Test Ride Nightmare!! Could use some advice please...

[charismaticmegafauna]

I once bought a bike that way -- wrecked on a test ride (by someone else). It was a used bike, taken on trade, and given to a guy to ride by the dealer principal's son. It was also a brand that the dealership didn't handle.

As it turned-out, the dealer was very willing to sell it to me at a very reasonable price to end the ordeal (and "get it the hell outta here"...).

I don't have any idea of insurance conditions/implications, test-rider responsibility, etc.; but -- it seemed to me that the dealer was looking for a fast, least-cost, way out of the problem.

Also, (I think) the fact that this bike's ('08 'AE') a refugee from the auction 'slave market' really muddies-the-waters... :blink:

 

[Tailwalk]

Some more info....

There is no police report in this case. I do have motorcycle insurance but my policy does not have collision/comprehensive coverage, so my insurance won't pay for the damage for sure. Even if I did have insurance to cover this I probably wouldn't inform them for the amount involved......my rates would just go way up and I'd have to pay a $1000 deductible in that case too.

I definitely want to do the right thing here. I chose to test ride that bike and I was the one who lost control of it. I would never choose an option that screws the dealer or that I can't morally live with. Besides, we all want more dealers that are willing to allow us to test ride bikes.....if every time someone crashed on a test ride they screwed the dealer, we'd never get to do test rides and I believe that is what has already been happening.

Anyways, I sure appreciate all your support and input......fire away keep letting me know what you think.

Best regards,

David

 

[ShawnKing]

To clarify some things; I did sign a waiver that specifically excluded them from liability for injuries to me or anyone else and I also remember reading something about me being responsible for repairs to the motorcycle.

Ooops...after your clarification, most of the proceeding advice is null and void.

You signed away your rights in this situation. The dealer, unfortunately, now has you by the short hairs...but...

All this being said I'm really not happy about there being no warranty on the bike (although he said for $389 he'd give me a 2 year YES plan).

This sounds *really* suspicious to me. I'd contact Yamaha USA to see if what the dealer is saying is true.

And obviously, I'm not happy that the bike is damaged goods right from the get-go if I purchased it.

Understood but to be fair...*You* caused the damage.

What I definitely don't want to have happen is me buying the bike for 12-13 something thousand and possibly having regrets at a later time(i.e., some unseen damage or extensive repairs at a later date).

If the accident was a (relatively) minor as you describe (is there anything else you're not telling us? ), then it's unlikely the above will occur.

At the same time walking away from this and having to pay $4000 for a test ride from hell sure is hard to swallow.

No kidding. I think the "Best of a Bad Situation" solution is for you to make the best deal on the bike you can and buy it while having the major damage repaired. You'll come out of it with a great ( even if slightly damaged) bike and a lot wiser.

Good luck.

 

[polarnut]

Some more info....
There is no police report in this case. I do have motorcycle insurance but my policy does not have collision/comprehensive coverage, so my insurance won't pay for the damage for sure. Even if I did have insurance to cover this I probably wouldn't inform them for the amount involved......my rates would just go way up and I'd have to pay a $1000 deductible in that case too.

I definitely want to do the right thing here. I chose to test ride that bike and I was the one who lost control of it. I would never choose an option that screws the dealer or that I can't morally live with. Besides, we all want more dealers that are willing to allow us to test ride bikes.....if every time someone crashed on a test ride they screwed the dealer, we'd never get to do test rides and I believe that is what has already been happening.

Anyways, I sure appreciate all your support and input......fire away keep letting me know what you think.

Best regards,

David

David: I recently (3 weeks ago) went thru an unfortunate event with my beloved 06 FJR AE as someone pulled in front of me and my bike was totaled, and I was extremely lucky as I only received a few scratches. Anyway, this put me into a recent search for a replacement and this is what I encountered. I could have purchased from two different dealers, not one, an 08 AE for $10,100.00 US dollars with full warranty, (one year), with freight and set up included, this was out the door and I would pay NY 08% tax upon registration. I also received shipping quotes of $400.00 from both locations thru independent MC trucking companies. I did not purchase either bike as I ended up finding an 08AE with 3,700 Mi. for $8,000.00 in like new condition with about $750.00 in accessories. Anyway, it seems to me like this dealer is definately taking advantage of the situation.

 

[v65]

Got some pictures of the bike? I would like to $4000 worth of damage from a 5mph getoff. My guess, a lot of that is in labor and dealer markup. Fix it yourself with parts from one of the well known forum fenders and it will be a lot less. This is assuming you take the bike of course.

