Friend of mine purchased a cruiser while he was out of the country from a large dealer network in the Florida panhandle. He wanted to have the boat delivered when he got home so regretfully he trusted the dealer and did everything site unseen without a survey.

Boat was listed as 250 hrs, he put in the sales contract that it was to have a full service listing plugs, cap rotor, oil, etc as part of the service.

After running the boat for a 2 weeks or so, maybe 5-10 hrs, one of the motors wouldnt start. Turns out it has a bad head gasket, starts tearing it down and this thing has obviously been leaking for a while from the manifolds or head gasket, major rust on the valves, springs etc. plugs were rusty as ****, one was so bad the head was taken to the shop with the plug, oil filters had a date of Sept/10 (bought this spring), rotors were badly worn, so none of the maintenance was done as agreed, top it all off it had 500 hrs on the motor when they hooked up a computer.

I realize he should have done a survey but he was buying from a dealer that supposedly had a good reputation so I guess he trusted them, He tried to work it out with the dealer and the owner basically told him to pound sand. If the dealer had done the service they were obligated to, they would have seen the water intrusion. What are the laws? Does a dealer have any responsibilty?

the purchaser has due diligence to make sure a major ticket item he is purchasing is reasonably close to the major ticket item he is purchasing. Not to sound like a richard, but if you had just posted " my friend boat a boat sight unseen without a survey..." the rest of us could have told you what happens next. if the promised condition is in writing and the service work in writing, he might get something. But then again it will probably be expensive to get something.

All I will say is "Yes" there are still some good guys out there. The best way to figure that out is to sit across the table from them and have a good old fashioned conversation. On line just does not cut it on big ticket used items.

Marine Industry & Integrity aren't two words often associated with each other without "lack of" placed between the two.

Just curious, why would someone go out of our country and buy a boat in our country ? Is your friend in the service ?

Harbor Marine in Norfolk, Va is good!

Gullible, Caveat emptor !!! Let the buyer beware, Dumb !His money -----Too Bad..


Jim

I wish I had so much money that I could afford to be that gullible. Sorry, but your friend should have had the boat surveyed or at least checked out by a friend.
Plenty of good honest dealers and brokers out there, but probably a lot more of them that don't care as long as they can sell a boat. Did your friend do any research about the dealer??? Has he contacted them???? Whats their response????
Here's a good motto. "Trust, but Verify"

well, if the boat has 250 hours on it ....it could be that it was upgraded with used engines..and they have more hours ?!

its always the byuers thing to make shure what he buys is ok !....stupid law..but oh well !

I agree on all points, probably should change the name because I know there are good dealers.

He was working out of the country and bought the boat boat in Florida, while he was still overseas.

I'm sure he has a case in small claims for the service that was included in the sale and not performed, they are in Destin so that is not feasible. At a minimum I expected that when confronted the dealer would "stand up" and agree to pay for the routine service, nothing.