I'm looking at purchasing a new motorcycle and I've been hearing a lot of dealerships are now offering extended warranties through companies outside of the factory. My only experience, all good, with extended warranties has been through factory warranties. What are the pro's and con's of the third party over the factory? For those that have purchased third party warranties, would you do it again over the factory option? I'm finding that the third party warranties usually go above and beyond the factory warranties, cost more money, and have some sort of deductible per visit. Both warranties options are unlimited mileage and transferable, which are a requirement for me and my high mileage. Open to all thoughts on this? Please and thanks in advance.
I have never dealt with a warranty company for motorcycles, but I deal with third party warranties all the time in the automotive industry. It is really a case by case basis some companies are very good some are very bad, just remember these companies often send out inspectors whose sole purpose is to find a reason to deny your claim. If you do get a warranty make sure you always do your scheduled maintence and keep very good records because nothing voids a warranty quicker than a late oil change.
Compare the cost of the warranty to the likely repair cost. If it looks like the warranty is a good deal, buy a different bike! LOL Carl
Usually all warranties are a waste of money. They only cover the parts that will not go out and do not cover progressive damage such as the oil pump goes out, ruining the crank, cylinders, head,cams, and Transmission. What you get is a new oil pump and no labor to install it, but they sure took all your money. If anything goes out on your bike, you can fix it with parts from Ebay for the same cost as the warranty. Besides, if it didn't brake in the first 20,000 miles, it probably isn't going to. The warranty is also void if the part was damaged, such as the bike tipped over, and there is always proof when that happens no matter how gentle.
Extended warranties whether from the factory or a third party are both rip-offs. They are just an easy profit stream for the company.
(imho) most of the time, if you add up the cost of the warranty, the intrest you pay on that cost... you could have paid for the repair many times over. and that's not even including how often they find an excuse to deny the claim.
I completely disagree. Warranties are free money to the companies if they arent used. I ride my motorcycles and have no problem racking up the mileage. The warranties have paid for themselves after 2 visits. Service shops charge $90 to $120 an hour, depending on where you go, and spending $500 for 4 more years of unlimited mileage warranty is well worth it. Most motorcycles today are rock solid, not much can go wrong with them. But once you start getting past the 20k mark on the odometer, there seems to always be issues with something electronic on the bike. On my ZX-12R, at 22k miles, the ECU went out and that would have cost me $1200 and it takes 5 minutes of labor to replace. The nice thing about factory warranties is that there are no deductibles but they are limited to manufacturer defects. And it gives peace of mind to the next owner after you because they are getting a warranty backing the bike you sell them, should anything go wrong. I'm a believer in extended warranties if you plan on riding your motorcycle. If you put 1200 miles a year on it, I probably wouldnt get one. If you realistically think you are going to put more than 20k miles on within 5 years, then I'd say get one.
when I got my bike new, I also purchased the extended warranty from the company I got it from, and I didnt get the extended from yamaha. if given the chance again I would pay the 1500 to get it again. basics of the warantee (3yr warantee): -1 free set of tires per year (limited to what they have in stock but they have dunlop, pirelli, bridgestone, etc. I'm trying different tires atm to see which I like best) - free oil changes / filter / chain lube - free scheduled maintnance (based on mileage stated in service manual) - free installation of yamaha approved upgrades (exhaust, frame sliders, etc as long as purchased through company) and a few other things I'd have to look at the contract for. 1500 for 3yrs... yea I think it's worth it, especially since I can go get an oil change whenever I feel like it regardless of miles.
