BCI Falcon 45 First look up close and personal !

[Busted Knuckle]

Well my day started out a little different today. I answered the phone and first thing I heard was "Hello I hope you can help me I was refered to you by so & so, and I'd like to make it home for Christmas!" So I told him I'd be glad to see if I could help, "what is it I can do for you?" He responds "I'm on my way home from Las Vegas with a brand new bus and it won't start! It's a new BCI Falcon 45, and it's done this several times now, I have a guys # who is a wonderful support tech who will walk you through it with, what ya need to know!"
So I told him "we'd be glad to look at it and I needed his location, a call back #, & the tech's name & # , and that after checking with dad & the tech I'd call him back and tell him when we'd be at his hotel in Jackson, TN." So I called the tech guy and he asked me "if I would go down to the bus and look for several things and check the normal obvious causes then call him back and we'd go from there!" Well I loaded up some tools and away we went! When we got there I met Jim and he asked if I had "$50.00 to buy a coach with?" (boy it was tempting , but I couldn't take advantage of the guy like that!). Well he opened up the engine compartment and asked "Now is this thing great? Look how easy everything is to get too to work on, problem is I don't wanna be working on it! I wanna be driving it! I want to get home to Long Island for X-mas!" So after looking at a few things I asked him to try it. Wow I must have scared it with the hammer that was sitting on the tailgat of the trk! LOL! Because it started right away, with out touching anything!
Well then he started showing me the coach, and let me tell you this is one justifiably unhappy new bus owner! Wow the windsheild wiper linkage has come apart 3 times so far, it's failed to start 5 times so far, it has a smart tire system on it that was bleeep, bleeep, bleeep'n like mad when he picked it up & they told him "aw just ignor that, it's not hooked up yet!" Well the first time it failed to start was before he left Vegas. Then the next AM in Albuquerque, NM it wouldn't hit a lick! So he called out a mechanic who looked at everything and could not find it, but it started. While the new owner and the mechanic looked at the new bus and the mechanic complemented on it's looks he pointed out that one of the tires looked low. Upon checking it and others they found both inside duals flat (one with the bead busted off the rim) and the right steer tire low! So he took it to a tire shop, where they fixed the tire off the rim and aired up the others. Then the repair guy mentioned that it had smart tire sensors and should have warned him of the flat tires! (LOL! Yeah baby just ignor that it ain't hooked up!). The guy got in and pushed the buttons and said yeah it showed in the memory both inside duals and the right steer tire dangerously low!!  Well he had many other complaints about stupid stuff done/not done. One that shocked us was the condition they had "delivered it to him in" it was filthy, and had stuff every where from drill shavings and pieces of this and that all over where they had done some trimming and never vacuumed it, the windows, floors, luggage bays, & exterior looked as bad as if it'd just come in of a 6 day run with teenagers onboard (with the big trash picked up of course!) Our former bus cleaner would have had a fit! (she always did an awesome job cleaning our buses, and we will miss that!)

So my first impression of the BCI Falcon 45 is not a great one! Yes it is a beatiful coach, and yes it appears that they have made it easy to work on (too easy with built in problems! LOL!) but they also have done some stupid stuff that show that they were trying to build a CHEAP coach and were successful! I say CHEAP as opposed to inexpensive, I know all new products have bugs and issues but there is a difference! I'll elaborate more later!
  BK 

[kysteve]

BK,

    Did you by chance get any pics there, buddy?  Steve

[Busted Knuckle]

BK,

    Did you by chance get any pics there, buddy?  Steve

Yes and I'll post them and more details later as I was getting tired and had several interuptions while working on the original post! I'll need to use my laptop to add the pics as I don't have an sd slot on this one! But have no fear I will finish this soon!
  BK 

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Hi BK,

Good Story...  I guess you never found a start problem?

BCI must stand for Bus Choking Intermediately....

Nick-

[tekebird]

That Sucks, but you get what you pay for I suppose (price is 100k less than an MCI)

With that said I have heard of similar problems with NEw MCI equipment ( both the F model ( a DINA) and the E model when it came out.

As for the guy having tire issues........OBVIOUSLY, he did not do a pre trip inspection, or even look at the tires when walking up to the bus.  A tire that underinflated is obvious visually.

Was this a new bus or a Demo.

[makemineatwostroke]

Thats what you get for the "MADE IN CHINA" product

[Busted Knuckle]

Well I was gonna post pics, but they are too large & I don't know how to resize them!

