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[princec]

Best way to look at Zeros appears to be: you are buying a £10k bike of which £5k is the 2 year warranty. As soon as the warranty has run out they're a total lottery.

Cas

[Crissa]

Best way to look at Zeros appears to be: you are buying a £10k bike of which £5k is the 2 year warranty. As soon as the warranty has run out they're a total lottery.

Your numbers are 2x too large, but the same is true of any Battery-Electric-Vehicle.

You gotta be able to see if the BEV's battery condition is nominal.  If it is, it's probably just fine for pretty much ever at that point, as long as you don't kill it yourself.

Just like you gotta be able to see if a guitar's neck is straight and it plays.  There is no replacement for getting it into your hands.

I bought mine post battery warranty and it's fine.

-Crissa

[TheRan]

I'd say he's fairly close. A 7.2 Zero is around 10 grand, the 5 year warranty is only on the battery and that should last for as long as most people will want the bike and a replacement would probably be around £5-6k, leaving £4-5k for everything else which is only covered by the 2 year warranty. However, the parts that are more likely to actually fail and need replacement (motor, sevcon, mbb, charger) come to around £3k so that's probably the worst case scenario for what you'd have to pay (unless you need to replace parts multiple times, and not including labour).

[Crissa]

But isn't £ 2x $?  The S and X are $10K and the battery is half of it...

-Crissa

[TheRan]

Nah they're fairly close now, £1 is $1.29. All the 7.2 Zeros are £11.5k and then you get £1.5k back from the EV grant (or rather the dealer just knocks it down to £10k and they get the grant money).

[Crissa]

Oh.  Ow.

-Crissa

[TheRan]

Yep, for the price I paid for my ex-demo bike you yanks can buy a brand new one.

[Mr T]

Having some history on a multiple owner bike and charger that had been replaced would have been a plus, without that, I was not willing to move forward on the sale. On an ICE bike, it is a whole lot easier to know what your are getting up front. Of course, any one owner bike is easiest yet, but on the Zeros with multiple owners, I think some kind of paper trail of any work done should be expected. Yes, It could be perfect one day after a thorough check out out a dealer and break down the next - any bike is susceptible to that. But my budget was stretched as is was and I was not willing to roll the dice and hope for the best. The local dealer was willing to check it out for me at their hourly rate of $170, but was not willing to give me definite price. The next dealer is in Raleigh, about three hours away. Anyhow, I am going to look out for a FXS or wait for the next great deal to come along.

[Mr T]

I guess the other thing that stuck me as odd, was the prices on the used Zeros. Many of the bikes that are approaching that 5 year mark or beyond it, have prices of 60% or more of a new one. Some of the asking price of the used  FXS's , for example, are $6500 to $8,000, depending on the year, 2016s being the lowest, 2018s, the highest. I can get a new 2020 model for $9,600 and change, And then get the 10% tax write off. Why buy used at the before mentioned prices?

[NEW2elec]

Mr T, the other forum member Fifty3 contacted Zero HQ and got the history of his bike.  Of course just like with a gas bike the only history is from a dealer not anything someone does on their own or a back yard mechanic.

I understand if you wanted to pass on the S.  You will want to ride a FXS first though as that slim hard seat may be tough to live with.

I see you posted.

The small "x" bikes have an appeal to some people that the bigger bikes don't.  The lowest I've seen a 100% working FX go for was $6000.
While I'm typing I'll include that the 2013 FX and XU used a battery that connected from the opposite side that they do now so when the battery dies on those, the bike dies with it.

[Mr T]

 I figured that I could possible get the history from Zero HQ, but the seller was unwilling to give the VIN, serial number or anything else that could have helped me out. Hollywood Electrics did maintain the bike when it was in Cali, but I never was able to get anyone on the phone, even after several attempts during different times. Left messages, but I'm sure with everything going on, they just did not have the time to answer. But once I could not get any info from the seller, even as I was looking at a 6 hour drive one way,  I did a hard pass. No problem, bikes come up for sale all the time and I'm willing to wait for the right one. Thank you for all the responses, I really appreciate it.

[NEW2elec]

Yeah no VIN is a major red flag.  Good pass.

Good luck with them in the future we'd love to have you in the gang.

[Crissa]

The 2014 can't accept a Charge Tank, and has to see a dealer to update firmware.  So I would expect it to carry a lower price than a '15 or newer.  The price was not suspicious: I got mine for $6k cash a year ago, pristine, low miles.

-Crissa

[NEW2elec]

Your's has a 8.5 battery.  This bike has a 13.  That alone is worth $5k to anyone who can wire it up for other projects.
Rich rebuilds paid like 4k for Brian's old bike that was an insurance write off stolen bike.

There are none (S bikes) listed for less than 7k on Cycle Trader.  So yeah a little suspect but hey you find deals sometimes too.

[Mr T]

 I took a ride Saturday to check out another dealer about 40 miles from me that I just found about. They had a DS, SR, SR/S and a FX.  Nice people, let me sit on all of them except the SR/S, which was spoken for. Cripes, what hard seats! The one I tried some weeks ago must have been really broken in. The FX and DS were a bit too high for my taste with the SR  easily being the best fit, but the FX seems like it would the most fun, for me anyway. I'll keep looking....