Getting to be an un-happy nautique owner!

[MattieK27]

Well this has been an enjoyable read. I see a lot of opinions, but the ones that crack me up are on the extremes of the matter. No, this issue should not result in a new boat. At the same time, blindly looking past this as a small issue or comparing it to QC on the space shuttle is hilarious.

Here is the thing, I try to look at thruth and not get sucked into the extremes. Any time someone questions the cost of CCs, the fanboys always point to them being the best built boats out there. In my eyes, based on recent issues I have seen from CC, this is now an extremely debatable topic. I have been around boats my whole life, and argue all you want; for an 80k 21' boat this should never have happened.

[kinger]

MattieK27,
Considering your talking about the "extremes" the idea that, "for an 80k 21' boat this should never have happened" that IMO is an extreme. Things happen to every manufactorer wether people choose to look at them as no bid deal great, to people that want to make them a huge deal they have every right IMO as well. No one is chained to their boat sell it an move on to another brand, thats the beauty of boat ownership its a luxury item companies have to listen more when selling luxury items if it is a real problem and CC is losing enough business they will fix it, if they aren't they won't.

[shag]

I don't really go along with the "made on a Friday" excuse. If there have been several of these occurrences, than it's possible that CC should require the dealer to confirm that the seal has been made during the water test of the boat(for already delivered to dealer boats) with the consumer. Boats in production and in the future should have a increased scrutiny on this area. I don't think it's the dealers responsibility, but somehow this should be addressed.
Is there a possibility of shrinkage (Jerry, tell her I was in the pool!) , as in a defective caulk that doesn't show itself until after if has left the factory. (I.E. bakes under the shrinkwrap in the Fla heat?)

[DaveP]

MattieK27,
Considering your talking about the "extremes" the idea that, "for an 80k 21' boat this should never have happened" that IMO is an extreme. Things happen to every manufactorer wether people choose to look at them as no bid deal great, to people that want to make them a huge deal they have every right IMO as well. No one is chained to their boat sell it an move on to another brand, thats the beauty of boat ownership its a luxury item companies have to listen more when selling luxury items if it is a real problem and CC is losing enough business they will fix it, if they aren't they won't.

What? Sorry, but this should have NEVER happened. How many boats do they send out the door everyday? Not that many. We aren't buying Bayliners for $20k. These are very expensive toys with a lot of moving parts. QC needs to be better. This got by the factory and the dealer. I think the idea that "if it didn't sink, it's no big deal" is wrong, no matter what business you are in.

[MattieK27]

What? Sorry, but this should have NEVER happened. How many boats do they send out the door everyday? Not that many. We aren't buying Bayliners for $20k. These are very expensive toys with a lot of moving parts. QC needs to be better. This got by the factory and the dealer. I think the idea that "if it didn't sink, it's no big deal" is wrong, no matter what business you are in.

Thank you for responding to that, you sad exactly what I was thinking.

[gride]

there's a nice little difference between nasa and cc. nasa hires the lowest bidder. i think discussions like this are good for the brand if they care or pay any attention. i'm just glad the boats cost so much so nobody else can get into the sport

[SNMike]

Well this has been an enjoyable read. I see a lot of opinions, but the ones that crack me up are on the extremes of the matter. No, this issue should not result in a new boat. At the same time, blindly looking past this as a small issue or comparing it to QC on the space shuttle is hilarious.

Here is the thing, I try to look at thruth and not get sucked into the extremes. Any time someone questions the cost of CCs, the fanboys always point to them being the best built boats out there. In my eyes, based on recent issues I have seen from CC, this is now an extremely debatable topic. I have been around boats my whole life, and argue all you want; for an 80k 21' boat this should never have happened.

Extreme?!?! Really?!?!? You mean my point went flying right over your head eh? My point?!?!??!!? It was human error. Sh!!T Happens. Nobody at CC said, "watch this guys, lets see if this causes any heart ache.........no caulk here........or here"!

Gimme a break. My personal experience.......I'm on my SIXTH 196. Four brand new, two used. The ONLY problem was on my new 02....'bout a year into owning it, the lanyard kill switch went bad. SECC ups'ed me one, and in less than 5 minutes, fixed. That's it!! PERIOD!! That one doesn't even show up on radar considering owning 6 196's. Das, it sucks when it's your boat, but they'll make it right. That's what matter's. My buddies Bu's and MC's have been in the shop as much as they've racked up time on the water. One more thing, last week my mom and dad spent 55K on a new Acura MDX, cash!! The very next day the AC started making a horrible wine. The dealer is 62 miles away. They picked it up, brought them a loaner, and brought back theirs in one day with a full tank of gas. It's what happen's when there is an issue that matters...........cause it's gonna happen to someone, sooner or later.

Regards!!

[SNMike]

there's a nice little difference between nasa and cc. nasa hires the lowest bidder. i think discussions like this are good for the brand if they care or pay any attention. i'm just glad the boats cost so much so nobody else can get into the sport

Oh, government op..........I forgot....my bad!! >;-)

[kinger]

What? Sorry, but this should have NEVER happened. How many boats do they send out the door everyday? Not that many. We aren't buying Bayliners for $20k. These are very expensive toys with a lot of moving parts. QC needs to be better. This got by the factory and the dealer. I think the idea that "if it didn't sink, it's no big deal" is wrong, no matter what business you are in.