Sheeeet Eugene my 54 Panhead will be cruzin 50 years after your Katana is recycled into a swingset.:nana:nana LOL Carl
One look at the commission received by the salespersons for an extended warranty, and you'll quickly understand that warranties are a complete hoax. Besides.... beans, you can find an ecu for around 200-300 on the interwebz. And you said it yourself, it's a 5 minute job. My bike came with a 1 year unlimited mileage warranty, and I have yet to see a zx14 blow up after 1 year. If they are going to let go, it's going to be in the first 1k miles (or very soon after). Sure there are a couple cases that you can find where the warranty saved the person, but you should just do what I do. CROSS YOUR FINGERS AND TWIST THE TROTTLE!!!! :thefinge:
I have never dealt with an extended warranty on a motorcycle but have with a car. In 01 I bought a 98 Z-28 Camaro from a Chevy dealer, the previous owner traded it in on a Vette, the car had 20,000 miles on it and the factory warranty was about to expire. I made an offer on the car, 75% of their asking price and after some of the usual car dealer BS they accepted the offer. While we were signing the closing paperwork, like always I got the extended warranty pitch, I never buy these things but there was allot of real expensive looking stuff under the hood and 98 was the first year they used the LS-1 engine. I haven’t heard anything bad about that motor but it was still a fairly new engine just the same. I bought the warranty, actually a third party "service contract" for 60% of their initial price. To make a long story short it paid for itself more than twice over, in 2 incidents. The first time the "Pass Key" system failed while we were out of town. The warranty company had the car towed to the nearest Chevy dealer and paid for the repair that day, impressive service. The second time the AC compressor went out. If you ever looked under the hood of one of those Camaros you know it is not easy to work on one. I couldn't even see the AC Compressor! It was replaced and paid for again almost immediately. I guess the quality of these contracts vary with the providing company. I will say the factory ones would be the best. My FJR which I bought used has the YES extend warranty service contract in effect until 2011 the bike is a 06 and the original owner purchased that contract. I have never had to use it but it has an impressive list of services if the bike becomes disabled including towing and lodging. That YES extended warranty was a factor in my decision to buy that bike, along with a really great price.
I respectfully disagree, in our instance: In the course of ownership of an 07 R1 bought with 1 mile, this is what we've dealt with through warranty: Broken rearset - Replaced: swingarm, (as it was slighly gouged) brakeside rearset, and little misc parts. Oddly enough, it broke for no reason while on the freeway. Yes, Yamaha attempted to deny this claim, but there was no evidence that the bike does 12 oclock wheelies....as it never has, they had no leg to stand on to rightfully deny the claim. Valve Cover: Took replacing the seal three times before the shop realized that the valve cover itself was warped on the 4th time back to the shop. This issue alone probably paid for the two year extended warranty per what we paid for it. This warranty is through the shop. There is no deductable and no problems with claims, then again, it's the shop we purchased our bikes from, frequent for service; so they are well aware of how the bikes are treated. I feel that route was easier than if we were to purchase Yamaha's extended warranty. This problem didn't really surface until the 1 year factory warranty was almost up. Two seal replacements and the new valve cover was under extended warranty. For the most part, you are probably right. on my 08 R6s, I've only dealt with having the throttle replaced as the internals were not correct, causing the throttle to "stick". Other than that, I have had no trouble of any kind and that was within the first couple months of owning it. Someone was smoking something at the factory that day.
On your 07 R1, were these issues in the first year? How does a damaged part equal warranty? I could see them putting it under what is known as Policy, but not warantee.
the broken rearset was in the first year. The valve sealing issue, we were able to get them to replace the seal the first time within the last few days of the first year. :roll: How that issue paid for itself: consider how much labor cost an hour, include parts that aren't supposed to fail (seals, actual valve cover) or at least that early. We paid just a little over $500 for two years. On the paperwork they had down 2.4 hours of labor and this last time around, parts equaled: $238.00. Say their shop rate is $90 an hour, that's $216. Total: $454, for just this last fix. Previously, the gasket itself is roughly $25, but you still have your shop labor of roughly a couple of hours, and it had been "fixed" by replacing the gasket three times previously. (Once under 1 year, twice previously under the extended). That could easily be almost $200 for each previous fix, where it's already been in to replace under the extended warranty twice, there's $400 there. Total repair cost to date on the extended two year: roughly $850, we paid a little over $500...we've come out on top. No, no policy, each fix was marked as a warranty repair on the paperwork. We even brought that topic up...since there is a warranty on it, they'll just keep fixing it as needed under the warranty. You'd think it would be because it wasn't correctly diagnosed and fixed the first time. I don't care how they code it as long as if something needs to be fixed, we still don't have to pay any additonal past that $500 something paid up front.
