Hello,

My burden is limit the damage the local dealership does to my soon to be ordered 07 Mustang.

What tips/advice/demands of the dealership should I make?

Is there a post or sticky that addresses this?

My thoughts:
1. No dealer stickers or plastic license plate surrounds.
2. No front license plates/bracket.
3. No dealer test drives by employees.
4. No car wash.
5. Phone the day the car arrives.

What other demands should I make of the dealer?

I don't want to provide free advertising for my local ford dealer.
I don't want holes in my front bumper.
I don't want employees abusing my car with burn outs.
I don't want a minimum wage wannabe mechanic washing my beautiful Mustang with dirt incrusted wash mitts and paint stripping soap?
I want it to remain out of the elements until I pick it up.

Questions:
1. Can I ask for the car to be delivered to me with the bags on the seats, plastic on the paint,etc? Or does that have to be removed in a special way?

2. What happens if they don't touch the car after delivery and I find a flaw in the paint after I wash it?

3. What happens if I take delivery and get it home and find that it has any kind of defect, will they cover it under warranty?

4. What the rules regarding refusing a car after ordering it due to misaligned body panels and paint chips,etc?

I might sound extreme, but I want to know what is normal, acceptable, and pushing it too far. But If the mustang gets damaged, I want to do it myself.

 

ask if you had perform the PDI yourself

 

Unless you are able to monitor the entire process from the time the truck arrives until the pre-delivery inspection is performed, the list you have is probably not feasible to fully verify.

I would suggest stripping it down to these -

1) no holes in the front bumper (get it in writing)
2) no dealer stickers
3) call when the car arrives

Even number 3 might be tough to achieve, depending on how much the salesperson is in contact with staff responsible for doing the PDIs.

When you review the car with your salesperson, take your time and then get any potential issues documented on the form you have to sign at the time of delivery. It falls on the dealership to get things corrected. In my opinion, staying out of the process is better because until the car is released into your possession, they are required to ensure your delivery is to your satisfaction.

I think folks who work at a dealership who post here would provide additional suggestions on how to become more involved in the PDI.

Good luck!

 

Michael,

Most of what you are asking are "ok" demands. The license plate holes are a reasonable request. But, you are going to have a hard time convincing the dealership not to do the PDI. Keep in mind that the PDI is the one and only chance for the dealeship to hold the transport service accountable for transport damage and to find possible defects from when the car was manufactured.

You can ask to have the plastic left on the seats and such but they probably won't let it go without the PDI.

As for keeping it out of the elements... Hah! good luck with that. Keep in mind that your car will spend at least a week behind a train in an automoblie box car. You should see the amount of dirt and grime on the freshly delivered cars we get. You can easily write "wash me" in the film of dirt and see it from about a block away.

You can always refuse the Mustang if you don't like it. Whether or not they will give your deposit back or will carry it over to a new order is up to the dealership. Most of the defect work will be covered outside of your warranty that's why there is a PDI. You have to realize that the car is NOT yours until you sign on the dotted line. They are ordering it for you as a courtesy.

BTW, I still have the protective plastic covering on my door sill and floor mat emblems.

 

Wow... you *do* sound somewhat extreme IMHO. No offense - we have all been at the point of anxiously awaiting our ponies, but it's a car.

I am sure that the dealer won't intentionally sandblast your car or do smokey burnouts in the driveway. They PDI hundreds of cars a month, and I am reasonably certain they won't single your car out for abuse from the many others in the ranks.

I'd ask to PDI the car myself (I didn't for mine BTW, and it was perfectly fine) and they will also most likely agree to not washing the car.

All I can say is be reasonable to the minimum wage scrubs so that they don't exact revenge on your new car.

 

It seems to me that you should let the dealer do the PDI. Like others have said I doubt the dealer is going to intentionally damage your car. It's their chance to get it to shine and have you leave a happy smiling customer.

My dealer took me around the car to make sure that it was OK, if it wasn't I was confident that it would have been resolved by the dealer before I took it home.

My take:
No holes in the bumper, reasonable
No dealer license plate frame... take it off yourself, it's a couple screws
No dealer stickers on the car, reasonable
Call when the car arrives, Sounds OK, is it doable ??
The rest... doubtful

My car was the first car I ordered. The Dealer PDI'd the car, but ...
She called me the day it arrived.
No stickers
The car was washed and was perfect. Not a single problem
(I clay bared and Zaino'd myself.)
It had 3.6 miles on it so no one drove it (much less burned out).
No Holes in the front bumper, even though I forgot to ask and it's a law in CA to have a front plate


Not to say that there aren't some bum dealers out there, but if you are not confident enough in the dealer not to strip the paint off your car when they wash it and do smoky burnouts on a new engine while joy-ridding all over town.. go to another dealer. YMMV

 

I just spent about 25 hours working over the paint on my new redfire, it had a lot of iron inbedded in the clear coat from the rail car. Those dirty wash mitts are the least of your worries. The dealer would have taken care of claying the car but I'm rather fussy and perfered to do it myself, as a former body repair tech I know it's done right that way.

