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Buyer Beware

5K views 29 replies 15 participants last post by  megatwin 
#1 ·
Ok , in April 2013 I bought a 2012 left over wing. The dealer tells me it was used for some test rides. Had 300 miles on it. Sold to me as new. Flash forward to yesterday, had the brake recall done and asked about getting the 4 yr. extended warrantee. Finance guy tells me I cannot get the Honda warrantee because my original one ran out. He says the warrantee was started with Honda in September of 2012. Shoes me print out from Honda stating same dates. Well, I did not loose my cool but after a very polite butt ripping they gave me a screaming deal on a aftermarket warrantee ,same as Honda . So to anyone buying a "leftover" with miles on it ASK when your warrantee will start and end. If not for dumb luck this could have been a real train wreak. Like a trans going out and thinking I was covered until April 2016. You get the idea. It still ticks me off but I guess this ended OK. Lesson learned.
 
#3 ·
Sounds like it was a demo bike and the warranty starts when it's put into service, very common the dealer did nothing wrong but it would have been nice if the dealer would have informed the buyer of this issue.
Most of those aftermarket warranties are worthless anywhere except at the dealer that sold the warranty.
 
#4 · (Edited)
No, 1st owner listed is me 4/13 with warrantee start date 9/12 . Finance guy tried telling me the bike was sold as a demo, I argued that point. This was where I bought the bike. Then they offered me the aftermarket warrantee , Killer deal. So to avoid a long drawn out affair I took the deal. I figured everybody got to walk away and save face. The point of my original post was to inform others so someone else doesn't go through this. I have no problem with the aftermarket warrantee. Worked with these companies all the time on RV's. Just another form of insurance.
 
#5 ·
FYI THE TERM "DATE OF SERVICE " [/U]and is when the clock starts on factory warranty{ not when the bike is first titled} A Honda dealer knows this is when someone told Honda to start factory warranty.
 
#7 ·
Well, I stand corrected. I looked into warranties and demo vehicles (Consumer Reports) and yes the dealer can sell a demo as a new vehicle and yes the warranty clock started ticking when it became a demo. Because of this new info you'll never see me going anywhere near a demo vehicle. Lesson learned.
 
#9 ·
There is a reason why 'demo' vehicles are cheaper. As long as your willing to take the warranty service date in exchange for the price reduction then everyone can be happy.

Like you, I'd be miffed if not told what the service date was six months earlier than the sale date. (the service date and all the demo miles could also have been the week before, and no big deal).
 
#8 ·
If I recall correctly, any selling dealer must disclose if the vehicle is in "demo status" when the vehicle is sold to a retail buyer. The contract will show the warranty start date. A lot of m/c dealers put any number of vehicles into a "demo" status in an effort to up their allocation for more subject vehicles. Most dealers are up front with the 1st retail buyer and usually "throw in" the extended warranty when sold.
 
#11 · (Edited)
To me, good business includes full disclosure. The buyer should have been informed.

Now let talk about aftermarket warranties. Many have little to no valve for this reason. Many shops will not honor them in fear of non-payment. Getting payment includes dotting all the 'i's' and crossing all the 't's'. Because the chance of messing up is to great, it leaves the owner having to pay the bill and having to collect reimbursement later. Unfortunately, most owners don't know how to play the 'i' and 't' game either, and eventually the claim gets denied.

Regarding the transmission. The only experience I have with an aftermarket warrantee and a transmission claim has to do with a class action suite against Honda and their transmission problem. One of the plaintiffs listed in the suit bought a used 2008 GL1800 with low miles (10-12K if I recall). He too bought the aftermarket warrantee because the OP had not, and the 3 yr warrantee period was over. Less then a year later he returns to his selling dealer with a "common" transmission problem. Their service department was able to confirm the complaint and basically said ... "no !!! ... of coarse your insurance policy will NOT cover a known condition ... everyone knows that GL1800s have a known transmission problem, and aftermarket policies never cover known conditions."
 
#14 ·
Well, this has been bugging me since Saturday, I found my paperwork from when I bought the bike. Guess what, box checked "NEW" not DEMO or USED. miles on bike 5 . I also read service contract, it can be canceled with full refund within 60 days. Guess who is calling Honda tomorrow along with the dealer and the service contract company. Should be interesting. I will keep the group posted.
 
#15 · (Edited)
I posted a link to my page on this forum with the class action lawsuit. Then I realized that it had plaintiffs names and a couple of dealerships listed on it, so I pulled it, printed it, blacked out all the names, scanned it into a PDF, and tried to repost it. Unfortunately, then the file was to large. Tomorrow, I'll try again. It makes for a great read. But the class action complaint is 23 pages. I'll post what I can so you can read it for yourself.

Here ... it fit
http://gl1800riders.com/forums/129-justwings/260313-honda-s-class-action-transmission-law-suit.html
 
#17 ·
You got hosed, plain and simple. Demo bikes do not have plates or even a title. The warranty doesn't start until the vehicle is titled. Until then, it is dealer stock.

I would have raised the roof on any dealership that ever tried to pull a sleazy stunt like that on me.

Share the name of the dealer with us. People need to know.
 