Mistakes happen! w/ high end cars, houses, crap even airplanes....but boats are exempt from that cause you paid 80k? Yea I classify that as extreme in my book.

[MattieK27]

Mistakes happen! w/ high end cars, houses, crap even airplanes....but boats are exempt from that cause you paid 80k? Yea I classify that as extreme in my book.

You are absolutey right. Mistakes happen. The problem is this is a giant mistake compared to the typical small build variations and gremlins everyone deals with when buying a new boat. Premium prices should result in not only better materials, but better design and manufacturing practices.

A Ferrari could suffer an engine failure or other large issue, but is it extreme to say that should never happen? Asking for a new car, that's extreme. Shrugging your shoulders, claiming it's a luxury item, and discounting it because "mistakes happen;" thats extreme. Saying it should never happen based on the cost and negligence displayed, that to me is not extreme.

[ClemsonDave]

Please explain how missing 6" of caulk is a "giant mistake." It's not like the boat was going to break into two pieces. There is more than just caulk holding them together.

Is it a mistake, yep. Could the dealer have caught it, I doubt it. I don't think removing the rub rail is part of dealer prep. I also don't believe driving the new boats for any time under 20mph is part of that process either.

I can promise you Nautique is owning up to this. I can also bet that they are looking to see how to prevent it again. I doubt they have stopped all production, claimed it a huge mistake and overhauled their entire mfg/QC process though.

FYI, they do have better manufacturing practices. I ski a lot of tournaments and see/drive/ski a LOT of boats (big 3, actually 4 now). While the others have come close to skiing as well, NONE of them drive like a Nautique, none of them are built as well as a Nautique. I could give specific examples, but don't see the point. As a skier, I don't complain about what boat I get. As someone that buys a new boat every year, you can bet I will only pick the one that is built the best - whether I was a promo or not.

[Chexi]

1. Boats are built by humans.
2. Humans are imperfect.
3. Therefore, products built by humans will be imperfect (to varying degrees).
4. Once one understands this, one realizes that problems will happen, and the real test of a company is how it deals with a problem (both addressing the immediate problem and investigating and, if necessary, fixing the failed system that caused the problem).

It sounds like CC is pretty good at honoring their warranty and fixing problems as quickly as reasonably possible. Yes, this totally sucks when it causes one to miss water time and when one lives far from a dealer. A great manufacturer/dealer will take that into account when determining how to handle the problem. For example, if I bought a new boat today, drove it 150 miles to my home, and on Saturday the boat dies in the middle of the lake and will not start the rest of the weekend, a medicore dealer/mfg. would ask me to drive it back in and fix it under warranty. A great dealer/mfg. might comp me my winterization or do something like that within their reasonable power (read do stuff that costs them little but is expensive to you). The latter will keep me coming back.

Here is a real life example. My wife and I typically go out to a nice restaurant for special occassions (around $100 per plate not including wine). About the third or fourth time that we went to one particular restaurant (on my wife's birthday), they accidentally put in the wrong type of steak for my meal. They brought out my wife's steak and then, within about 10 seconds, realized their mistake. I was not bent out of shape about it (did not want to ruin my wife's day... after all it was for her). However, with zero complaining, they took her steak back, made 2 new steaks (so we would have them simulatenously) and then proceeded to comp both steaks, our dessert, and our dessert wine. The only thing we paid for was our soup and the bottle of wine we had with dinner. Now this was above and beyond anything I would have ever expected them to do to deal with this problem. They ended up losing some money on that sale, but they gained a customer for life. We now go there for every special occassion, and we have broadened our definition of what special occassion means (we make stuff up to have them). Had this problem not happened, we would probably still go there, but less frequently, and we would be more tempted to try other places out. But because we experienced a problem and were able to experience how they handled it, we have no reason to try other places out (for that genre of food), because we know that if something goes wrong, they will make it right.

I know this is not exactly analagous, but I think you all get my point. So, let's hope CC takes care of this problem for this customer in a way that makes this guy a customer for life, and the rest of us can let this go and start paying attention to other threads.

[gride]

i don't think any other brands do it better. but cc has a recent history of being lazy about things. example, mine and my friends 05's bow speaker cross overs hanging by the wires on both sides, the retarded ballast valves, the towers cracking(i know it was roswell, but check out what you outsource), zero off not functioning correctly, etc. these are things that cause headaches when joy should be occuring. like i said, just b/c it's expensive and does what it's supposed to do very well, it does not mean we should worship at their feet and just accept things as happenstance.

[shag]

Is there any truth to the new towers being made in China? And I have had problems with my Zero Off too. I do still think that CC builds the best boat.

[scottb7]

I think the whole boat is made in China. They just put the rub rails on in the states. Just kidding.

How can some of you say it was just a mistake, human error? The guy that did the caulking surely noticed he missed a spot and did not care.