| Author | Message | ||
     Luisemilio25r |
Hello to everyone. For all of you that work at Harley/Buell dealers, I have a question: Is it possible to extend the warranty on your bike before the factory warranty expires? And if possible, could you more or less tell me how much would it cost? I'm kind of worried because my factory warranty expires on feb 2010. Thanks. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Luis - Extended warranties are from a 3rd party, not BMC or HD. If you have a good relationship with your dealer, set aside a fund for repairs instead of buying an "extended warranty". Then if you don't use it YOU can spend it. Or get the manuals and start working on it yourself. Just a thought, Zack | ||
| Jamesjpalmer84 |
Harley-Davidson and Buell work the CNA to administer their extended service plan. I would recommend enrolling in this plan for many reasons. They will support you when you are home and on the road. They reimburse you for a rental and food/lodging. Setting aside money at your own dealership isn't going to help when you are half way to Sturgis, and your bike breaks down. | ||
| Big_fitz |
I have extended warrenty and can never get a rental bike when mine is broke down and I have a ride planed. I just have to cancel . | ||
| Court |
The Extended Service Plans (In the PAST . . . I haven't dealt with them since I was at Buell in the late 90's) absolutely sucked. First off . . be mindful that Harley-Davidson and Buell have NOTHING (Absolutely NOTHING) to do with them. So when they refuse to cover something, you have no recourse with anyone but the extended warranty company. Secondly . . they USED to be very expensive . . . and there was a HUGE mark up in them. A dealer could cut the price in half and still be making good money from the deal. I (absent any compelling evidence of any changes) would be inclined to take the $1,200 (or whatever it costs . . and set it aside. The Extended Service Plan will, again I'm willing to listen, likely be worthless if you are on the road. Your dealings with them will be a month of phone calls and paperwork to "prove it" when you get home. A good AAA or AMA with Road Service will do just as well. We used to try, at Buell, to get a list of what these folks covered and didn't cover and they would never, citing confidentiality, release a list to us. | ||
| Court |
By the way . . . a lot of what has been posted here is folks' (mine included) personal opinions and experiences. The GOOD NEWS is that any Extended Warranty is a CONTRACT and EVERYTHING that is covered and not covered is IN WRITING in that contract. Read it. Read it. Read it. If it is NOT MENTIONED . . it is not covered. Read it. | ||
| Amrra12 |
Wow such hate foe ESC's I would say get it! well worth the $7 $8 hundred when your bike is in the shop for 4 or 5 days at 400 per day!... because the guys telling you "NOT" to get it won't be offing to pay your bill I'm willing to bet! just a side note my last truck { i know not a bike} was a 2005 Dodge 1500 i got new, I paid $2800 for the service plan I sold the truck in at 89,000 miles and my service plan paid $6200 fixing my truck in 5 years! | ||
| Cmmfiremedic |
My opinion its kind of a gamble. I bought it for my 03 firebolt due to my daddy having so many problems with his 99 Thunderbolt. It cost me 2200 bucks and never used it. I still to this day having had a problem with the firebolt. So I didnt buy it for my 1125 and I may regreat it but I didnt want to spend the money up front and I try to do any work I can myself. | ||
| Carbonbigfoot |
How much does a motor in a crate for an 1125 cost? $7200? Something like that? O.k. Here's the whole issue in a capsule. If you can afford to write the check to fix it, then warranties do not make sense. If you CANNOT afford to soak up a $1000 bump, then you are rolling the dice with the chance to be making payments on a bike you can't ride, or have a huge depreciation loss on a damaged machine. The question is one of a predictable expense that you can budget for, vs the opportunity for an unexpected expense that hands your ass to you at the worst possible time. It is the very nature of insurance. And yes, I do sell them. Please don't hold that against me.  R | ||
| Jamesjpalmer84 |
I don't understand how an employee of BUELL can make these comments about the HARLEY-DAVIDSON EXTENDED SERVICE PLAN. I'm not talking about the 3rd party programs some dealers get in with. The dealer works to get the claim processed NOT THE CUSTOMER. There is an immediate gratification for the customer. As for the coverage on the road; $75/DAY $750/TOTAL for a rental vehicle $150/Day $450/TOTAL for meals and lodging $200 for towing | ||
| Teach |
Luisemilio25r PM sent. | ||
| Amrra12 |
Maybe I just don't know My 1125R is a sponsored race bike and I'm not eligible for a service contract on it i.e race bike... but I got a 5 year service contract on my 2008 ZX10R street bike for $600 and it's a "Kawasaki Warranty" "cmmfiremedic" said he paid $2200 WTF thats what they cost on a car/ truck! not a bike! are the HD warranties that expensive?????? or was that dealer over charging? and I understand there needs to be profit in them for the dealers but 2200 i'm assuming if they did a 100% mark up {and thats fair} they would sell them for $1000 for a 5 year! (Message edited by AMRRA#12 on September 12, 2009) | ||
| Court |
