[Dan]

John,

First thing we did with our coach is to take it to Stewart and Stevenson, which is an Allison and DD service place. We did get a printout of the engine showing pertinent info.

[Corey]

John,

Two of your biggest risks when buying a coach are the engine and transmission. For a relatively small investment a dealer can provide a listing of any unresolved codes and if the history shows any events of concern like overheating.

Allison can do a diagnostic printout that is so detailed it can show remaining life left on the clutches.

What cannot be shown is if the fluids were changed as required, but the dealers are usually able to do test strips on the coolant and visually inspect the transmission fluid to see if it shows signs of damage such as overheating.

At the very least those would be worthwhile checks to have done. I cannot imagine the selling dealer opposed to that, especially if the reports check out well.

[Archived]

FWIW the bus in question is now shown on ebay, and the listing shows a non-Prevost VIN .

That would and does disturb me.

[Archived]

As Jon pointed out, these coaches are like airplanes. If you were looking at a plane and it didn’t have all the service records, which include engine logs, all yellow tags for parts that have been replaced, as well as a maintenance sign off by the mechanic who did the work, and the inspector who inspected the work, your would run away. In fact it’s almost impossible to sell a plane without this information. And as everyone who has been there and done that, it gets expensive really fast to start zeroing things out. I did not receive the paperwork that I was told would be coming, so I just started serviceing everything so I had my own beginning point. Now almost 2 years later I feel pretty comfortable with our coach, and I also keep each and every receipt in a binder by who did the work, and since I have Prevost and Marathon, just ten miles away my binder is getting thicker each year.