Not fun

[OB_Kirk]

Yup.

 

[OB_jimjib]

It was kind of embarrassing too... riding in the back of the flatbed tow truck, holding on to the bike with a bunch of harleys riding past for Christ sake.

 

[Guest]

James,

That sucks! Just got back from LA and I'm surfing the bike boards and find this sh*t! Maybe I rode it a little too hard last Sunday, it wasn't used to it? ;')

This won't change my mind on the Busa, I'm going shopping for my 2000 Blue SOON! For all you Busa owners out there, I have a '98ZX11 and have been satisfied with it for the most part. Ol' Jim and I went for a trip last weekend and I rode his '99 Copper for about 50 miles (twisties and fast stuff). When I got back on my bike the throttle felt like mush and the suspension downright unstable!

All the way home I thinking "how am I going to tell my girlfriend that I'm getting a new bike"? (Jim knows the scenario).

Jim, I think Suzuki owes you a new motor PERIOD! You have the extended warranty. I agree with Kirk, and I use those tactics myself but to me this is CLEARLY a warranty replacement issue. What the heck should they care anyway, Suzuki is getting the bill they LOVE warranty work.

Bob

 

[OB_Factory]

I also agree 100% with Kirk's tactics and approach, but Suzuki seems to have a flaw that they should own up to. Their companies reputation will be on the line if they don't come to the table.

 

[OB_Factory]

http://www.labusas.org/ubb/Forum1/HTML/003704.html

 

[OB_Kirk]

Factory, you are correct. By the way, I am not the smartest thing on two wheels (didn't even graduate from high school), but you would probably be more likely to be struck by lightning than to find someone who is more of an expert on this type of stuff than me.

 

[OB_Factory]

No question. You have identified the best approach.

 

[OB_jimjib]

I guess I might just be wrong about this but I will be totally shocked if I have any
problems with this warrantee thing, just seems to cut and dried to me. Kirk, I do appreciate the advice and will approach this as the sweet fellow I am. Maybe I will have to turn my wife loose on em, hehe, she runs the office for my business and can be a real effective ball buster when needed. Hey Bob, I wonder if you will have yours before I get mine back...I think you probably will.

 

[OB_Kirk]

You have not asked for any advise, so I will give you some anyway. I will also assume that you do not have an extended warranty. Take it to the Suzuki dealer that you purchased it from. They made around $2000 off of you in a single transaction. That is called a "relationship". They will probably ask you to authorize basic no-start diagnostic time to determine (verify) the nature of the concern. Then they will probably ask you to authorize tear down time for the purpose of preparing a proper estimate. Communicate to the service consultant, the service manager, and the general manager that you have been completely satisfied with them as a dealership, and that if this goes well, that you would like to continue giving them the opportunity to make $2000 per transaction off of you on a regular basis, and you will be sure to tell all of your motorcycle buddys how well the dealership took care of you. Do not threaten. Do not claim to be able to influence the purchasing decisions of others. Nobody owes you anything. Tell them that you are requesting "Goodwill assistance" from Suzuki. Goodwill assistance is a withdrawal from the favor bank. Suzuki may choose to make an investment in you as a customer (potential repeat customer). If you communicate with the Suzuki rep, make sure that he knows that you have been completely satisfied with your new $12,000 Suzuki motorcycle, and that if this goes well, that you would like to continue to purchase new $12,000 Suzuki motorcycles and you will be sure to tell all of your motorcycle buddys how well Suzuki treated you. Do not confuse the dealership with Suzuki. Do not confuse individual people with a company. If Suzuki offers you less than 100% participation in the repair, ask what the dealership's participation will be. Your best interests are also the dealership's best interests in that if Suzuki pays for the repair, the dealer gets to make the money on a big engine job. If for example Suzuki offers to pay for the parts but not the labor, the dealership still gets to make a profit on the parts, and the labor will only cost the dealership what they pay the technician, not the retail shop rate. So for example a 20 hour job at $70 retail could cost $1400 in labor, but it may only cost the dealership $400 for 20 hours of the technician's time at his pay rate of $20 per flat rate hour (and it is almost assumed that they will make another $2000 off of you next year). If you piss someone off, you will probably queer the deal. It is too easy to make people happy, and if it is going to be hard to make you happy, you may not be a good investment of time and money.

 

[OB_Mr Bear]

Very good advice. Kill 'em with kindness.
C. Dolan has a very good relationship with San Diego House of Motorcycles.

