We inspected our van (and you should, too…)

How did our van pickup go at Noovo in Las Vegas? I’ll tell you everything.

We arrived at 10:30 and were greeted by Sloan, who walked us out to our van. We had put a deposit down in late September, five and a half months earlier, and finally, it was ours. But only after inspecting the van for flaws.

What did we find during our inspection? Not much. The van was in beautiful condition, all the cabinet edges were properly aligned, the exterior was shiny and unblemished, and almost everything was perfect. Perfection is a high bar, of course, but that was the goal.

I hope that by detailing what we found others will be motivated to carefully inspect their own vans, not only to correct any issues they might find, but to hold Noovo to a high standard. 

Here is the inspection list I am developing (with a huge help from the members of the Noovo Facebook Group) and the one that I used for our own inspection: Noovo Pick-up Day Inspection List.

And here is the full list of problems we discovered on our pick-up day, whether during the inspection or shortly after we left. The only things we didn’t test were the shower and the Modiwell toilet, as we (temporarily!) used the shower area for storage. We’ll bring less stuff next time!

There was a faint line of lubricant along the edge of the shore power input cover. There was also a faint line of lubricant next to the exterior 110v port. Paul, the head of production, came out personally to clean these, which took about five minutes.

There was excess lubricant on the bed rails and a few fresh lubricant marks on the cushions. Paul removed the excess lubricant and wiped the cushions clean. The cushions look great, now.

Lori found a very faint scratch on the paint between the exterior solar port and 110v plug. Paul touched that up (and I looked over his shoulder while he worked and could not see the scratch—it must have been very faint, indeed).

During our walkthrough, Sloan discovered that the rear window on the passenger side did not close exactly right. At first, it appeared to lock properly, but one of the locks was slightly off. He told us they would adjust it, but when we left for forty-five minutes to return the rental car, Paul and his people replaced the entire window. I couldn’t tell it was a new window at first, except when Sloan mentioned that the factory’s clear film had not yet been removed.

My phone’s Starlink app could not see the van’s Starlink device. Since we were camping nearby, I told Sloan I would look into it and come back in a day or two if I couldn’t solve the issue. Later that night, I did a factory reset, and Starlink has worked well ever since. 

After we left Noovo, on the way to Valley of Fire, the pantry cupboard opened on a bumpy road. Lori discovered that the inside latching part had been installed in a reversed orientation. It was easy to unscrew two small screws, turn the part the other way, and reinstall it—even easier since Noovo had supplied a free small tool kit. I didn’t even have to get the tool bag out of the Rover box.

And that’s the whole list of issues. One faint scratch, one window, and the rest we could (and in two cases did) correct ourselves. 

We felt that the pick-up process and the inspection were an extraordinarily positive experience, which only reinforces our confidence in our choice of van. Thanks to Sloan, Paul, and the rest of the team at Noovo for making our pick-up–and inspection–go so smoothly.