If you happened along my newbie thread, you’d see that I bought a Honda Dylan - a very nice little bike. I paid over the odds for it because it was low mileage, had a full service history, and was from a dealer I had come to trust (I did my CBT with them too and was very impressed).
Well, I was looking through the paperwork today before filing it away, and…I couldn’t find the service history. I thought, hrm, maybe the dealer didn’t put it in when he was putting all the paperwork together, so I phoned up…and it turns out that the bike doesn’t have a service history. I heard a number of things including “because it’s so low mileage it doesn’t need a service history because it won’t have needed servicing” (on a 7 year old bike?), “the bike has definitely been serviced with us each time it did its MOT” (but when requested they can’t provide a receipt from their records?) and “the gentleman who owned it probably put it away, we can try to get in touch with him” (but after calling a couple of hours later they hadn’t yet gotten around to calling him).
On the plus side, the dealer took the bike back without problem - so fair play to them, many plus points on treating customers fairly. I had to keep the helmet and gloves, paying full rack rate for them (not the discount I got when buying the bike), but I guess that’s fair since I used them and I need a helmet and gloves anyway. While I loved the bike, I was unhappy that I didn’t get what I thought I was getting. The bike clearly did look like it had done very few miles, and it was a pleasure to ride, but I’d always have that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that something wasn’t “quite right” somewhere.
This got me thinking - am I being too paranoid? Should I have just ignored the lack of promised service history (or waited in the hope that “maybe it will turn up”?). Is it easy to sell a bike on without a service history? What do people look at when buying a used bike in general?
-simon (now looking for a new bike - I’m hooked, CBT on Saturday and already looking for a 2nd bike ;-))
Sorry to hear this. You did the right thing taking it back though. If you don’t get what you paid for, you shouldn’t just accept that. The dealer should have got their facts right or be honest from the start.
I bought an innova 125 a while ago and made a mistake of not checking everything so it came without a service history and all that. It rode fine and I have managed to get back most of what I paid for it. I think for a certain type of bike, some people won’t care about the service history as long as it runs fine (i sold mine to a pizza delivery guy).
I just bought my new bike from Mr-C will full service history and that’s a great peace of mind! For your budget I reckon you should be able to get a good bike from ebay/autotrader/mcn. GL!
Legally you were probably entitled to return the gloves and helmet or at least keep the discount you got from buying the bike. The contract for the helmet and gloves would be considered a collateral contract, ie one made on the basis that the original contract was valid, since the original contract was not valid, the collateral contract would be repudiated as well.
As for buying new, problem is depreciation, even a Honda which can really hold its money well, you will lose about 1200-1400 quid in a year on list price.
If you buying long term, not an issue so much, but if you looking at passing your test and getting a bigger bike you will lose a lot of money very quickly.
Indeed. I decided not to push the point though - after all, I did have the bike overnight and enjoyed it, so I see all as fair
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Well, I’m thinking about buying a scooter that I will want to keep. I may in future also want a faster bike, for fun, but the purpose of the scooter is to practical - get places faster than in a car, able to carry stuff for work. I travel a lot for work, but when I work in and around London I want to be able to take the scoot, bring a laptop, some cables, a change of clothes or two…so the scooter becomes the practical thing, and then when I pass my bike license I can always get something fun for the weekends
I saw the Honda S-Wing in Chiswick today and fell in love with it…I think it’ll be perfect for my needs. I can’t seem to find a good review though, might put up a post asking for opinions.
Not a big problem not having the paper history if you are happy with the bike but comes the time to sell it on expect major mark down on the price offered.
That stated, you did the right thing. Always trust gut feelings and always get the recorded history.
To quote Mark Twain, “A verbal contract is not worth the paper it’s written on.” Same with service records.
not really a point to getting a new one if u don’t wont to keep it for 10years or will do 15k miles in a year. Even when u buy new there isn’t many thinks which will fail in the first two years, especially on a scooter which is very easy to mantain anyway.
