blackwolf wrote:

spudfan wrote:

Why should a dealer be expecting a payment for doing a PDI? Surely it should be done so the product is 100% surviceable for the customer. In fact it should leave the factory 100% serviceable for the customer.

When I was in the trade many years ago, it was normal for cars to be shipped to main dealers in a condition which required prep work prior to sale. In those days the most significant job was to remove the coating of protective wax that was applied to all our new cars (Peugeots, as it happens) as they left the factory to protect them during transit. It was also the case that we were the final pre-customer QC inspection, and it was surprising how many time shut lines needed adjusting, tools were missing, or of course dealer-fitted accessories had to be fitted (on some occasions "factory fitted" accessories were also fitted). What was surprising even in those days was the number of serious paintwork defects that used to arrive on new cars, and that is before the body damage that would sometime happen on the transporter. As a youngster it was a shock to me that the "new" car someone bought might already have had extensive panel work and respraying without the customer even knowing.

Whilst I believe that factory QC has improved dramatically for just about all makes I am sure that there are still vehicles which slip through (like the PowerfulUK Defender), and seeing new vehicles on transporters these days also makes it very evident that although wax is no longer the preferred protection mechanism there is still a lot to do before the vehicle that rolls of the transporter is ready to roll out of the showroom.

As far as I am aware also all manufacturers still require a PDI to take place, but the details of how it is funded would, I imagine, be down to the contract between the manufacturer and the dealer, possibly factored into the price of the vehicle. I do know from insider information in the not too distant past that JLR is pretty draconian about what dealers can charge for warranty and similar repairs, and I imagine that the balance between doing a decent job and getting paid for it by JLR is not easy. After all if your vehicle is in for a warranty repair, it is the dealer who you hold responsible for the standard of the repair, whereas it is actually JLR which determines how long the job can take and what work can actually be done.

I have a couple of old versions of what the work was supposed to entail:


Click image to enlarge
https://www.defender2.net/gallery/albums/u...Manual.pdf


Click image to enlarge

Supacat wrote:

I wonder whatever happened to those "over 1m completed configurations" they were crowing about in the press months ago?

Chugga90 wrote:

The 1 million configuration fact was generated by J77 trying to get the spec he desired in the budget he wanted?

I like to think I’ve helped a bit

Tim in Scotland wrote:

I reckon at least one thousand must have been me.......

Supacat wrote:

Given all the excitement about the above, nobody's commented on this ~ the very floppy bonnet catch

walfy wrote:

Or he may of removed the video at the request of the dealership?? It's always good to have a good working relationship with your local dealer, no point in p*ssing them off within 20 mins of ownership, they have years ahead working together