Ram Heavy Duty Forum

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Dealer PDI

CRToney

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2020
Messages
33
Reaction score
17
My son (16) was the first to drive my truck home after making payments for 2 months. He was complaining that the truck was rough compared to my old 03. We checked tire pressures. All of them over 80 psi! No wonder it rode like ****. Don’t these dealers want satisfied customer? Not hard to set tires appropriately. Way better 55/65. 2 months waiting for them to install LED headlights isn’t fun either. I like buying local but sadly I won’t next time.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Bozo

Self-banned
Joined
Feb 24, 2020
Messages
1,097
Reaction score
821
My local dealers don’t deal at all so I will continue to buy out of market. Not hard to do if you travel anyway.
 

dslbrnr

Active Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2020
Messages
162
Reaction score
103
Location
SO Utah
All my tires were over 90 psi. I pulled over and aired them down on the drive home from the dealer. Apparently the factory airs them up knowing they sit on the lots for awhile.
Don't forget to check your axle fluid levels, mine were both low.
 

Brutal_HO

The Mad Irishman
Staff member
Joined
Feb 1, 2020
Messages
12,158
Reaction score
21,748
Location
Douglas County, CO
Seems to be all too common complaint.

I think their dealer prep is a complete joke. All they do is peel the protection and fuel the truck. Someone probably hot rodded it too. They sure as hell don't check the cab to bed alignment or make sure the interior doesn't have schmutz on it..
 

H3LZSN1P3R

You're doing it wrong
Joined
May 29, 2020
Messages
9,155
Reaction score
8,300
Mine were at 95psi i took the air down to 60 1/2 way home was a 500km trip from the dealer to save an extra 10 grand
 

DontSlamMyRam

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
279
Reaction score
257
Tire pressure was first in line when I did PDIs back in the day. As to hot rodding of new vehicles. I was pulled over for speeding in a PDI Taco, in the parking lot of the Yota dealership I worked for. Good times...
 

polcat

New Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2019
Messages
27
Reaction score
15
I have a not-so-great story with my 2019 Ram 2500 I bought a year ago. What made it worse is that we bought my wife's 2019 Durango R/T at the same time. The floor of my truck was covered in gravel-color mud. Completely unsat! My wife definitely gave me one of those please don't go apeshit looks. I loaded her and the kids in the truck to take it for a drive before signing any paperwork, but had the salesman look at the mess and told him to have it cleaned up once we returned. Then I found out one of the cab lights was leaking water. They fixed that issue before we left the dealership. The salesman still had the nerve to ask me to improve my customer feedback survey! Ha, I told him if he wanted a great review, he should've ensured the truck was properly PDI'd and cleaned. What a joke! Oh, and the tires were all at 80 psi too.
 

DontSlamMyRam

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2019
Messages
279
Reaction score
257
I lived this life in the mid 90s, a year at the local Jeep dealer and 5yrs for Toyota.. A filthy car is the 19yo min wage lot persons job who has cars lined up out the door waiting for delivery. Ten salesman riding their ass to hurry up all with a belly full of shake and burger. Now the PDI is a new car inspection before the customer ever sets rear inside vehicle. Tire psi, mirrors installed, fluid levels, test drive, system operations, body plugs, suspension blocks, wheel trim. I did about 15pdis/wk for about 4yrs. Loved them!!! 1.4hrs flat rate each and took about ten min/car. It could be done differently now but there's multiple levels of failure throughout all depts when something isn't right at delivery. Back then if we won the presidents award, they would charter a bus and take us all to a Seahawks game. Talk about incentive to do it right. 300mi of heavy drinking then party at the King Dome, all for free. There's no incentive anymore other than volume. I go in with zero expectations and fully expect I will be detailing and double checking everything they were supposed to do. But if I get a good deal I'm fine with that. I actually prefer it to be honest. Less they touch, the less I have to worry about them damaging.
 

bdhays63

New Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2020
Messages
14
Reaction score
16
Picked mine up last week. All tires set at 80 psi and every blue grease pen mark from the inspector at the factory all over it. From my experience i would prefer the dealer not touch my vehicle. On two occasions I’ve had swirl marks added to my new vehicle by the dealer. The tire pressure being that high is a new one for me.
 

saltman

Active Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Messages
124
Reaction score
47
I let the dealer do the bare minimum on pdi when I buy a new vehicle, make them leave all plastic on and do the detail myself, fuel myself and save lots of headache dealing scuffs and swirls on a brand new vehicle from the hourly folks that don’t care. Sure there are good ones out there that actually try, but for most it’s a smash and grab thing
 

H3LZSN1P3R

You're doing it wrong
Joined
May 29, 2020
Messages
9,155
Reaction score
8,300
I let the dealer do the bare minimum on pdi when I buy a new vehicle, make them leave all plastic on and do the detail myself, fuel myself and save lots of headache dealing scuffs and swirls on a brand new vehicle from the hourly folks that don’t care. Sure there are good ones out there that actually try, but for most it’s a smash and grab thing
Its the fact that the mechanics only get so much time flat rate nothing to do with smash and grab
 

saltman

Active Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Messages
124
Reaction score
47
I’m talking about the detail/clean up part of the pdi being smash and grab and or when the tech assigned rushes. As mentioned above the average paid hours for a pdi are great and can be a real money maker for a tech, even being careful/taking a little extra time you can still make money, but some prefer the rushed method. Been there done that in my college years then moved on to an OEM gig.
 

H3LZSN1P3R

You're doing it wrong
Joined
May 29, 2020
Messages
9,155
Reaction score
8,300
I’m talking about the detail/clean up part of the pdi being smash and grab and or when the tech assigned rushes. As mentioned above the average paid hours for a pdi are great and can be a real money maker for a tech, even being careful/taking a little extra time you can still make money, but some prefer the rushed method. Been there done that in my college years then moved on to an OEM gig.
They only give .75 for a pdi now thats not enough time to do it properly or carefully and make money.... flat rate is a joke they need to drop it
 

saltman

Active Member
Joined
Oct 20, 2020
Messages
124
Reaction score
47
That’s definitely about where I would come in doing a quality job on an average size car and why I used to make good money, lots of my coworkers could knock one out in about 45 min as well, too bad they only pay .75 hrs these days
 

H3LZSN1P3R

You're doing it wrong
Joined
May 29, 2020
Messages
9,155
Reaction score
8,300
That’s definitely about where I would come in doing a quality job on an average size car and why I used to make good money, lots of my coworkers could knock one out in about 45 min as well, too bad they only pay .75 hrs these days
A car is one thing but a full size truck is another plus with all the systems and electronics that they have to check now its not enough back in the day yes it could be done on a truck but not now and the local dealer includes fueling up as part of pdi aswell
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
Messages
50
Reaction score
47
Location
Lexington SC by way of Boston
Hot Rodding...(giggle) Not that this applies here but back when I delivered diesel to the transport carrier at the Boston Seaport at Subaru Pier, Nascar pit stops were like funeral processions compared to how those Subaru cars came off the boat. All you could smell the whole time were miles being peeled off the tires. When them fancy ass STI thingies got launched....LTFO. Just seating the rings for the customer I suppose. I think this is where drifting was invented.

When I bought my '19 BigHorn Cummins from Carmax, (10,400 miles on the clock) they set me up and sent me to lunch while they did the in-service "mop and glo" and it JUST shipped in from another Carmax store the day b4.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top