would expect a dealer to point out any"faults" real or imagined, in order to justify a low trade-in offer (unless he was very very keen to sell what I was looking trading in against. Agree... I've only ever bought/traded-in with a dealer and although like others, I've still handed over full documentation/receipts for mods/work undertaken etc I would always keep receipts, inspection reports, garage receipts etc; (or copies at least) just in case a buyer decided to contact me. Once sold to a dealer then I'd be more interested in safeguarding my own position. I'd be happy to describe the "as sold by me" condition, but if I wanted a relationship with a buyer I'd sell privately, in expectation of a better price, but accepting possibility of hassle. Not all dealers are rogues, but equally, not all buyers are angels. (In my very limited experience!) regards alan b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spadge Posted December 15, 2013 Share Posted December 15, 2013 I sought an enquiry from the previous owner ref the reliability of his van which we had purchased from a dealer I might add, only to find out from the lady who answered the phone that he had passed away only the month before so emotions were still quite raw. I beat a hasty retreat apologising profusely while doing so and would be highly unlikely to repeat the process ! :$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nuevoboy Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 We were motorhome virgins when we bought our 5 year old van via a dealer, some 3 years ago. More than anything, I was intrigued by the 2 bull stickers applied to the rear of the van. Having found the address of the previous owners, I eventually plucked up courage to write to them, apologising if my letter was found to be intrusive or upsetting. However, I received a lovely reply from them and they even asked me to telephone them to discuss the issue. It turned out that they had somewhat reluctantly sold the 'van on as they had moved into some sheltered accommodation with no parking facilities for private vehicles. They told me that they had spent the previous 2 winters down in Spain (hence the bull stickers), explained that the 'van had behaved impeccably and were sorry they had had to part with it. They were delighted that they knew the 'van was once more in good hands and even invited me to visit them if we were ever in their area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minicamper Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Personally, I would love to know my van was being loved and cherished if I sold it. But I would be nervous of asking if I bought one in case it was a lemon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Had Enough Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Some of the attitudes shown on here leave me feeling very depressed about the honesty and moral stance of many people today. Trading in a motorhome knowing that it may have a serious fault and deliberately hiding this information from a dealer is just dishonest. Trying to justify it by saying that they are 'professionals' who should know what to look for is no excuse. Many faults are hard to discover and may only manifest themselves when the new purchaser has used the 'van for some time. We expect dealers to be honest with us and if they're not these same people will be the first on here to complain. How can we expect a dealer to have high standards if we deliberately conceal faults that may well cost them their profit margin? It's hypocritical and dishonest to conceal known faults and why certain members on here feel it incumbent on them to outline problems to a private customer, but conceal them from a dealer just baffles me. You're either honest or you're not and choosing only to be honest with one section of society and dishonest with another is hypocritical and says an awful lot about the basic morality of the writers. My experience of dealers has been good. Two family businesses that did want to make a profit but at the same time make it honestly. Yes, there may be the dishonest ones out there but we shouldn't stoop to their level. Just because many people think it's acceptable to keep a wallet they find on the street for example, doesn't mean that we should all do the same! As I said, you're either honest or you're not and if you claim to be honest you should be honest with everyone with whom you deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Not sure if H.E was aiming that at my post... but if he was, then I'm not quite sure what it was that was being " deliberately hidden" or "concealed"? Just to clarify,the spots of aluminium corrosion on the vehicle in question were clear for all to see... :-S And if their "fully trained engineer"(..you know...the ones who's "expertise" we're supposed to trust when it comes to damp testing and servicing our vehicles?), can't *see them during a 30min inspection prior to agreeing a price(*or sees but doesn't know what it is!), then that is their look out... *-) Edit:..and as for the "keeping a wallet" jibe, funnily enough I've just returned back from revisiting a local restaurant, who on checking our CC receipt this morning had mistakenly missed to charge for a round of drinks we had with our meal on Saturday....very surprised they were to, for someone to drive the 6 mile across town to hand them 12 quid! ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mel B Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 When we PXd our Rapido 709F for our Rimor Sailer 645TC in 2007 the Rapido had no issues at all. I think we only got the great deal we did at the time simply because the Rimor we bought was the 'low' bed version so wasn't 'wanted' by his usual clientel as he was more into selling 'high' bed versions with a bigger garage to the racing fraternity so being the lower bed version the bikes wouldn't fit in (some idiot must have ordered it wrongly!). He hadn't been able to sell the Rapido himself so had passed it on in the trade and we saw it at a show a few months later when a couple were looking the outside of it. We walked over and found out that their friends had just bought it, so we gave them our name and contact details to pass on in case the new owners wanted to know anything about it's history and could get in touch ... they never