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Dealers need to choose Promo boat Owners better


wedge88

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Every day I see a new Promo boat for sale and most have 20-30 hours on them. It seems to me a dealer or factory would want more hours on these boats since they are essentially used for marketing and demos.

We put 107 hours on the boat this summer (so far) with a 1.5 year old and we live 4 hours + from the lake. Not to bash current promo owners but I thought I would stir things up.

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Every day I see a new Promo boat for sale and most have 20-30 hours on them. It seems to me a dealer or factory would want more hours on these boats since they are essentially used for marketing and demos.

We put 107 hours on the boat this summer (so far) with a 1.5 year old and we live 4 hours + from the lake. Not to bash current promo owners but I thought I would stir things up.

Current Promo owners can add their 2 cents, but here are mine:

I promoed for MC and Malibu in the past. The number of hours isn't necessarily that important to promoting the boat. With MC, i was part of their barefoot program, and i would sometimes go to tournaments where the boat wouldn't even come off the trailer (because there were already another MC or 2 there). Same was true for BU. My boats were used 2 years in a row at the Boat Show, so it was climbed in and out (that was tough to watch).

I live right at the course right now, so it takes me 2 minutes of engine warmup time, and the rest skiing or boarding. Any cruising or hanging is done down at the beach, in the Center Console boat, so not alot of hours are put on the BU. I don't know what the current promo program is, but all that used to be required was supporting the local boat shows, and 3 - 5 tournaments a year.

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I'd say there's a lot of more important things than the number of hours IMHO.

There's someone around here that's a promo guy for a non-bu brand that puts a lot of hours on his boat, but he's a pretty undesirable (to put it nicely) promo person.

In this area there really aren't a lot of tourney's to put that many hours on. So from what I've seen most of the hours end up being from personal use anyway. I'd be willing to bet that with the two Malibu promo boats in this area, both of which belong to very good promo guys, 40 hours or less is due to actual promo use at tourneys.

Mike

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Ok heres a queshtion what should the mark down be on a boat that has 300 promo hours?

I think 300 hours is excessive but I use to ride w/ one of our local BU Promo guys and he usually averaged about 80-100 hours. He was always taking new and interested customers out. Maybe I have the wrong perception of promo owners but I perceived promo owners to not only be at toureys and events but also host interested customers.

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I only know two guys who are promo owners. They get to that point because they promise to have the boat at events available to ride. Both guys put a lot of hours on their boats as a result.

I can imagine that hours per season isn't the only criteria to be a promo owner. If the boat is at an event sitting on the trailer or in a show room, obviously it's not racking up any hours but getting the manufacturer some coverage in other ways.

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I found something very disturbing when i was out boat shopping.... I found two dealers with demo boats that clearly had their hour meters disconnected or reset. (TO BE REALLY REALLY CLEAR.. these we not Malibu's or from a Malibu dealer.. it was another dealers/brand we were shopping at.

Case#1: 07 boat from a dealer (who is not out of biz and the boat had just arrived at the new dealer in town for that brand (they had only had the boat for a day so they didn't know much about the history) who was known for using most of his boats as demos (someone stated to me "he runs all it boats pretty hard for demo days, etc.) Anyway.. he had a left over 07 (this was 2 months ago) that had 2.4 hours on the meter. Well we looked at and demoed the boat and there is no way it had only 2.4 hours on it. The boat was pretty beat up for a "new" boat (meaning my 6 year old boat had better looking gelcoat), the carpet needed replaced (which i figured could have been due to a boat show) and the trailer had lots of rust on it.. including the chrome wheels. The boat was also missing a ton of parts. I tried to justify most things, but the condition of the gelcoat and the prop made it clear to me that the boat had been run ALOT. The boat drove poorly (lots of rattles, ect) and the tranny didn't sound good. To use it was clear this boat had been used and then at some point the cPU swapped or recoded with lower hours (obviously i couldn't prove it, but i didn't want the boat so who cares... but had that dealer still been in biz there is no way i would have purchased a boat from them.

Case#2: We were looking at an 08 boat at a dealer and the only 08 they had left was their demo. We took a look and it was really beat up (major gelcoat gouges, rear swim platform looked like it had hit a cement wall, and a few other things. All cosmetic, but clearly abused (which was sad.) The dealer has their name all ove rthe boat in vinyl letters and it turns out they use it on the lake all the time for events or to just go out and have a good time (we have seen them out boarding on it on the lake.) They told me the season wasn't over so they hadn't started trying to sell it but if i wanted it we could work something out. I asked how many hours are on the boat and he said "it low, not sure what exactly, but it shouldn’t have lot of hours. The next day we were in the demo boat on the dealer’s lot and the keys were in it. I asked him to turn the ign on and tell me how many hours. He stuttered a bit, then turned the key. the hour meter lit up but it showed 0.8 hrs (it was a manual hr meter... so no one that gets the info from the engine CPU.) He said that the hour meter must not be working (and to his credit he did say "we would need to have a tech plug into the motor to tell you how many hours (honestly.. i like it!) I demoed this boat the next day and indeed the hour meter was on and displayed 0.8 and the hourglass was solid (which means the hr meter is not counting (it blinks when it counts.) I wasn't too worried about it until i thought about the other boat i had seen earlier in the week and i realized that they could easily go into the shop and use a scan tool to change the hours on the motor CPU and i would never know.