 

My dealer called me the second the transport truck showed up.
My list of requests that were honored:
No bumper holes.
No removal of ANY plastic.
No detailing.
No rear dealer stick on emblem.

They did the rest of the PDI such as checking fluids and such. I did let them take it down the block to the gas station for my free tank of gas. Unfortunately the tank was bad so at least we found out that day I needed a new one.

I guess it depends on your relationship with your dealer. Some dealers may be sticklers for following the PDI to the letter. Others, like mine, will go out of their way to make the customer happy. Rare these days I know, but what do you expect from a small town dealer.

 

Wow,
So many responses about PDI!
Is there a sticky about this?
What does the acronym stand for?
I Zaino all my cars, hence the hesistation with the Ford wash.
Thanks again.

 

Pre-Delivery Inspection

I think.

 

Inspect the paint for chips.They write it down and you have to come back to body shop and drop it off to have it fixed.

 

My salesman, Rick Miller - Crossroads Ford - Cary, NC( who has his own high HP fox mustang ) made arraingements to have pics taken for me of it coming off of the truck. He called as soon as it came in, and he was the one who drove it to get gas. We discussed when it was ordered what could and could not happen to the car ( ie no dealer sticker, no holes, dealer plate frame ok, etc ) and it was ordered and received no problems.

 

First excellent post it’s always nice to know other **** people such as myself. The first mistake you could make is to just look at it as ”it’s just a car”. That is the wrong answer and why so many people could care less about people’s vehicles. It’s not “just a car” but rather someone’s personal property that should be respected as the owner wishes.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER let a dealer detail your vehicle. There are some dealers who are very good at it and a LOT who are not and just look at it like ”it’s just another car” and thus don’t practice proper detailing practices.

My dealer knows me very well especially after my purchase of a 2003 Lightning and then when I purchased my 2006 Mustang GT. They knew exactly what I wanted which was:

DO NOT:
Wash the vehicle.
Drive the vehicle other then into the bay for PID of which I WILL BE PRESENT.
Use ANYTHING on the inside for cleaning ANYTHING on the inside.
DO INSURE the person driving the vehicle into the bay for PID and removing the plastic from inside to be wearing ABSOLUTELY clean clothes and his/her hands are washed and CLEAN!

That’s about it as I take care of everything else. I take it home and wash it and do the Zaino treatment and I have 48 hours to get back to them with any dings or chips that might need to be repaired or any marred finish since they are NOT allowed to wash the vehicle.

I allow no advertisement or plates unless they want to pay me $200 per month, it’s a running joke but they know better then to throw dealership stickers on a vehicle I may have ordered.

If a dealer can’t follow those very simple and reasonable demands of a customer they don’t really want or care for your business.

I don’t mind them removing the plastic on the outside and inside of the vehicle while I am there watching because if there is any major issues right off the bat I want them noted for future repair and of course test everything out, heat, A/C, wipers, etc.

Remember its not just another car but your personal property that you have invested in and if you wish to have it treated a particular way there is absolutely no reason you should not expect it to be so…

 

Wow Nick! I thought I was ****

 

As someone else mentioned above, it's not technically your vehicle until the papers are signed. If the dealership messes it up before then, while extraodinarily frustrating to the purchaser, they have the responsibility to make things right. The onus is on them to NOT mess up since you could refuse the vehicle. Technically, you could even bring it back within 72 hours if you finance and decide you want to get out of the loan contract.

I agree that the dealership staff who is responsive to the basic requests (license plate, stickers, no wash, no plastic removal) are definitely concerned with the customer experience.

 

Me too but...
I did let them carefully wash mine,but I was there at the time.
I drove it to the gas station and let the salesman fill it.
They were really careful, partially because the Owner and G.M. know me.
Arrival at dealership to my house in less than 3 hours.

 

I signed the papers a week before the car arrived. I owned it. They have to make it right no matter what. I could still refuse the car. I've seen dealerships that had to unravel a deal weeks after the sale.

 

Michael, the dealership is not going to destroy your car, if they damage it at all, they are responsible and will fix it. The PDI is there for your safety, allow them to prep the car for you and it will be nice and shiney when you pick it up.

 

They got the dreaded wax on my plastic trim

 

Did you sign the paper that says you had inspected the vehicle and found it to your satisfaction or was that done on the day you received the car?