Yikes . . ya gotta love the internet for skewing information. First off . . . I AM NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF BUELL OR HARLEY-DAVIDSON. I think that's been made terribly clear. When I WAS an employee of Buell the folks who CONTRACTED to provide what was known as the "Harley-Davidson Extended Service Plan" were a royal pain in the ass to deal with. We did not deal with them at Buell we dealt with the customer who called to complain about them. This is what I am seeing Harley-Davidson offer now . .  It may be much better now . . . I do not know. But . . . if I were going to buy it I'd ask for a copy of the contract to read and review for 3 days before I purchased it. I mean that's just common sense. My skepticism is based on OLD information . . . I could be entirely wrong. I also think it is still true that the ESP is the highest make-up product the dealer sells. If they are asking $1,200 for 4 years I'd offer $700 and I'll bet they'd jump on it. I'd suggest if folks are looking into it that the research and decide for themselves. I've heard (one fellow wrote me from Canada today saying the ESP had picked up a $4,500 repair to his crank) good stories and bad. You ride, you decide. Court | ||
| Luisemilio25r |
What I'm concerned with is that my engine is making a weird ticking noise. If my engine breaks and my warranty is expired, I'm looking at a $7000.00dlls repair (at least). | ||
| Carbonbigfoot |
If you can't afford to write a check for it, buy the ESP. Court, you are absolutely right about 3rd party warranties. Virtually every time, they suck. From everything I could find in a brief search, it looks like Harley/Buell are toting the warranties themselves. Zac, I just saw in your post (#2) that they are 3rd party. You'r sure about that? I despise 3rd party ESP's. If you buy a warranty, buy it from the manufacturer, no matter what brand. R (Message edited by carbonbigfoot on September 12, 2009) | ||
| Jelomadnes |
I have the service plan, that Court is showing up above. Again, that IS NOT a warranty. It is all the recommended services that are required to be preformed in order to maintain your factory "warranty". It only covers the first 10k of miles as well. So that first major tune up you need at 12k ISN'T covered. It's kind of debatable if it is worth the $1k that they sell it for, I got mine for $600. One other thing that I thought odd about this plan. It's designed for HD's, not Buell's. So ya get not only the oil changes that are specified by Buell, you also get a couple extra at the 3k mile marks as well. | ||
| Marcodesade |
Some personal experience here, from a guy who never thinks twice about extended warranties on electronics and other items. I did get one (TWO, actually: prepaid maintenance and a three-year extension on the warranty) for my 08 1125R. Every time I think about this out-of-character expenditure, I take a moment to congratulate myself on my great judgment. My bike went into the shop 4 times for clutch weep. Twice for brake service. Once for cluster replacement. Twice for scheduled maintenance. Once for tire change. A couple more I can't remember off the top of my head. Most of those were about a week at a shot. I have never walked out of the shop without a motorcycle under me. The rental rate is usually $90 per day with service ($150 without). You do the math. To be fair, I am sure I would NOT have paid that amount to ride a loaner, but I am equally sure I would not have been riding. My warranty also covers road hazard and, though I have not abused it in this manner, I was advised by the service tech to "find a nail" to get free tires (labor included) as needed. I would do it again in a hot minute. | ||
| Luisemilio25r |
Hey Mark, what is the name of the warranty company you use? Sounds like a good one, thanks. | ||
| Marcodesade |
Hmmm. To be honest, I don't know! I bought them (extended warranty and prepaid maintenance) through my dealer, Skip Fordyce HD in Riverside CA (yes, they are a sponsor here). One thing I do know is that my prepaid service plan covers the first 6 scheduled maintenance procedures --- so it does cover that bear coming up at 12k. I do remember them saying something about it not traveling well to other dealers, but I don't remember the details. I'll look around and see where I put the paperwork. I'm sure I can dig up the name of the vendor and any other related information. | ||
| Clbofaz |
My 2 cents from experience: I purchased the 2 additional year extended warranty for $1K. Normally, I would never do this as warranty extensions are nearly pure profit for the vendor (on the margin). Anything that is that much profit for a vendor is a gouge for the customer IMHO. Economically, they bank on the high number of warranty sales to more than adequately cover the few claims that are paid out. My rationale was that this bike is a new model and new models tend to have more issues than a model which has just been tweaked year after year. Plus, I read up on the R before buying and wanted to insulate against potential problems that extended beyond the 2 year mark. Had it been some model that's proven reliable for years on end, I would've turned it down. Regarding the extended warranty; I've had 3 claims against them, all of which were more than pleasant. Just be sure to read, re-read AND understand all the legalese/verbiage of the warranty. They've reimbursed me for weeks of rental car expenditures, so much so that Ive recouped the cost of the program with just a rental, and I still have 3 years and 9 months left. I recall that they cover everything Jamesjpalmer84 specified. There is also the tire program that can be very useful if you can use it in the manner that Marcodesade laid out. Most importantly, remember to ask the dealer if its covered, have them give you the authorization number that comes from the ESP, and then call ESP to report it all before leaving the shop. If any changes occur, call them back to get additional authorizations. I followed these rules and was reimbursed within days of submitting a claim. Hope this helps, ~C | ||
| Bigdaddy |
I've always been in the anti-extended warranty crowd and I'd be hesitant to put down $1200 for one of my bikes now. However, I ended up getting one on my WRX from General Electric (the buy-in was only $500.00 for some reason) and it has replaced the A/C compressor, transmission x 2 and the IC. I'm loving it and never a question either...I either drop it off at the Subaru dealer, or have it towed in, they call me for pick-up. |
