I said it once and I'll say it again: Be as one and bring your issue directly to Yamaha. If dozens of owners express their concern and dissatisfaction over this issue, you will bring about your desired results much more quickly. Quit yapping about it here, get together and bring the discussion to Yamaha directly.
Unusual words of wisdom from our Gerbil loving friend. :****:
You know, this is my advice. Worth what you have paid for it.
You all need to organize better and take more definite, and at this time, non-hostile action. This is what I recommend: Sart a letter writing campaign that you must ALL participate in. And when writing letters, keep the emotion out of it, and be firm and factual. I would recommend a loose form letter with room for some variation for each writer's specifics. Now the big question - whom to send the letters to?
Somebody will have to do some research, but off the top of my head............
Pres of Yamaha USA, Maybe some VPs in there as well (Head of Customer Service). Copy to dealer. Copy to NHTSA. And copy to your state's cosumer protection division (lemon laws) or something similar.
In general, state:
-What the problem is that is occurring (Be detailed but more importantly brief here)
-That not only is it ridiculous for a brand new motorcycle to be running so poorly, but it is UNSAFE. Describe how and why.
-That it is completely unacceptable to you to have a new motorcycle that is so flawed. In other words, you can't keep this motorcycle. Yamaha needs to fix it, or replace it with one that works or buy it back. Period. And quickly as you have dealt with this for long enough with no resolution.
-Steps you have taken so far (with dealer, corporate Yamaha) to try and resolve the problem
-That you have been extremely disappointed in how Yamaha has been handling your problem - no communication, bad information, denial by dealer of problem, ect.....
- BRIEFLY ,and keeping emotion in check, describe how the problem has effected you, any planned trips, and your faith in the Yamaha corporation.
Be business like, professional, detailed, and yet succinct.
- Oh, and don't mention one single thing about it being a problem with other FJRs. That will be obvious when several dozen letters are sent. Stick to the facts about your own individual case.
Yamaha corporate getting bunch of physical, paper letters (that have also been sent to other gov't agencies), all within a couple weeks is going to get a lot more attention than phone calls to different low level customer service techs, and dealers that don't give a crap.
Oh, and each one of you should send a copy of the letter to all the major magazines too. And of course let Yammie know you are doing this.
So why doesn't somebody come up with a good form letter here on the forum that you all could use as a base template and modify slightly with your own personal experiences. Then within a week or two, ALL of you send them out.
Organize folks! Take your fight to them in way they can't ignore, but still be calm and reasonable.
What I have described shouldn't be that hard to do, nor take too much effort and time. Yet I think it could be an effective tool to get some action, and will make you all feel better at the same time.
I am challenging you all to take a few minutes to do something proactive about your problem instead of taking the easy way out of coming here or calling some peon Yammie customer service tech and complaining, or venting about the issue.
So who's up for the challenge?