Nautique Quality questioned by dealer

[wakecrashin]

Our 2007 196 is a mess. We've found bare wires on our heater, there were plugs missing on our perfect pass, bilge pump isn't working,. stitiching on seats coming loose, etc...
Can you say LEMON?

Your boat is not a lemon!!!!
Lemon is mutilple happenings of the same item going wrong, not just stuff they didnt do at the factory.

Here a little closer to a lemon:
06 VLX
in 3 times for transmission leak
in 2 times for power wedge inop
in 3 times for high idle problem
50 hrs on boat

Whether its a car, boat, furniture or $456 million dollar yacht, things are going to be wrong right out of the box. Why do you think your few little problems make you boat a lemon??

BTW Did you check the fuse on the bilge?

[NautiqueJeff]

Not sure if this has been said or not, but the guy from MC of Charlotte contacted me a week ago or so about getting 10 new CC's from a dealer who got dropped by them and he's liquidating them cheap. I'm just going to assume this is the smae dealer.

Ah ha! That just clicked with me. I wondered how MC of Charlotte got so many new CC boats. That makes perfect sense.

And I have it from good sources that North Point did not drop CC, CC dropped them. Don't let this guy fool you.

[Kenv]

Rodltg2,

My 2005 seems to be put together pretty good, my 2000 Super is where I really saw alot of slop. Also, not just my boat. There are others on here that can chime in on the screws sticking through the observers seats and rear sundeck, and I have seen several pictures of new boats, and boats for sale whose seats are mounted pretty crooked. Some are slightly off, others are WAY off. You can just browse through some of the pics on here, Traderonline or go to the Sail and Ski/Texas web sight and look at some of the used boat pictures. Look closely at the mounted cushions, not the seat bases, and you can see how they do not match up side to side. As far as the seat bases, even some of the stripes looks pretty goofy. Some of the piping just stops where the other side comes down two/three inches out!! Looks like even some of the grab handles might be off side to side. I'm not really anal about stuff like that, just something I notcie on a product brand that I own. The only reason I am bringing it up now was the letter in this post. I can see where others might notice a slight decline in the once mighty Mercedes of skiboats. I am very happy with my 05 226 and will probably stick with CC unless the future takes a drastic design change for the worse.

Ken

[Rangertrace]

I've only had two boats so far, a new 2006 Triton 190FS and a used 2004 SV-211. Triton boats are top of the line as far as fishing boats go and it had many small cosmetic problems right off the showroom floor. The 211 was three years old when we bought it and it had far less issues than the brand new Triton. The only recurring problem is the screws for the gas shocks keep ripping through the fiberglass on the port side storage area. I'm not a mechanic and don't do my own maintenance. The most important things to me when I go to the lake are.....I want the boat to start, float, run well, handle well and look great. The SV-211 does it all...everytime! I have always been a little skeptical about buying a used boat, but CC has changed that for now. Obviously not all CC owners are members of this site. So, without statistical data from CC when will never now the all of the facts. JD Powers makes me believe most CC owners are happy with their boat. I hope and believe the problems described in this thread are the exception, not the rule. I'm looking forward to my first new CC in 2009!

[skijones]

As the previous owner of an 85-2001, a 94 Bu and current owner of a 1999 Snob, I have had less issues with CC than any other boats. My buddies have Bu's and MC, great boats, but I still do not believe they are the quality of CC. My 99 has 460+ hrs on it and no issues what so ever. Boat is tight, no rattles and everything I have seen when working on it has been set up right.

Nothing against dealers, but my experiance with them has not be positive. I am in central Ohio and we do not have a CC dealer within 2 hours. I end up working on several boats during the course of a year and CC seems to be the best. PCM is also outstanding with their motors. Long live the 351(but I'm a Ford guy anyway).

[MikeC]

Getting back to the letter that started this thread. I think you can mark this one up to "spin". Whichever company dropped the other is really a moot point, the point is that North Point Watersports is trying to spin the situation for their benefit (notice that Correct Craft takes the high road on changing dealers, and I believe they wouldn't say a negative word about even the worst dealer, in public). If you are loosing a high profile brand, regardless of the reason, what better way to spin it than to send out a letter stating that you are doing everything you can to protect the consumer. And because the consumer is the reason we're in business (oh-did I forget profit?) we want to drop the J.D. Power award winning manufacturer because we want the consumer to be happy, and there is nothing more important to us than making sure you have the best product (did I forget profit again?) and we will do everything we can to protect you, the consumer (except loose profit). You can't find better spin on CNN or FNN.

If you look hard enough at any product or company, you will find flaws and you will also find disgruntled customers and employees. So you have to ask yourself - Does Correct Craft produce a quality product and back it up - yes; is Correct Craft perfect - no; is Correct Craft better than the rest - yes.

[Hollywood]

MikeC, nice post. This thread isn't about how many things wrong you can pick out on your boat, it's about that letter. If you have complaints talk to your dealer or CC, last time I checked PN isn't a pity party.