When he shattered the clutch of his ZX-12 drag racing at Carlsbad, he took it to them and said, "I shattered the clutch drag racing at Carlsbad". They said, "Let's see what we can do". The word came back promptly, Kawasaki had authorized all repair work under warranty, provided they could keep the blown-up clutch assembly parts for R & D purposes.

A smile and a kind word goes a long way.

Bummer about the motor, Jim. Hope it works out okay.

[This message has been edited by Mr Bear (edited 19 July 2000).]

 

[OB_busagsx1300r]

I HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT THE RECALL. IF YOUR MOTOR BLOWS BECAUSE OF A RECALL SHOULDNT IT BE FIXED BY SUZUKI? EVEN AFTER THE WARRANTY IS UP. ITS A FAULTY PRODUCT.

 

[OB_Johnnycheese]

That is a fine line.

This is my .02
You must go to a Dealership one YOU TRUST and have a good relationship with.
And have the examine the Bike let them make a call to Suzuki.

Explain in full to them EXCATLY what happen.
Do not scream yell or hollar anything just have the check it out and if their is a charge agree to pay for tear down to verify it was the tensioner do not have them remove the motor or head.

Most people know my e-mail.

 

[OB_Kirk]

That is a really good question. There is no warranty on recalls. I don't think that most people understand what a warranty is. A warranty is not free. It is built into the price of the vehicle. You paid for it. A warranty is not designed to immunize you from all adverse aspects of vehicle ownership. A warranty does not cover things that happen to a vehicle. A warranty is to correct defects of a vehicle for a period of time. Most warranty issues arise out of that time period. Let me elaborate: The manufacturers never claimed to build a perfect product. They use human beings to build the best product that they could. Sometimes these human beings make mistakes, either in design, manufacturing, sourcing, or assembling stuff. To be fair with the consumer, they warrant vehicles to give YOU a reasonable period of time to discover any defects and to present YOUR vehicle for warranty repairs. The words "you" and "your" are important here, because once you buy the vehicle, it belongs to you. At some point, the manufacturers feel that it is important for YOU to take responsibility for YOUR vehicle. In this example, that point is 12 months. Just because some number of other vehicles have had a particular type of concern before, does not mean that the manufacturer owes YOU something. That is why repairs performed after the warranty period are often referred to as "goodwill" repairs. You are making a withdrawal from the "favor bank" and the manufacturer (and/or the dealer) are making an investment in you as a customer in the interest of complete customer satisfaction. Once the warranty is up, nobody OWES you anything. That is why it is important to not piss anyone off.

[This message has been edited by Kirk (edited 19 July 2000).]

 

[OB_jimjib]

Its not that I am pissed, Im just disappointed. I absolutely have never flogged this bike (if anything I baby it to much) and to have it fly to pieces in just 14,000 miles seems pretty weak to me. On the other hand, as a manufacture myself, I
have a good understanding of how impossible it is to make a perfect machine, with no flaws, that will never fail. After all, a machines sole purpose in life is to
grind itself to dust as fast as it can and it spends every working minute trying to do just that. All we can do is to hopefully get some useful work out of it in the meantime, I am just disappointed that I didn't get a little more useful work out of this machine. That said, this situation has no effect on my affection for the bike, I cant imagine being without it, Im hooked good. By the way, I do have the extended warrantee.

 

[OB_jimjib]

Hey Bob, if you read this, don't let this stop you from getting the bike, just throw the stock tensioner in the trash and get the manual one everyone recommends.

 

[OB_Cisco San Jose]

When you get your bike fixed make sure you get the cause of the failure so that we can use it later on when ours go out or break some of us did not get the extended warranty but if the same item goes out I would say it's a factory defect and safety hazard, don't let the lawyers hear about this.

 

[OB_Hayawiz]

Once I saw the Harleys I'd a shot myself! Bad guy real bad!

 

[OB_Hayawiz]

P.S. Jim ??????

"Did Ya givem the Finger as they went by??
LOL I do & honk everytime I go by the harley dealer out here. Which is about 5 days a week ! Hell it's a long side the freeway! What the hell they gonna do Chase me! lol

 

[OB_jimjib]

Hey, I had to avert my eyes, but that wont last for long,, I hope.

Im just sitting hear thinking, I got a one of a kind, dualsport harley a bmw r1100 gs and a Mv F4 on order and I don't give a shi** about any of em....I JUST WANT MY BUSA. Everything else is a step down...there may be a tee-shirt in there somewhere

 

[OB_jimjib]

I will keep you guys posted...I would kill a lawyer before i would tell one anything