#21 ·
I bought a new 2010 gl1800 on 10/22/10 with only 4 miles on the odometer when I started my test ride. I decided to upgrade to the 4 yr extension (7 yr total) warranty in 09/13 & was told I was already out of warranty & the extension couldn't be outright issued. I was told the bike had been registered with the honda warranty as a demo bike on 07/12/10. The dealer was able to do an inspection & still issue the extended warranty, but it is still from the demo date so I lost 3 months of warranty even though they had to prep the bike while I waited so it had never been used as a demo.
Now at just over 5 yrs in service I'm fighting with the warranty company over repairs because I actually use my bike & parts have some rust on them they claim that's exposure to the elements failure, but I say it is inferior quality of the part allowing what should be lifetime of the bike parts that have rusted & failed in only 5 yrs.
 
#22 ·
Well, here is what has happened so far. I called the dealer twice and left messages . Have not gotten a call back. (who would have thought!) I wanted to avoid the 11/2 hour drive to the dealership . So, I have e-mailed the warrantee company and Monday I will call Honda and see what happens. The saga continues.
 
#23 ·
Well here is the end of the saga. After calling Honda , They told me I had to take this up with the selling dealer. Several calls to the dealership and a lot of getting the run around I was told that Honda would not budge and sell me their warrantee because mine had expired. So I said OK how about a deal on a trade in on a new wing. I was offered 11k on a trade for my bike. 2012 with 16000 miles, audio, comfort, navi, xm. 25000 out the door for same 2015 wing. That ticked me off even more! Then I talked about fraud and talking to a lawyer. In the end they refunded me 50% of what I paid for the aftermarket warrantee. I figured that was the best I was going to do. I also found out here in AZ you have 12 months to file a consumer fraud case from the date of the transaction. I was way past that. In the end the 4 year warrantee, no deductable with roadside cost me 800$. So if you are planning on buying a bike from the dealership in Scottsdale AZ that sells Honda and all the other big brand motorcycles stay on your toes otherwise you may be writing a new version of this .
 
#27 · (Edited)
In the end they refunded me 50% of what I paid for the aftermarket warrantee. ... In the end the 4 year warrantee, no deductable with roadside cost me 800$.
If I am reading between the lines correctly, your 4-year extended warrantee initially cost you $1600, and they gave back $800 ???

That's the other thing about aftermarket extended warrantees ... the dealer and the selling agent often make hoards of commision for selling them. To me, it sounds like the dealer refunded the majority of the commissions made for selling you the extended warranty.
 
#24 · (Edited)
This topic has been a real doosy, which after 15 years, doesn't happen very often.

You have exposed a mostly unknown, hidden quirk in the system that would be extremely difficult to determine what is behind the problem without going to court, which would probably not be the most preferred choice.

In one way, it just confirms something that many have been stating for years. Honda will not interfere with dealers on the customer's behalf. They will always support, or defer to the dealer. That is a terrible way of doing business, and I can't help but wonder if that might be why Honda continues to lose US market share despite building great bikes.

On the other hand, it raises some questions. Who pays for repairs to demo bikes, and what is the mechanism for submitting claims if the manufacturer pays for it? If the dealer is responsible, then did the dealer do something dishonest in starting the clock on the warranty? If they started the warranty, who was listed as the owner if there was no title.

Is it a breach of contract to sell a customer something advertised as new, and titled as new, and not give him the full 3 year warranty that is spelled out in the contract. I would say yes, but based on the dead ends encountered here, it would probably take legal action to force the issue.

There isn't much else you can do, except for possibly being a pain in Honda's backside by giving them some bad press. I would still contact your state attorney general's office, and possibly contact a TV station. They generally love investigating these issues when a big company plays bully.

IMO, I think what happened here is that the dealer either made a mistake when the bike was purchased in selling it as new instead of a demo, or they were intentionally hiding that fact to avoid discounting the bike. I remember seeing car ads over the years where demos are sold and they have the "balance of the manufacturer's warranty". But some car companies do fully back demos with full warranties.

The title to this thread was fitting. Thanks for the heads up.
 
#25 ·
Ain't no way he could win, he bought a USED bike with 300 miles on it ! Sorry he did not realize the warranty already started before he bought it but that's the way it works. He seems to feel the dealer somehow tried to screw him by not pointing out the warranty had already started, to me it seems like most folks would know whithout having it pointed out that the warranty starts when the bike is first put into service not 300 miles or months or years later.
 
#28 ·
Some are reasonable, but yeah, that's a lot. Keep in mind however that it won't have the exclusions Honda has. For example, the audio will be covered with an aftermarket warranty, while it isn't with the Honda contract.

I never quite understood why Honda excluded audio from their coverage.
 
#29 ·
While Larry M brought up some good points, the main issue is that I was never informed that the clock had been running on the warrantee. A look on the BBB web site showed that this dealer had pulled something like this in the past. Found that out to late. Anyway the key here is disclosure. Like I told the guys at the dealership, thank god we were not having this conversation in their service dept. Then the $hit would hit the fan and it would be blowing their way. I felt this was as good as it was going to get so I dropped it at the 800$ and we all go home. This is what happens when you trust and assume. I can tell you this , it will not happen again.
 
#30 ·
At the Suzuki dealership I worked at,the sales rep would encourage the owner to register some of the units that had been on the floor for an extended period.
That way he could get the sales incentive kick back at the end of the year.
Once he realized that the warranty started when the unit was registered as sold to suzuki,had nothing to do with the DMV registration,the unit was flagged as in service,he stopped doing that,and gave extended warrantees to the customers that had bought said units,and the sales rep was fired by Suzuki,for padding his district numbers.
Unethical,but probably still happening,as some dealers have a lot of non-current models sitting on the floor that they are paying interest on.
As said,buyer beware,and ask questions!!
 
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