back in april, I was in a rush to buy a bike. Had a week to get something with some power for 4 days in France.
Found a 1995 ZX9 for £1500 at a shop in Dartford, went to see it, went back to buy it a week later. 45k miles, braided hoses, wavy discs, carbon can etc. I was very happy with it.
It took me round France very happily and I had a great time on it. Plenty of power, comfortable and I loved it more every time I rode it.
Took it on a rideout and loved it.
took it to the OMC and had a nice man show me how tune and balance the carbs:
Took it to the Isle of Man for the TT, signed up to be a marshall etc. First day I was there, took it round the course once gently. did some sightseeing,
took it round again, got up on the mountain hitting about 80 and I hear this ticking noise. not good I thinks but when I close the throttle it went away so I didn’t think too much of it. then I hear a loud bang so I pull in the clutch, quickshift down to first and pull off to the side of the road, cut the engine, look in my mirror and I see this big cloud of white smoke from my oil hitting my exhaust. Methinks I’ve blown an oil seal or something based on where the oil has come from.
get towed back to my digs and my cousin found this nestled in my exhaust pipes:
sorry to hear that, you should fight the shop especially if you have it written on a receipt of something about the warranty, its not on to have that happen after 2 months… we’ll make sure we steer clear of that particular shop as we live in the area
See usually in this sort of thread I can give you advice that the item must be sold as satisfactory quality, and warranty don’t really matter, and there is an onus on people to sell decent stuff.
Unfortunately, there is case law that suggests that when you buy a second hand vehicle and something goes wrong, that is inherently down to the vehicle being old and was not something the seller was aware of or could have been aware of with a rudimentary check, and could have happened at any time, either now, or in 6 months or in 3 years, that these are risks you adopted by buying a second hand vehicle and that the seller is not liable for those sorts of issues.
This does not effect your rights under the warranty, but that is the only option you have.
I personally don’t see how he will have a leg to stand on to say it was sold without a warranty, because that is the ENTIRE attraction of buying a second hand vehicle from a dealer, rather than from an individual. Why would you pay more for a vehicle from a dealer, than say on ebay or gumtree or this very website, if it wasn’t to gain some peace of mind by the virtue of a, albeit short, warranty.
So far as I am aware, there is a rebuttable presumption that any serious fault that develops within six months was present at the time of purchase in the case of vehicles. 45k is not big miles for a ZX9R, and to have it throw a rod before the gearbox goes is unheard of for me. My suggestion would be to give the dealer another go, and if he still won’t look, go to trading standards. Also, how did you buy your bike? If on credit card, you may have a claim against the card provider as well.
There is case law existing that if the defect existed at the time of the sale then it will not be fit for purpose, however, there is also a Scottish case that decided the issue based on the idea that if there is a problem with a vehicle that pertains to the age of the vehicle that was unknown at the time of the sale that this is the risk you take when you buy second hand vehicles. This was a decision from 1997 involved a 6 year old car (the bike is 17 years old) with 80,000 on the clock, while we have less mileage here, it is an extra 11 years old.
Judgment given was:
Held:
(1) that in considering the car’s fitness for its purpose the failure of an experienced witness to detect any of the symptoms prior to the car’s purchase, and the car proving reasonably fit for its purpose during the initial period of use after its acquisition, provided a justifiable basis for the conclusion that the defect was not present when the car was sold (pp 105K-106A);
(2) that the defect could have emerged at any time given the age and mileage of the car, and in buying the car the pursuer had immediately assumed the risk of repair, durability not being a quality that a reasonable person would have demanded of it (p 106I-K);
appeal refused.
Now in this particular case the purchaser had passed on a warranty to get a lower price, and the vehicle showed the problem within just two weeks.
Which is why I say there is recent case law that suggests that taking on a second hand car can leave you vulnerable and unable to rely on s14
Dunno about the legal bollocks, but it’s rare for a ZX9 motor to let go - apart from the head gasket on the B models they’re usually pretty bulletproof
Yeah - high class tuners comment on this engines sutability for tuning based on the fact that the bottom end is a lot more robustly built than it’s rivals - so what happened to you is relatively unusual for this engine.
Sorry to hear about this mate, you must be gutted. I would also be interested to know which dealer it was, 2nd Bite (changed their name to ridemc) or 21st Moto always advertise their bikes on ebay so it might be worth doing a search for completed listings to see if there’s any mention of the warranty? Not sure how far back ebay completed listing go but you can always contact Ebay and ask for the ad, they must archive them somewhere.
Don’t think you can really blame the dealer 100% for what’s happened to your bike, maybe an agreement could be reached where they agree to fit a used engine that you buy without charging you.
mate that sucks, hope you can sort it