RCinNC
Well-Known Member
Warranties are like any other business contract; absent enforcement by a court, they're dependent on the ethics of the people who signed the contract that the provisions of the contract will be adhered to. Dealerships don't make money on warranty repairs, and they don't make money from people who do their own maintenance. If the dealership isn't ethical, then it's easy for them to use scare tactics like "you have to use OEM parts or you'll void your warranty", or "if you don't bring your bike back here for service, you might void your warranty". And it's true that a dealership might try and avoid making a warranty repair by claiming that using a Mobil filter or an EBC brake pad was the cause of the problem and therefore not a warranty issue, but a dealership with those sorts of compromised ethics is just as likely to lie in some other way to avoid a warranty repair even if you've taken the bike there for every single bit of maintenance, and used OEM parts, ever since you bought it.
Lots of guys on here wrench on their own bikes. I'm one of them. I also keep very detailed records of every job I've done, every type filter I've used, every type oil, etc. That's a good thing to do if you do your own maintenance for at least as long as the warranty is in effect, because you may someday run into an unethical dealership that tries to wriggle out of warranty work by claiming the bike wasn't maintained properly, and you'll have to either fight them or find a more ethical dealership.
I once had to go over the head of a local Hyundai dealership service manager who refused to repair my car after a class action lawsuit dictated that they replace the subframe on the car due to a design flaw. Even after I showed all the relevant paperwork to the service manager, he maintained that my car wasn't part of the class action suit because it only applied to cars that were registered in the Rust Belt states, and my car was registered in North Carolina. This was in spite of the fact that the lawsuit was clear that it applied to cars that had previously been registered in the Rust Belt, which mine was. I had to make calls to Hyundai America in order to get them to contact the dealership and force them to do the work that was required by law.
There's always a lot of misinformation perpetuated on line about warranties, and what they do and don't mean. Companies don't have to offer a warranty at all, but if they do, it has to adhere to the Federal statutes outlined in the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. If you want to read about the Act there's plenty on line, and it has its own Wikipedia page.
Lots of guys on here wrench on their own bikes. I'm one of them. I also keep very detailed records of every job I've done, every type filter I've used, every type oil, etc. That's a good thing to do if you do your own maintenance for at least as long as the warranty is in effect, because you may someday run into an unethical dealership that tries to wriggle out of warranty work by claiming the bike wasn't maintained properly, and you'll have to either fight them or find a more ethical dealership.
I once had to go over the head of a local Hyundai dealership service manager who refused to repair my car after a class action lawsuit dictated that they replace the subframe on the car due to a design flaw. Even after I showed all the relevant paperwork to the service manager, he maintained that my car wasn't part of the class action suit because it only applied to cars that were registered in the Rust Belt states, and my car was registered in North Carolina. This was in spite of the fact that the lawsuit was clear that it applied to cars that had previously been registered in the Rust Belt, which mine was. I had to make calls to Hyundai America in order to get them to contact the dealership and force them to do the work that was required by law.
There's always a lot of misinformation perpetuated on line about warranties, and what they do and don't mean. Companies don't have to offer a warranty at all, but if they do, it has to adhere to the Federal statutes outlined in the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. If you want to read about the Act there's plenty on line, and it has its own Wikipedia page.
. one of my international customers and I were talking about it a few weeks back, who are very pro-end user repair. My company is currently in negotiations with a certain green colored farm equipment manufacturer for manufacturing of a err... part... that makes it impossible for a farmer to repair his own equipment. This company is using right to repair to circumvent many of the M-M warranty act by simply making parts not user serviceable. So far this company is struggling to find a machine shop that will make the part because its so obvious as to what it's doing and nobody wants to be part of it.
