ElectricMotorcycleForum.com
Makes And Models => Zero Motorcycles Forum | 2012 and older => Topic started by: dkw12002 on June 03, 2012, 11:15:18 PM
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When you buy a Japanese motorcycle or almost any auto, an extended limited warranty is the first thing they offer. Why? Because they are huge money makers. Your Honda motorcycle, for example, is not likely to have a major system failure after even 4 years.
The 2 year Zero warranty is nice since the motorcycle standared is 1 year, but to really stand by their products, I think Zero should offer an additional 1,2, or 3 year optional warranty on the battery and BMS as a minimum. If the battery fails after two years, the bike is essentially totaled.
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I think they used to offer an extended warranty. It looks like it was recently pulled from their website though. Am I imagining things?
Edited to add that California requires 2 year warranty on the battery for the EV rebate program so that's probably why their standard warranty is 2 years. Not sure about other EV rebate states/countries.
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Yes. In fact it is still listed on their website at the bottom for the 2011 models. There's an Extended warranty of 1 year and a No Fault warranty of 2 years. However, when I contacted the company after buying my 2011, they e-mailed me there was no extended warranty available. I did buy a demo, so maybe that's the reason. Still, it makes you wonder about Zero's own concern about reliability going forward. I just bought a Fiat 500 for my daughter. 4 year, 50,000 mile warranty (and not much more expensive than a new Zero, LOL) with an additional 4 years extended warranty option. Now why can't Zero do that? I mean their battery is supposed to go over 300,000 miles, right?
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I bought a 7-year extended warranty for my 2005 Triumph Bonneville, which expired earlier this year. I paid $700 for the warranty and never used it. Frankly, after owning 42 motorcycles, I have never had a motorcycle that needed a warranty of more than two years. Knock on wood. ;)
The only exception were my two EMS GPR-S bikes and those 1-year warranties didn't seem to help much. :(
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When I bought my Zero I knew there was risk. Zero is not Honda, and any small start-up company might go out of business without warning. And it's cutting edge technology, lots of new untested stuff. I'm sure they're doing their best - but reality - the VIN on my bike is 000047 - not a prototype but not that far from one.
Someday when Zero starts doing production runs of 50000 of the SZF100 ;D (ooh I want one already!) then I'd expect them to be offering a 7 year extended warranty - but I wouldn't expect it (or trust it if it was offered) just yet.
I think this was a great year to buy. The 2012's are much better than the 2010/2011's; but still in time to be a trail-blaz'n cool early adopter! 8)
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On the plus side, the day the warranty runs out is usually the day I start tweaking and modding. Having to wait 5 or 7 years might kill me :)
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Valid points, Clic, Richard, ColoPaul. I plan to do my part to help Zero along and buy another one in a few months...either a 2012 or a 2013. Gee, I hope the company does well. I love my 2011 Zero S. I've put nearly 1900 miles on it since Jan 26, which is a lot for me. My vin no. is 000019. I guess it really is a small company.