Sooooo... all of this was sort of a interesting realization for me. What i realized is that a dealer could very easily use a boat all season and boat 100+ hours on it and then either change the CPU (claim it was bad and do a warranty repair) or use a scan tool to change the hours and no one would ever know. If i were doing this i wouldn't set it to 2.4hr like the first dealer.. i would do something more like 20 or 30hrs.. something a bit more believable. I realized that if a dishonest dealer wanted to do this they could.. and i don't believe they would be breaking any laws (at least not the same laws you break with a car when you roll back the OD.) There's no laws about hour meters and many boats don't even have them. You might ahve a case to misrepresentation of a product, but it would be hard to prove they had indeed used it for more hours that were on the meter.

Okay... I am really not a paranoid person... just something we ran across while we were out shopping for a boat. In boat cases i didn't buy the boats so i don't know for sure that the dealer wouldn't have been 100% honest once we sat down to finalize the deal (it is entirely possible they would have been honest and said the boats had mor hours then the clock said (I try to think that people will be honest if you give them a chance.

Anyway... our Malibu dealer is great and i fully trust them (and it is great when you fully trust your dealer!( But i thought i would throw out my observations from boat shopping this year. Curious if anyone else has come across the same sort of situation or worked at a dealer that did this. Again... i don't think it is common practice for dealers... but i also don't think there is much stopping a dealer from doing it.

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I purchased this boat, 2008 Wakesetter, from my local dealer in May. At that time it had 18 hours on it. I now have 70 and have not had one problem with it. From what I see other people are paying for the same boat I feel I received a great deal. I am totally happy.

Rich

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I found something very disturbing when i was out boat shopping.... I found two dealers with demo boats that clearly had their hour meters disconnected or reset. (TO BE REALLY REALLY CLEAR.. these we not Malibu's or from a Malibu dealer.. it was another dealers/brand we were shopping at.

Case#1: 07 boat from a dealer (who is not out of biz and the boat had just arrived at the new dealer in town for that brand (they had only had the boat for a day so they didn't know much about the history) who was known for using most of his boats as demos (someone stated to me "he runs all it boats pretty hard for demo days, etc.) Anyway.. he had a left over 07 (this was 2 months ago) that had 2.4 hours on the meter. Well we looked at and demoed the boat and there is no way it had only 2.4 hours on it. The boat was pretty beat up for a "new" boat (meaning my 6 year old boat had better looking gelcoat), the carpet needed replaced (which i figured could have been due to a boat show) and the trailer had lots of rust on it.. including the chrome wheels. The boat was also missing a ton of parts. I tried to justify most things, but the condition of the gelcoat and the prop made it clear to me that the boat had been run ALOT. The boat drove poorly (lots of rattles, ect) and the tranny didn't sound good. To use it was clear this boat had been used and then at some point the cPU swapped or recoded with lower hours (obviously i couldn't prove it, but i didn't want the boat so who cares... but had that dealer still been in biz there is no way i would have purchased a boat from them.

Case#2: We were looking at an 08 boat at a dealer and the only 08 they had left was their demo. We took a look and it was really beat up (major gelcoat gouges, rear swim platform looked like it had hit a cement wall, and a few other things. All cosmetic, but clearly abused (which was sad.) The dealer has their name all ove rthe boat in vinyl letters and it turns out they use it on the lake all the time for events or to just go out and have a good time (we have seen them out boarding on it on the lake.) They told me the season wasn't over so they hadn't started trying to sell it but if i wanted it we could work something out. I asked how many hours are on the boat and he said "it low, not sure what exactly, but it shouldn’t have lot of hours. The next day we were in the demo boat on the dealer’s lot and the keys were in it. I asked him to turn the ign on and tell me how many hours. He stuttered a bit, then turned the key. the hour meter lit up but it showed 0.8 hrs (it was a manual hr meter... so no one that gets the info from the engine CPU.) He said that the hour meter must not be working (and to his credit he did say "we would need to have a tech plug into the motor to tell you how many hours (honestly.. i like it!) I demoed this boat the next day and indeed the hour meter was on and displayed 0.8 and the hourglass was solid (which means the hr meter is not counting (it blinks when it counts.) I wasn't too worried about it until i thought about the other boat i had seen earlier in the week and i realized that they could easily go into the shop and use a scan tool to change the hours on the motor CPU and i would never know.

