Motorcycles

[Bob Zumbrunnen]

Just got off the phone from the last conversation I'll be having with American Honda.

I'm SOL.

I even played the big websites card. No dice. They won't even make the payments while my bike is down for months due to a manufacturing defect. And buying it back from me at a fair price is "out of the question".

The gentleman at American Honda, Randy (866-784-1870, extension 5808, FWIW) told me that it's in the Honda warranty that the owner is pretty much on his own in the event of warranty work. No compensation, replacement, or anything like that. Honda assumes no liability for the downtime.

I told him that an even bigger issue for me is that they've sold me a piece of junk. Too bad. It's *my* piece of junk now.

I know that it used to be a fun part of Harley gatherings to bring in some old beater Japanese bikes (especially Hondas) and go at them with sledgehammers for a few bucks a whack.

I wonder how much a whack I could get for swings at a pretty Gold Wing and how many takers there'd be. Maybe enough to pay it off?

I wonder how thrilled Honda would be to see an internet movie hosted here that opens with the text "Honda sold me a POS bike and here's what should happen to POS bikes." or wording to that effect before the footage shows huge burly bikers and clean-cut "citizens" alike just wailing on that Wing.

Yeah, I'm probably over-reacting, but I'm a spiteful SOB and I'm royally pissed. I've always sworn by Honda motorcycles, used to work on them at the very dealership I bought this one from and who currently has it (I've bought a total of 3 new motorcycle and 1 ATV from them over the past 4 years), and even cast a "No" vote on the class-action against them for the Wing cooling system problems. And countless Hondas have been bought on my recommendation. Heck, Matt's riding a Wing because he loved mine so much. And my best friend and his wife bought new Hondas a month ago.

I've owned MANY new vehicles, and have never had one that was such a POS out the door with recalls (3) and parts falling off (also 3).

I'm sure any other manufacturer would probably leave me in the same condition if their machine were acting the same. Well, okay, maybe just the motorcycle manufacturers. Anytime warranty work has been done on a car or truck I've owned, the dealership gave me an equivalent loaner. It's a kind of "I'm loyal to them so they're loyal to me." thing.

The thing is, though, that at least in my experience, no other manufacturer would've sold me a unit with so many defects and such a tendency to drop parts onto the highway.

I've even been watching the development of hybrid vehicles closely, as I very seriously want one, being the tree-hugger that I am, and the Honda offering has been looking tempting.

Fuhgedaboudit.

As all of you are my witnesses, I will never buy another Honda *anything*. Car, motorcycle, ATV, outboard motor, mower, nada. Not even any machinery that's Honda-powered, which is really too bad, as I do have to admit that Honda seriously left Briggs and Tecumseh in the dust on their utility engines. Okay, maybe I'll relent on the utility engines. The Briggs ones are that bad. But since I have a Honda-powered water pump and a number of generators, hopefully I won't be in the market for new ones soon. If it looks like I'm cutting Briggs more slack than I am Honda, well, I didn't shell out $18k for a Briggs flagship motorcycle, now did I.

But when this Wing gets back from the shop in another month or two, it's outta here, one way or another.

Edit: If the bike didn't have a bunch of intrinsic value as a trade-in or if I could find a way to monetize this idea, what would really be fun and make for a great video clip would be me destroying it with my backhoe. It'd be fun to finally give in to that voice that's always in the back of my head when I'm near a car, saying "Man, this machine could make that car totally unrecognizable in minutes!".

They probably shouldn't let spiteful SOB's own construction/destruction equipment.