From personal experience I would say go over the van with a fine tooth comb. Picked up our new van in December last year, someone went over most things in the van to show us how they worked, he wasn't a genius and we found out a lot of things he told us were wrong. Anyway got the van home and couldn't work out how to get the hot water to work on electricity. Couldn't access the pump as we had asked for a piece of wood to be fitted to the bottom of the cupboard where the pump was, it was supposed to be removable put had been nailed and glued down. Husband did some exploration and discovered that it hadn't been plugged in. The only way to get at it was to break the wood that was covering it and find the electric plug, it was tucked way up under the pump and took a great deal of effort to get out. Anyway long story short plugged in and worked but still waiting for a replacement piece of wood from the manufacturers.

many thanks for your advice and assistance with this.
I feel reassured that I can now make up a checklist of the things I want to know about and the dealer should comply with my request if they have any integrity at all.

again thanks for your advice
much appreciated

This is your BASIC right!!! Make sure they show you EVERYTHING and you are 100% HAPPY BEFORE you sign.

Sorry for shouting but I can not stress this enough - we purchased a $60,000 van from a certain QLD company and we were treated like rubbish, if I had my time over again........... We didn't know how to use 20% of our van - luckily we met some wonderful people on the road to help us out.

Cheers
Caz
http://www.travelingoz.webs.com

I totally agree with Caz. We have the same make of van as they do but picked it up directly from the Melbourne factory who are NOT geared up for handing vans over to clients. Needless to say the van was also not prepped as it would have been if we had picked it up from a dealer. Making your own set of questions is an excellent suggestion. Remember to check out the water, sullage and electricity connections and make sure you know how to hook everything up. We found that our water connection was so far under the van we had to literally get down on our hands and knees to access it! Not a good situation for "arthritic grey nomads"! This was fixed for us at the factory.
Get very detailed instruction on how to use the gas hot water system (as opposed to electric) and unless you have the new AES (automatic energy selection) type of fridge, make sure you know how to switch your fridge over.
Have a great time, you will love the life.

When we purchased our first van the salesman showed us how to turn the gas fridge and stove on how to use the hand pump over the sink and how to fill the water tank. We lived and travelled in it for five years. Not one problem with the van but the little gas fridge just made it.It was a Millard.Regards Dave n Jen.

Hi
Just picked up our new van Yesterday Roadstar LE from Great Southern Vans, 10 out of 10 for service spent a half day with us . checked everything let us check at our leisure.Showed us everthing .showed us how to do everthing as we are first timer's.hooked it up to our BT50 took it for a drive made sure everything worked
set our break controller up so it worked spot on (P3) that I fitted . Then went out with me to ensure we were happy. Could not ask for more. Plus Plus Plus all the way. And I was worried before hand (what a waste of time that was) then drove it home 80+klms
Now all we have to do is use it. So what I am saying is you should be treated well and to be given a full run down of everything should be part of the service
Have van will travell

thanks for the info. Good to hear a report of Great service which seems to be rare these days or at least you don't get to hear about much of it happening.

Welcome to the forum I hope you learn lots and tell us all about your adventures.

Ps, enjoy your new roadstar, I hear they are a top bit of caravan.

We viewed our new Concept a few days before pickup to be told all detailing would be done by then. On the day of pickup we were told it would be later than we had arranged because they were so busy with the show which had just finished in Melbourne. The guy who did the handover in a dark shed misinformed us of many things as he was only new in the job.Over the next week in daylight we found faulty things, very dirty,silicone all over the whole van inside and out, chips on wallpanel,and several loose fixing screws around windows and door frame, Large dollop of liquid nails on rear bumper, electrical fault in light over sink,
All of this was told to the company while in Melbourne except for the light, we were simply told to use paint thinners to clean it and later when we informed them of the light we were sent a light in the mail with not even a note.
Also if you are not Victorian you will be responsible for the gas certificate and full regisration price when you get home. The victorian gas certificate supplied by Concept was worthless in Queensland.

It is allways hard to try and work everything out in a short time.Its even harder when u have just picked up the pride and joy and the excitment is going to town but what has always worked for me probably from a mechanical background is i ask what brand and model any product is in the van then i find all the info i can including downloading manuals and i study everthing up.That way when i pick up what i have purchased i allready have a pretty good idea how it should operate plus it helps when they throw that curly bit of info at you that u have not got a clue what there talking about .hope this helps

Having just been thought this with my new caravan i must say some of the dealers are better then others. I think the main thing is that teh caravan manufactures and dealers need to get more professional and produce a caravan gudie book - specific to the van that you have just purchased. I have been doing this on my van for some weeks now, and i am up to 20 A 4 pages with plenty of pictures and notes on everything in the van. Makes it a lot easier when i forget some things.

One thing is for sure the dealers need to step up and actaully provide some service, after you have paid over the cash.