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Pay for boat before it is commisioned?

C

Crowbar

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Springfield Ma.
Its winter here in new england. Our new boat arrived and the marina asked us to stop by & pay the balance. Boat is shring wrapped & motor is in a crate somewhere! The boat is not easily accessable. I will try to cut into the little door and crawl around later this week to at least confirm that its what we ordered. Has any else been in this same situation? We paid and started the insurance. ( tried to post pic but file is too large)
 
We paid for our boat on the day of delivery. I will add that we didn't order the boat but it had just come in to the dealer and was shrinkwrapped.
 
cwag911 said:
We paid for our boat on the day of delivery. I will add that we didn't order the boat but it had just come in to the dealer and was shrinkwrapped.
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Delivery to the dealership or delivery to you? When I bought mine, the dealership didn't ask for the balance of payment until everything was connected/working and we took a test ride.
 
I would think you wouldn't have to pay for the boat until it was fully rigged and ready for the water. The dealers insurance will cover it until the day you drive it away........
 
Agreeing with others. The day you pay is the day you check all systems, sea trial and confirm what you are buying is what was ordered.
 
I would say it depends on the deposit.  If you put a minimum deposit down you should probably make another payment but not in full until it is rigged and you have done a walkthrough
 
I was thinking the same thing but I did not want to get off on a bad start with the marina where we will be staying! Next boat will be ordered in the spring or summer! Or off the showroom floor! Fingers crossed that it all works out OK!
 
Boat was delivered to the marina dealer and that is where it will be used! They are storing it for the remainder of winter for free. They dont want to remove the shipping wrap untill spring, for obvious reasons. Im guessing that they had to pay for it after delivery.
 
Crowbar said:
Boat was delivered to the marina dealer and that is where it will be used! They are storing it for the remainder of winter for free. They dont want to remove the shipping wrap untill spring, for obvious reasons. Im guessing that they had to pay for it after delivery.
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I gave them a very significant deposit when ordering in the fall, and other than rigging, they asked me to pay the balance when they picked it up at Bennington in February. I also insured it at that time. They stored it in the shrink wrap until it was time to rig it and also stored it inside for free the next winter season. I inspected it on delivery day and then settled the rest. I had no concerns about it, but I knew my dealer very well.
 
Tom S, were you able to go thru the little zipper door and look around? I will try again this afternoon even though it is freezing rain!

The door is not cut thru yet but dealer said it would be ok if I cut thru behind the zipper. I was kind of hopeing that they would do that so that I dont do something wrong, but they were busy & it was almost closing time!
 
Crowbar said:
Tom S, were you able to go thru the little zipper door and look around? I will try again this afternoon even though it is freezing rain!

The door is not cut thru yet but dealer said it would be ok if I cut thru behind the zipper. I was kind of hopeing that they would do that so that I dont do something wrong, but they were busy & it was almost closing time!
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No, mine was sealed up tight!
 
My trade in was my deposit when I ordered in Sept.  I was told by the dealer that I would have to pay when it came in.  I said as long as it was rigged and I could inspect, I was OK with it.

It came in in late Nov and they rigged.  In early Dec, my wife and I went to inspect and pay.  They had it in the showroom.  We were able to fully inspect to insure it was build per our specs.  It was fully detailed. We looked for any dings/damage, etc.  The only thing we couldn't do is take it on the water.  Interesting thing about this dealer is that they are not on the water (not even near the water), so nobody gets to take them out before purchase...even in the summer  We inspected, took a bunch of pictures and paid for the boat(and insured it). They are keeping it inside a heated building which is awesome! (they bought an old Walmart that was right next door)

When ice melts, they will take it out on the water and finalize setup of everything, prop, etc.  We will then take delivery.  Is it April yet?

We bought our last boat from them and trust that they will make it right if we have any issues.  I believe that is key.  You need to trust the dealer.
 
If little things are wrong with the boat, Bennington will make them right under warranty.  I probably wouldn't worry about the minor stuff on the boat itself above the deck.  Bennington quality is very high, and odds are you won't have problems.  They'll fix anything that needs to be fixed.  Again, my comment here only applies to the "cosmetic stuff" above deck.

You can visually inspect the hull for anything out of the ordinary.  Try to look at all the welds.  Use a small mirror and flashlight for the tight spots.  You won't see everything, but you'll see 98% of it.  Like everything in life, it's all about minimizing your risk.  You will be able to see everything below the waterline, which is the most important part to inspect.

I would want to make sure the motor worked fine before I paid for it though.  A test ride is an obvious requirement, but I understand the dilemma about it being winter and that may be impossible right now.  My biggest concern is if there's something wrong with the motor, they may not give you a new one.  They may want to send it in for warranty.  That could cut your boating season VERY short...  You want to know this now, not the first day of summer.

They should be able to hook the motor up to muffs in the shop and run it off a garden hose for you at least though.  Lake test would be optimal, but if I was in your situation, I'd probably be okay with a shop-ran motor and a visual inspection of the hull. To do this though, they'll have to unshrink wrap it.  They'll have to have access above deck to install the motor and hydraulic lines and shift cables.  I would pay for them to re-shrink wrap it.  It's probably a couple hundred.  Split the cost with them if you can swing that.

If you check the motor, make sure the steering turns full end to end, the shift linkage works, and the trim/tilt works.

That would be my minimum requirement.  It's up to you if you decide that's good enough or not.
 
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fastmnstealth said:
My trade in was my deposit when I ordered in Sept.  I was told by the dealer that I would have to pay when it came in.  I said as long as it was rigged and I could inspect, I was OK with it.