 

[mcatrophy]

Well I can't believe it happened.......went out for a test ride on a new 08 FJR AE, clear skies, dry pavement, experienced rider. Slowed to about 5 mph to enter a freeway onramp, accelerated into the turn and bam*!!*!! before I could blick an eyelash the rear tire skidded out and proceeded into a low-side lay down skid on it's unprotected side. :dribble: !!!!!!!!!!! ...David

Seattle, WA

David -

1st - Sorry about your get-off, sounds very similar to one I had (described here). In my case, probably cold tyres, and certainly too much throttle.

2nd - OK, this side of the pond we don't get a Y.E.S. option, but i've read a lot about it on this forum. My understanding is that you can ONLY get a genuine Y.E.S. warrenty if the "new" warrenty is still in force. His 2 year warrenty offer is going to be a dealer one, not a Yamaha one. Again, from what I've read, the Yamaha one is the only one to have.

3rd - The AE is a great bike, had my '06 since new, still love it.

Hope things sort out for you.

 

[08FJR4ME]

Many lessons to be learned here.

1) Do not under insure yourself or MC!

2) Understand what you are getting into when you sign away your rights! This alone tells me this guy is SHADY!

3) You seriously let him charge 4K on your credit card with nothing in return!!!!!! CALL CREDIT CARD COMPANY QUICK!

3) IMO you are definately getting screwed over by this dealer. Don't walk away, RUN DAMMIT!!!!!!

4) Call a lawyer immediatly!

____________________________________________________________________________________

A) obviously improper instruction on how to operate this particular MC.

B ) I seriously doubt Yamaha would sell a brand new MC without a factory warrenty. (Your getting scammed big time)

C) The dealer should be insured for these things and if he isn't then he shouldn't be giving test rides. (His Fault)

D) price wise your are getting screwed over also. Leftover AE's should be discounted heavily. "they don't sell"

E) If it's an 08 then it has the same stalling issues mine did and many others that year. ( PCIII installed to fix it)

My dealer refused to do anything either for the stalling also and it dam near killed me several times. The get off may

not have been your fault. (factory defect documented hear in several threads)

Well at least you didn't get any serious injury's.

IMO Call a lawyer and find another deal somewhere else and stay away from this dealership.

 

[UHOH]

You say the dealer has been very politie and friendly to you.

for just several hundred $ you can get it put back into pretty good shape

and have the bike you wanted.

My older less desireable '04 version has 52,000 on it and works just fine.

Likely you won't miss the YES warranty.

So step back and look at it.

FJR is a premium bike that you've been wanting for a while.

Not the best situation, but that's your action. What's the worst end result? - you end up with an FJR!! :yahoo:

 

[Tailwalk]

mcatrophy

Thanks so much for sharing your story and your encouraging words. I read your accident description and it is identical to what happened to me (scary exactly the same). Accelerating from low speed through a turn into a straight away and then immediate loss of traction and subsequent lay down. I too didn't realize what happened until I was sliding along my ass behind the bike. I theorize I too lost traction due to the tires being new and cold in addition to the fact that I was laying on the throttle to heavy into the turn under those conditions. In my case I also found a small liquid pool under my bike once I stood it back up on the side of the rode. It was antifreeze coming out of the overflow rubber tubing at the bottom of the bike. At first, I thought maybe leaking antifreeze contributed to my loss of traction on the rear wheel but upon further reflection I think that a little antifreeze was leaking out because the bike had been on its side causing a little overflow from the radiator down the tube to the ground once I stood the bike back up.

I just can't believe how shook up I am about this and bummed out. It would have perhaps a little easier to accept the consequences of this had I been doing something foolish or risky but in this case I truly was caught completely off guard. I've pushed other bikes 5-6 times harder into a turn with never a loss of control. I HAVE BEEN HUMBLED!!!!

If this has not happend to other people reading this please, please, please learn from my big mistake. Be oh so careful (at least with new and/or cold tires)

To illustrate how shook up I am about this, I'm seriously considering not riding anymore. The "what ifs" of this scenario are definitely running through my mind. What if I had totalled the bike, what if I had injured myself enough to not be able to work or worse.............

Safe riding,

David

 

[fjrob1300]

[SIZE=24pt]Call a lawyer at once. [/SIZE]Except for this free advice, stop getting your legal advice on a forum!

 

[Tailwalk]

1) Do not under insure yourself or MC!
Your right, I don't have comprehensive/collision protection on my bike because it's only worth about $3200.....but when test riding more expensive motorcycles I wish I would have given it more thought......lesson learned.

2) Understand what you are getting into when you sign away your rights! This alone tells me this guy is SHADY!

I'm not sure I would go so far as to call it Shady, any motorcycle dealer here in WA State would require signing a similar waiver before allowing a test ride.

3) You seriously let him charge 4K on your credit card with nothing in return!!!!!! CALL CREDIT CARD COMPANY QUICK!

