Kermit's sick - post sales trader experiences?

Motorcycling
1

2 serious faults in 4 days (damaged key barrel and what appears to be a crack in the exhaust header pipe, or something similar (tbc tonight).

Only bought the bike 8 weeks ago, (a 2010 ER-6F). According to CAB’s Advice Guide on buying a used vehicle both of these faults would be considered as reasonable for the dealer to put right:

Cut and Pasted from the CAB website (am assuming it’s the same for bikes!)

"You discover the fault within six months You discover the fault within six months of you buying the car, it is presumed that the fault was present when you bought it.

If the dealer disputes this, it is up to them to prove the fault was not present. A pre-sale ‘tick box’ check of the car’s mechanical condition when it was sold is not sufficient. Neither is a paper you have signed which says something like “examined and found satisfactory in all respects.” They need to provide reasonable evidence, such as an independent report into the car’s condition."

So it would appear all should be fine, but you do hear stories about some (not all!) dealers, especially small independent ones trying to wriggle out putting things right on faulty goods. From what I have read, I seem to be covered and at this moment in time they are being friendly. Hopefully, all will be fine, they will act honourably and I will be happy and will write lovely things about them in the future. So I appreciate that this is pre-emptive, but a few things worry me - they don’t have a workshop, so will have to pay out to get it fixed,so I’m a bit concerned that the following scenarios might happen They receive the bike and try to wriggle out of doing anything, I can quote Citizen’s Advice and Trading Standards, but I can’t force them to fix it without being prepared to exert time and money to do so. They may decide that I won’t bother pursuing them for something that should cost no more than about £500 to put right. They will do a bodge/patching up job (rather than replacing the faulty bits) on the exhaust which then fails whilst I am on holiday (doing a big tour in 6 weeks). If 2 significant things have gone wrong within 8 weeks (I also had to replace my rear indicators in the first week as one of them was completely corroded) then could this be a sign that I have bought a dud, that may have a slightly more colourful history than has been admitted. The exhaust crack is apparently a fairly common problem around c. 10,000 miles, but that usually falls within the warranty period and so Kawasaki just replaced the whole unit. Advice out of warranty seems to advise welding to reduce the costs. So a few questions:

Any experience of having dealers trying to wriggle out of their responsibilities. If so what did you do?

Once the RAC confirm the issue, how do I ensure that the dealer completes the job that the RAC advise, rather than a patching up job?

Will they use the fact that I have put 4,500 miles on it in the 8 weeks against me? It had 5,900 on it when I bought it. If they do, is it relevant?

Will the repair itself be subject to a warranty/ guarantee period - if so how long? If they have to guarantee it, that would be me feel more comfy that they will do a half-decent job?

Should I sell him on as soon as possible after it’s all sorted?

2

Thats quite a lot of bother for quite a new bike, shame . Be interesting to see what the dealer says

3

It must of been all that red lining you did in Wales :wink: seriously though hope you get it sorted.

4

He has been doing an awful lot of very high revs- he tends to live between 6,000 and 10,000. He seems happiest there :slight_smile:

Don’t think that has caused it though - according to Rixxy’s mate Rob, it’s a pretty common fault.

Oh Russ - now you’re making me feel guilty for hurting my poor little green prince!

5

Redlining should be fine its got a limiter …anyways If you cant wring a bikes neck , batter it off the limiter in every gear and show it no mercy … whats the point in having one .

6

I wouldn’t mention Cadwell Park to them it may void your warranty. :smiley:

7

Sorry to hear about Kermit being unwell Ally, I’m sure Kaos will be along shortly and give you some advice :slight_smile:

8

You are hereby relieved of p**s-taking duties now Mark :wink:

9

Thanks Marta, I’d be interested to hear his thoughts, sure that he has come across this sort of thing a lot.

10

By the sounds of the state the bike is in, just chuck it down the track Ally (it comes to us all) :laugh:

11

He was only offering a serious and helpful comment. :wink:

12

I was going to say don’t mention Wales, all those sheep and dodgy roads, besides its out of the country lol

13

So the story is just my short commute to work and motorway miles at 5,000 revs or less to visit my sick mother, who doesn’t live in Wales, nor near any race tracks - gotcha! :stuck_out_tongue:

14

That’s the story! :wink:

15

So, the doctor has been to visit the sick patient. Exhaust is definitely broken at the joint from the down pipe to the silencer box

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The bag of spanners sound was the 2 ends hitting each other and the agricultural noise (sounds like a louder version of my GS) was the fact that it’s no longer attached to the silencer. Makes sense. He’s done a quick repair, but it will need a new exhaust. Sure the dealer will be delighted!

16

The bottom line is you might need to go to court to establish your claim if they don’t play ball. Make sure you get an agreement on what they will fix and how. Don’t rely on RAC as experts. They can be very knowledge, but are not expert mechanics or engineers. The bottom line on second hand goods is what would you expect given the price and description of the vehicle. The court will take a reasoned view. So if the bike was cheap and had clearly had a hard life the court would expect less of the dealer than if it was sold at a good price and described as very good condition. Even if you get it fixed you won’t necessarily be entitled to new for old. For example, as a second hand bike a replacement second hand exhaust or repair might be considered all you are entitled to.

17

I know just how you feel with my current camshaft experience.

The answer may be in your question, to wriggle out all the dealer would need to show would beThe handover mileage of 5,900 milesThe mileage at the time the fault was brought to their attention 10,400 milesSome evidence that it’s a common fault occurring at around 10,000 miles
Hope it turns out a little better than that for you.

18

how could you be sure it didn’t break within the time you had the bike rather than being sold to you in those conditions.

Sure you would have spotted a broken pipe at the point of sale…

19

The point here is that within 6 months of sale the onus is on the dealer to prove it wasn’t like that when sold. Ally doesn’t have to prove anything. After 6 months its up to Ally to prove she didn’t do it.

20

With the dealer warranty on my car it specifically said what was not covered. Mostly wear items. They fixed some body work and replaced a wheel bearing when I brought it back for a service. The wheel bearing fault they found during their own inspection. Have a read over your warranty and see if that helps.