It came in in late Nov and they rigged.  In early Dec, my wife and I went to inspect and pay.  They had it in the showroom.  We were able to fully inspect to insure it was build per our specs.  It was fully detailed. We looked for any dings/damage, etc.  The only thing we couldn't do is take it on the water.  Interesting thing about this dealer is that they are not on the water (not even near the water), so nobody gets to take them out before purchase...even in the summer  We inspected, took a bunch of pictures and paid for the boat(and insured it). They are keeping it inside a heated building which is awesome! (they bought an old Walmart that was right next door)

When ice melts, they will take it out on the water and finalize setup of everything, prop, etc.  We will then take delivery.  Is it April yet?

We bought our last boat from them and trust that they will make it right if we have any issues.  I believe that is key.  You need to trust the dealer.
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Our dealer was several miles from the nearest lake.  They just hooked it up to a truck and we went for a test ride.  That isn't a big deal for them to do.  If you can do that yourself after you buy it, they can do it before you buy it.  They are in the boat business.  I get that the lake may be solid right now though, and that's the dilemma in this situation.
 
An alternative to reshrink wrapping is to have them bench test the motor.  They would certainly have a rack that they could mount the motor on (in lieu of your boat) and show you that it runs smooth.  Make sure it warms up completely.  They won't be able to do a full throttle test, but they can rev it up.  I've done that in the street in front of my house.  They can do this.

Then you wouldn't have to deal with the shrink wrap.

Again, can't stress this enough, if something is wrong with the motor, and you already paid for it, their recourse would CERTAINLY be to send it in.  Worst case is you won't see it again until boating season is over.  Lots of stories about motors taking time to fix.

You can also ask them what they are qualified to repair on site.  Some just change oil, like our marina.  Others are factory certified to do just about everything.

Talk to your dealer about this.  They've no doubt been down this road before.  After all, it's what they do.
 
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Ask when your warranty begins, too! I bought and paid in December and they stored it inside for the winter. The warranties (boat and motor) didn't get registered until I took delivery.
 
I took care of my  balance and paper work the day before delivery .Warranty started the same day .
 
I'm kind'a old fashioned.  I think that you pay for something when it's delivered.  If you didn't need or intend to pickup the boat until May, the dealer should have scheduled it to be built in March or April.  Or, it should remain on his "floorplan" and insurance plan unsold until ready to be delivered.

When you pay for the boat is when you technically own it.  And that's when the warranty on the boat hull and the motor starts.  They're cutting you out of 3-4 months' warranty by accepting your money now.  It might matter later on if there are any problems.

I was in the wholesale financing business for many years.  We would sometimes discover dealers pocketing the money and not promptly forwarding the money to payoff "sold units."  This is called "floating".  (My dealer paid cash for all his inventories so it was a non-issue for him.)  Some marine dealers might use funds from sold units to cover their negative cash flow in a long winter--a no no.

And if you happen to be financing this boat, there are some legal issues for those that do not take immediate physical possession of the collateral. 

It's just not a simple issue.
 
Part of my deal for paying in December was 2014 pricing on a 2015.  Of course I've got no way of knowing if we got it because I don't know their costs, but it made sense to us.  BTW, they did run the motor (assume it was with muffs). 

My dealer was also able to get us in on a Yamaha warranty promotion that they had from 10/1/14-11/18/14 (I ordered in Sept, paid for on 12/5).  That was a "free" 3 year YES warranty on the engine.  That gives me 6 years of warranty.  Yamaha has various promos through out the year.  Sometimes the big motors are included, sometimes not.  Sometimes 3 year YES, sometimes 2 year.   I didn't want to gamble on whether or not I would get it in the spring.  I may have only got 2 years, excluded because of motor size or no program going on at all.  VERY happy how this one worked out!!! (~$2700 on F300)

I understand there is risk with the motor, but we are talking about a difference of approx 15min water time.  They put it in the water for you.  You cruise for 15min and confirm all is ok.  You pay and take it home.  You then take it on your lake and have a problem - Now it is no different than my situation.  15min window.  I believe the Muffs (confirms engine runs) AND service tech doing a rigging/prop check on the water before delivery mitigates most of the risk.  And hell...it is a Yamaha...chances of a problem are very low!

Ideally I would have paid and been cruising the next day, but it didn't work out that way for the reasons I described in my posts.  Bottom line is... My wife and I are satisfied with the transaction and the deal we got.
 
Extended warranty is a big plus in my mind.  It's worth taking some risk and purchasing in December to get an extended warranty deal.  You may be losing a few months from December until boating season, but that's only a few months compared to picking up a few extra YEARS on the tail end with an extended warranty.  That's a no brainer in my mind.

Regarding the 15 minute test drive, then a failure happening after you got home...  I would say the risk of that happening is MUCH lower than no test drive and having a failure.  But, it doesn't really matter.  Either situation (test drive then take it home, or no test drive and take it home) you still took the boat home and THEN the problem occurred.  In either of those scenarios, both are the same result (you took delivery, then it failed after you got home).  Both are covered under warranty.

BUT, if you had a motor problem from the 1st second of operation up through the 15 minutes at the end of the test drive, then you would have caught the problem during the test drive, and you have a LOT of leverage in that scenario (you don't have to take delivery or pay for a boat that doesn't work right).  You could even walk away from the deal if it turned really bad on you.

But if you don't take the 15 minute test drive, and instead take the boat home, then have a problem the first minute you run it, then you have no leverage.  You can't walk away.  You already own the boat.  Your only recourse is warranty repair, possibly ending boating season that year.

Bottom line:  Do the test drive, whether it's 15 minutes or a few hours.  Do something.

It's all about shaving risk.  This is one of my "life lessons" - The more you can do to try to FIND a potential problem, the less likely it will be you'll get SCREWED by one.  Almost everything is worth a little extra effort on the front end.  A lot of times, things go fine, and that ends up being unnecessary time spent on the front end.  But the one time it saves your butt will be priceless.
 
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