[SNMike]

Getting back to the letter that started this thread. I think you can mark this one up to "spin". Whichever company dropped the other is really a moot point, the point is that North Point Watersports is trying to spin the situation for their benefit (notice that Correct Craft takes the high road on changing dealers, and I believe they wouldn't say a negative word about even the worst dealer, in public). If you are loosing a high profile brand, regardless of the reason, what better way to spin it than to send out a letter stating that you are doing everything you can to protect the consumer. And because the consumer is the reason we're in business (oh-did I forget profit?) we want to drop the J.D. Power award winning manufacturer because we want the consumer to be happy, and there is nothing more important to us than making sure you have the best product (did I forget profit again?) and we will do everything we can to protect you, the consumer (except loose profit). You can't find better spin on CNN or FNN.

If you look hard enough at any product or company, you will find flaws and you will also find disgruntled customers and employees. So you have to ask yourself - Does Correct Craft produce a quality product and back it up - yes; is Correct Craft perfect - no; is Correct Craft better than the rest - yes.

I agree with everything you said..................'cept the FNN part. CNN.......ABSOLUTELY!!! FNN, not so much!! :mrgreen: Yellow_Flash_Colorz:

[east tx skier]

Ah ha! That just clicked with me. I wondered how MC of Charlotte got so many new CC boats. That makes perfect sense.

This was recently posted on the MC forum by Mike, the owner of MC of Charlotte.

"Two weeks ago MasterCraft of Charlotte, with the help of NorthPoint Watersports was able to branch out into the Lake Norman area. This should help us provide better service to that lake and increase our sales volume with a more easily accessed location for those that live in that area.

As some of you may know (or have read) NorthPoint was the Correct Craft dealer for the area and has recently parted company with CC. I saw this as an opportunity and we have recently entered into a "cooperative venture", hopefully to the benefit of both our companies. NorthPoint will be attending Dealer Days with us and are enrolling techs in service school...so there is clearly a commitment on their part."

[SGY]

I've heard previously of dealers complaining to CC regarding the condition of the boats from the factory.

My 2003 206 and 2005 196 have had interior quality issues. On both boats the coaming pads have warped away from the gunwals. CC just paid for installation of new pads on my 196. They are using a different material to better withstand the heat. My 196 also suffers from a still undiagnosed vibration and despite the dealers "best efforts" it beeps at me randomly.

At best, my 196 is quirky with lots of character. I'm not ready to throw in the towel. I'm still a CC customer/fan. My boat does the job and has never let me down while on the water. But for $35,000 you'd think the interior cladding would be better able to withstand hot days.

Bottom line: CC boats perform very well. Everyone at tournaments wants to ski behind the 196. You never hear a complaint. That's not the case with other promo boats we've seen at tournaments this year. However, I grade CC with a C+ on interior quality on my last two boats. Not as nice as the Malibu we use or the MC that's also at our lake. Believe me, I've crawled around both the Bu and MC and am very impressed on how they put things together in the boat cabin. CC could learn a thing or two. Hopefully once CC settles in at the new factory, these ticky tack things will be a non-issue.

[rodltg2]

mine has this random beeping as well, which i believe is the low gas level alarm. however it starts to beep at about 1/4 tank which is too early imho.

[SGY]

I suspect my beeping is related to a low voltage condition. Once you pull a skier up, the volts go up to 12.5 and the beeping goes away. There is no visible alarm with the beep.

[03Air210]

It is true, CC Dropped North Point. They where not selling enough boats in the area. It had nothing to do with quality issues. Malibu has been dominating this area in the last few years and CC is sick of it. That letter is a joke and in my opinion very unprofessional.

[78LS2]

Somebody needs to start a CC tie up at the sand bar, or the rudder, and start promoting the brand!

[HOskier313]

I want to present this from the dealers point of view (I'm not one by the way).

My buddy is a mechanic at a malibu dealership. I think what most people don't realize is the amount of work the dealers do AFTER the boat has been sent from the factory. The dealerships basically go over these boats with fine tooth combs. The boats we own are hand made, so there's going to be mistakes and things missed. In a lot of cases, templates aren't used so things differ from boat to boat. It's just the way it is.

I was in the showroom as my buddy was prepping a boat for delivery. They checked to make sure all switches were working. When they turned on the Nav Lights, the bow light didn't come on. Turns out, the wires were never hooked up at the factory. So the dealership had to do this before they could deliver the boat. No big deal, but it took a half hour to fix, when it would have been a lot easier to do while the boat was being built. The guys building the boats surely didn't do this on purpose, but it should have been caught before leaving the factory.

I suspect this Nautique dealership may have been doing a LOT of work to prepare these boats. Maybe they were fixing a bunch of small things when the boats got to their dealership. Problem is, lots of small things add up to a lot of time. This is time that neither the customer or Correct Craft is paying them to prep the boat. It's not a warranty fix, and surely the customer won't have to pay for this. I assume this is where they are saying the quality has gone down. All the work they're doing and not getting paid for.

All boats will have problems, they're hand made. People make errors, go on coffee breaks, and don't finish things up before they go home, thinking they'll get to it in the morning. Shortcuts are taken. I'm sure most of us have done it in our job. It's just hard to accept as a consumer when we're forking over some serious dough.