Nick you are correct we were unable to find the problem!
Doug you are also correct as far as the pre-trip inspection. But how would you like to pay $375,000.00 for something and when you go to pick it up be delayed 2 more days than told and ask why a tire monitoring system is bleeeping like mad? Only to be told (and I quote) "Aw just ignor that, it's not even hooked up yet!" and then later find out that yes it was indeed hooked up & working properly. And had the people telling you it wasn't hooked up known what they were talking about, it would have avoided the trouble of having to take it to a tire shop on the road as they should've aired up the tires from the start!
By the way this was a BRAND NEW COACH build date of 11/07 with 1,636 miles on it when I wrote up my service ticket!
  BK 

PS I'll try to get the pics resized and post them when I can!

[Sammy]

BK, I'll keep an eye out for it here on LI, if it makes it.....

[tekebird]

Yeah I would have been miffed a bit, but I would have flown my butt home telling them if they wanted my money they would be deliveing the bus to me for my inconvieneince.......then all of these issues would be on them.

I can assure you MCI or Prevost would have said OK we'll bring it to you.

No idea who the delivery official was  ( title ) but I never hop in anything and just drive away on someones say so.

Did the guy tell you why he was delayed 2 days in Vegas?  Rather than gambling or    visiting Nevada Brothels maybe he should have been familiarizing himself with his new bus........I would have not been leaving the company property without the thing being in order.

[tekebird]

Additional factoid.

BCI is a bit worse than even Silver Eagle bus as far as Communications go.

Several emails and phone calls remain unanswered for some time now.

[Dreamscape]

Nice looking coach, but for that kind of money they should have delivered it for free. I agree with tekebird on this one.

[makemineatwostroke]

Tekebird, it takes along time for emails to go to Australia,China,Brazil, Spain,Las Vegas and back to Kansas for your answer be patience it will catch up with Boyd Denning some place.He built a good bus when Mercedes was building for him.FWIW

[Lin]

It is good to see that I have a lot in common with a new BCI owner--problems.  Just think he could have bought 50 of mine the same price.  That way, if one didn't start, he could move on to the next.

[Busted Knuckle]

Yeah I would have been miffed a bit, but I would have flown my butt home telling them if they wanted my money they would be deliveing the bus to me for my inconvieneince.......then all of these issues would be on them.

I can assure you MCI or Prevost would have said OK we'll bring it to you.

No idea who the delivery official was  ( title ) but I never hop in anything and just drive away on someones say so.

Did the guy tell you why he was delayed 2 days in Vegas?  Rather than gambling or    visiting Nevada Brothels maybe he should have been familiarizing himself with his new bus........I would have not been leaving the company property without the thing being in order.

As a matter of fact he did say why he was delayed 2 extra days! They were still doing the dealer prep! And I can assure you Jim & his wife were not visiting the brothels. As far as familurizing himself with his new coach, he was trying. But every question he asked was answered with "I don't know, but the tech that will be coming to your place to make final adustments & teach you and your staff about the new coach will!" Doug I understand yer points, and you have good ones, but please understand that Jim is a very nice, knowledgable, businessman who has been around the coach industry for yrs. As a matter of fact he was the proud owner of the 3rd Van Hool to ever hit US shores (his words, not mine as I can't see bragging about a Van Hool! LOL!), and still owns and operates Van Hools today! His wife was most throughly disgusted with this adventure and told him "leave it with these nice people get us a ride to the airport and buy another Van Hool after Xmas! BCI can come get this one back here in TN!" I personally heard her say it and I can tell you that she meant it!
I'm not saying that the BCI is a bad coach, but I saw many things that really shocked me that they did as they claim to be "built by operators, for operators!" It is a beatiful coach, and has some very cool things and ideas. But it also needs some refining, and the staff in charge of handing them over to the new owner should be knowledgable in what they are dealing with! Another thing I was totally shocked at was "Da book" it was the size of a BCM and was 5th grade quality! Wow! Talk about cheesy!
  BK 

[tekebird]

BK,

What company does Jim Own?

I understand, but if I were Jim I would have been settling everything in Vegas, and certainly by the time I got to your place I would have been arranging for BCI to buy my ticket home at least business class and for them to deal with the problems.

Thats awefull about Da Book.  that is a product of Chinese....they throw stuff out not fix it.