I caused signifigant damage to their bike while test riding it and was solely at fault, so I don't see how I could have left there without covering the damages. If I tried to leave without doing anything I'm sure the police would have been called and this would have become much more fun.

I definitely would like more opinions on this by others on this board, I appreciate your opinions on this 08FJR4ME. Thank you

 

[RoadGlide]

Just call a lawyer like most have suggested. Your feelings don't really matter in this case. You are seriously being taken advantage of in this situation. The dealer knows how you feel about it and is using that to over charge you for the bike and the repairs. It was an accident, not something that you purposely caused. Be strong and deal with it. Never again tell anyone that you let a dealer put a "hold charge" on your credit card, they'll think you're a complete idiot. Good luck.

 

[Tailwalk]

Anybody here a lawyer from WA State or know of one I can contact. I already talked to one motorcycle lawyer over phone.....not very encouraging. Basically, he said I had no recourse and need to work it out with the dealer. Nice.....

 

[Tailwalk]

You say the dealer has been very politie and friendly to you.for just several hundred $ you can get it put back into pretty good shape

and have the bike you wanted.

My older less desireable '04 version has 52,000 on it and works just fine.

Likely you won't miss the YES warranty.

So step back and look at it.

FJR is a premium bike that you've been wanting for a while.

Not the best situation, but that's your action. What's the worst end result? - you end up with an FJR!! :yahoo:

Chuckle!!!!

 

[Tailwalk]

Hey everybody,

Going to the gym to blow off some steam(before I implode). Will come back in a couple hours........

Thanks much

David

 

[JamesW]

Curious, from what Yamaha has told me in the mailer I can only get the YES pkg for my bike while it is still under warranty so if this bike has no warranty how is the dealer getting the extended YES warranty?

 

[JimNtexas]

I bought a 2008 AE leftover two days ago. My heart breaks reading this thread.

I felt bad that I dropped mine with three miles on it after putting gas in the tank. I raised the kickstand, dropped a glove, leaned over to tray an get it, and realized that I was not strong enough to hold the bike up! A few scratches, but nothing disastrous. Nothing like $4000!

On the advice of D&H I called Yamaha Corporate prior to purchase to ask about the warranty and eligibility for YES. D&H said that some auction bikes are eligible for YES and some are not, he wasn't sure why.

The person at Yamaha was very nice, and explained that these auction bikes have a 1 year 'mechanical' warranty that excludes any 'pre-existing' conditions, such as paint damage. She showed no known pre-existing conditions with my bike.

I asked her about YES. She checked with a supervisor, came back on the line and told me my bike is eligible for the full YES. She gave me her name and extension, told me that she had added this information to the records of the bike, and sent an email to the warranty department. Hopefully I won't have a problem when I call D&H to buy the YES warranty next week.

Bottom line to anyone considering an auction bike, CALL Yamaha customer service first! They were incredibly helpful!

In the case of the OP's bike this 'pre-existing condition' stipulation may become an issue, best to call Yamaha right about this.

 

[oldryder]

tell the dealer you'll buy it "as is" for a fair new price. that number should be $10k WITH a warranty. then tell him you want it fixed at his cost. that would be fair but thats not what he's offerring.

I'd strongly suggest checking with a lawyer. for $200 you can find out what the laws are in your state. its completely possible that state law doesn't allow him to hold you liable.

 

[GL4435]

Dave,

You must consult a lawyer. The waver you signed may or may not influence the legality of the situation. The first thing we have every patient sign at our hospital is a waver so they cannot bring suit against the hospital ... the paper does not mean a thing and everyone knows it ... its just procedure. A professional needs to give you accurate advice on how to proceed.

 

[glory racing]

FYI...Auction bikes can come without factory warranty, even if they are new. If the bikes were secured from a dealer that already designated that the bike was sold and it was registered with yamaha as sold(to qualify for spiffs, factory to dealer incentives, etc) the bike may not have warranty. Sometimes it can be reinstated by the district manager and in this case, approval should not be to difficult if the dealer has any pull whatsoever with his dm. Usuallly auction bikes come with 1 year mechanical warranty only. Any problems with plastics or appearance are not covered.

Auction bikes that are in the price range of the fjr can usually be purchased by the dealer for 1-2k below normal invoice. However, ever deal is different. Some do not get holdback or have to pay shipping, etc.

I would offer the lowest price seen for a new AE(they are going really cheap) and deduct another $1k since it is an auction bike. Have him add the 4year yes for $389 or tell him to keep it and just buy it from d&h. By the way, the 4 year warranty costs the dealer $349. Have him make repairs YOU need at his cost as he offered.

You should get a good deal on a bike and he will move a bike that he really does not want on his floor.

Win win situation. The dealer really doesn't want that bike in inventory. However, it is his job to try and secure the most amount of profit. It is a business!