did! *-) When we PXd the Rimor for the Chausson Flash 04 we were quite open about the work we'd had done on the Rimor (due to bricks being thrown at it in Holland and therefore the bodywork repairs and new windows which had been fitted), but there weren't any actual faults at all, it didn't bother to the dealer because he'd seen the van before the actual PX day and he was happy with it as the repairs had been done so well you really could NOT see any of it at all (no reduction in the PX value either). However, when we PXd the Chausson we told the dealer, even before we did the deal, that the heating wasn't working properly as the thermostat dial was faulty (a common problem apparently due to a faulty batch) and that a replacement was on order under warranty, we passed on details of who was getting the part for us and to contact them directly, whether they did or not I don't know. So, we are always honest about the condition and if there's a fault we'd tell them, just as we would hope that if there is a fault on something we are interested in we are told about it and that it is going to be repaired too! It works both ways. :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Kirby Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Had Enough - 2013-12-16 1:02 PM Some of the attitudes shown on here leave me feeling very depressed about the honesty and moral stance of many people today................ This is unlike you, Frank. You are usually the epitome of optimism. Here we have poster after poster saying they would gladly provide information on faults they know about at the point of sale, and would be happy to provide further information if asked post sale, and it makes you depressed. Winter blues already? I thought I was supposed to be the pessimist, and I was feeling quite uplifted by what most had said. How strange is this world. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 When I P/ex my Duetto I gave the dealer a large folder with all the records for it by the last owner who had it about eight years and myself who owned it for nearly seven years. About 7 month later a chap phoned me asking if I'd mind telling him what I knew of the van, which I did. After a pause he asked if he could come and see me, I told him that if there were any issues with it he would need to see whoever he bought it off and not me as it was sold 7 months previously. He said the van had been sold but whoever had bought it only had it for 1 month and died. His family asked the dealer would he take it back as no one in the family wanted it. To cut a very long story short (and it was long), the Duetto is on a Ford chassis and the speedo only went up to 99,999 miles then started back at zero. I bought the van at 102,000 ml and it was showing 56,000 when I p/ex it. The dealer was told because he thought that was the correct mileage but sold it on as a 57,000 miler. I asked the chap if he had the folder with its history and that there were bills in there showing it had been serviced three times in Brittany and once in Spain and with the mileage at the time of service, he said that the dealer did not get them back off the last owner. This story went on for a long time with lots more other issues, in the end it cost the dealer over £4,000. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Oops!!! double post Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest pelmetman Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Funnily enough just sold my Rover at a local auction house thinking we'd sold the house *-)................Had a letter from the chap asking if I had the service book.........I replied that I never had it from when I bought it as I don't use main dealers, although I did give him all my servicing receipts MOT's etc...........I also wondered if I should tell him about the leak that fills the rear passenger foot well :-S............. I decided not to as I'd fixed it .........................I drilled a hole to let the water out ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peter Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Brian Kirby - 2013-12-16 6:51 PM Had Enough - 2013-12-16 1:02 PM Some of the attitudes shown on here leave me feeling very depressed about the honesty and moral stance of many people today................ This is unlike you, Frank. You are usually the epitome of optimism. Here we have poster after poster saying they would gladly provide information on faults they know about at the point of sale, and would be happy to provide further information if asked post sale, and it makes you depressed. Winter blues already? I thought I was supposed to be the pessimist, and I was feeling quite uplifted by what most had said. How strange is this world. :-)Most on here would be only too glad to enlighten a new owner of their old property, with the proviso that it isn't Frank. In which case quite a few would tell him to f*ck off. Perhaps that realisation has what's made him depressed. (lol) (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dakota Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Some years ago i changed my autotrail cheiftain , the guy who later bought it from the dealer , sent me a letter asking me about the van , i told him about how good condition the van was in and the last recorded mileage , he sent me photos of the vans condition after he had got it home , i couldnt believe what i was looking at , there was damage to the rear window , damage to the shower cubicle and other things , it actually looked as though it had been in some kind of accident which had twisted the body , i rang him and told him this never had happened whilst i had owned it and the van had been near perfect when i last saw it , he promptly got on to the dealer concerned who in turn after some argument took the van back and over a couple of months repaired everything , he even got recompense for his lost holidays caused by all this , the van had moved from the local dealers in poole to one in lincolnshire , so i reckon all this damage had probably happened whilst in transit .Anyway it all ended with the guy getting virtually a new van so i reckon its a good thing , getting info from the previous owner , it can sometimes be invaluable . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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