Sooooo... all of this was sort of a interesting realization for me. What i realized is that a dealer could very easily use a boat all season and boat 100+ hours on it and then either change the CPU (claim it was bad and do a warranty repair) or use a scan tool to change the hours and no one would ever know. If i were doing this i wouldn't set it to 2.4hr like the first dealer.. i would do something more like 20 or 30hrs.. something a bit more believable. I realized that if a dishonest dealer wanted to do this they could.. and i don't believe they would be breaking any laws (at least not the same laws you break with a car when you roll back the OD.) There's no laws about hour meters and many boats don't even have them. You might ahve a case to misrepresentation of a product, but it would be hard to prove they had indeed used it for more hours that were on the meter.

Okay... I am really not a paranoid person... just something we ran across while we were out shopping for a boat. In boat cases i didn't buy the boats so i don't know for sure that the dealer wouldn't have been 100% honest once we sat down to finalize the deal (it is entirely possible they would have been honest and said the boats had mor hours then the clock said (I try to think that people will be honest if you give them a chance.

Anyway... our Malibu dealer is great and i fully trust them (and it is great when you fully trust your dealer!( But i thought i would throw out my observations from boat shopping this year. Curious if anyone else has come across the same sort of situation or worked at a dealer that did this. Again... i don't think it is common practice for dealers... but i also don't think there is much stopping a dealer from doing it.

Ok back that train up. First you can't really just warranty parts because you feel like it, especially parts that cost around $1200 (the ECM), usually a defective ECM will go back to the factory for a recal before it is replaced. Second they don't make a "scan tool" that can go in and change the hours. Dealer #1 sounds like they weaseled a new ECM in there somehow, but dealer #2 wasn't doing anything fishy except having a defective hour meter.

-Chris

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I was part of promo team for quite a while and some times life prevents you from going to the lake. On my first boat LSV we put 150 hours on it and sold it in like new condition. My next boat was again a much used boat VLX and put 125 hours on it and sold in like new condition. The next year my buddy bought an X Star and we shared water time, so only put 40 hours on this boat VLX and sold as like new. The next year I put 35 hours on boat VLX as my mother in law contracted cancer, so didn't make it out on lake much and I sold in like new condition. Next year I bought a favorite VLX and put 55 hours on it because my son moved away and my other lake buddy went through a divorce, sold the boat in like new condition. Then my dealer lost his Franchise through some crappy conditions, so I lost my Malibu promo deal. I believe anybody that bought my boats will verify that they were in awesome condition at great deals. You just got to evaluate the dealer and the person using the boat. I always had a loaded out boat and it was used at boat shows, but we made sure it was not abused, so that only serious lookers got in the boat.

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Ok back that train up. First you can't really just warranty parts because you feel like it, especially parts that cost around $1200 (the ECM), usually a defective ECM will go back to the factory for a recal before it is replaced. Second they don't make a "scan tool" that can go in and change the hours. Dealer #1 sounds like they weaseled a new ECM in there somehow, but dealer #2 wasn't doing anything fishy except having a defective hour meter.

-Chris

Like i said... I believed that would/could come out and tell me the real hours of the boat if we had agreed to purchase it. It only raised my suspicion after seeing the boat at dealer #1. I can understand a defective hour meter, but its a new boat... wouldn't you get that fixed vs. running the boat all summer with a defective hr? (and I can honestly say that I do trust the guys at this place and if they had a boat that worked for us we would have purchased it. I was just starting to wonder if running around in demo boats with the hour meter disconnected was a common practice.

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Ok heres a queshtion what should the mark down be on a boat that has 300 promo hours?

Not enough to make me want one. :)

Speaking form experience I wouldn't worry about a year old boat with 300 hours as log as it was taken care of. I bought a BU 10 years ago with 300 hours at the end of the year and they took alot of $$ off, i purchased it for 21K. THis year it sold with 800 hours for 16.5k and I bought a new VTX. I had very minimally problems with the 97 I bought it was a great boat. When I tell freinds that I only lost 4.5k in equity over 10 years they are baffled. A good quality boat that is well maintained has its price point and can give you years of enjoyment.

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I also agree with some 1-2 year old boat w/ 300 hours being OK. My wife and I purchased a Factory Demo boat last sping that was an 06 with 298 hours. We had to change out the blower and I may need a new starter but the gel was in great shape and interior was brand new. It really depends on the previious owner. My buddy that was a promo rider for our dealer was anal about his boat and would discipline people in it (even new customers). He always said, at the end of the day I have to pay for this boat.

I will probably sell this boat in a couple years with close to 600 hours on it but it will be in pristine condition when I do because I take pride in what I own. Unfortunately some people do not.

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