Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Richard230]

Based on my own personal experience with the "new BMW", if they were the last motor vehicle manufacturer on Earth, I'd buy a HORSE.

If it was a BMW horse it would come with a 50-page owners manual filled with safety tips and lawyer warnings. The horse would also have several different exhaust modes that were factory-installed and added $3K to the price of the horse but didn't actually do anything noticeable other than pass gas.   

[JaimeC]

Based on my own personal experience with the "new BMW", if they were the last motor vehicle manufacturer on Earth, I'd buy a HORSE.

If it was a BMW horse it would come with a 50-page owners manual filled with safety tips and lawyer warnings. The horse would also have several different exhaust modes that were factory-installed and added $3K to the price of the horse but didn't actually do anything noticeable other than pass gas.   

You could also only give it BMW-Factory authorized food and keep it in an official, BMW-authorized stable.  Any variation of these terms would result in a veterinarian being dispatched to euthanize your animal.

[Richard230]

Based on my own personal experience with the "new BMW", if they were the last motor vehicle manufacturer on Earth, I'd buy a HORSE.

If it was a BMW horse it would come with a 50-page owners manual filled with safety tips and lawyer warnings. The horse would also have several different exhaust modes that were factory-installed and added $3K to the price of the horse but didn't actually do anything noticeable other than pass gas.   

You could also only give it BMW-Factory authorized food and keep it in an official, BMW-authorized stable.  Any variation of these terms would result in a veterinarian being dispatched to euthanize your animal.

Very true and that BMW authorized hay could only be obtained from a franchised dealer with a factory-trained and certified veterinarian. And that fodder wouldn't come cheap.

[wavelet]

Based on my own personal experience with the "new BMW", if they were the last motor vehicle manufacturer on Earth, I'd buy a HORSE.

Ditto. The airhead boxers ('82 R65LS and '77 R100RS,  combined total of ~110K mi) they had various issues, but as long as you stuck rigorously to the maintenance schedule (5000 mi), were reliable.
Sometime after they introduced the K-bikes and very reliable F650GS (the Rotax single -- the most impressive BMW I've ever ridden), they started making far too many bike- and engine types for the size of the company, and quality, both of design and manufacturing, took a nosedive.

[wavelet]

My 2020 SR/F has been in the dealer's service department for over 5 weeks now.  Zero has been slow to respond to each contact from the dealer (often a week to simply get a response), to the point where the dealer's service manager has been actively encouraging me to contact Zero directly myself.  I finally got downright aggressive with them yesterday.  As a result, the issue was escalated to Zero's director level, and now the correct part has been shipped overnight (they sent the wrong part the first time).  In theory, I might get my bike back next week, a month and a half after I brought it in for a simple "the bike won't charge" issue.

I'm technologically proficient, but I can't get a manufacturer service manual for the bike.  Zero is unresponsive to their own dealers, let alone the owners who purchase these premium bikes.  As a result, it is *IMPOSSIBLE* to repair this bike in any efficient manner.

I've been riding for nearly 50 years, and have never, ever experienced anything like this.

I sure enjoy riding this bike, but Zero is horrible.  As soon as Yamaha sells electric motorcycles, I'm gone!

 - Fred

The basic issue is that all BEV motorcycle makers are still small startups.
Startups are in general a very bad fit for volume automotive manufacturing, in terms of the amount of design, prototyping, parts qualification,  supply chain management and testing they can do.
Zero is the largest manufacturer, and they still only make mid-or-low-4-digits bikes a year.

[JaimeC]

Based on my own personal experience with the "new BMW", if they were the last motor vehicle manufacturer on Earth, I'd buy a HORSE.

Ditto. The airhead boxers ('82 R65LS and '77 R100RS,  combined total of ~110K mi) they had various issues, but as long as you stuck rigorously to the maintenance schedule (5000 mi), were reliable.
Sometime after they introduced the K-bikes and very reliable F650GS (the Rotax single -- the most impressive BMW I've ever ridden), they started making far too many bike- and engine types for the size of the company, and quality, both of design and manufacturing, took a nosedive.

The original "Flying Brick" K-bikes are practically indestructible.  My first K-bike was stolen from me after ten years of ownership, but it had 158,000 miles on the odometer and still ran like it was brand new.  I currently ride a 1999 K1200LT, the last of the flying bricks.  It will be 23 years old in July and has nearly 230,000 miles on it.  Sometime after the turn of the millennia, BMW decided that they could not be profitable selling bikes that lasted forever.  The newer bikes will last MAYBE a couple of years outside of the warranty period if you're lucky.  They're going after the type of consumer that needs to get a new toy every few years.  That's why the proliferation of new models and into classifications they've never been in before.

They used to be like Harley Davidson... a couple of different engines, and few different frames and you'd have a showroom full of somewhat similar models that didn't change much from year to year.  Now they're trying to emulate Honda, but they're doing it POORLY.  Honda never lost their reliability reputation.  BMW?  Their reputation is in the toilet... but the roundel still has some panache so people will still buy them.  As long as they don't hang on to them too long they probably won't have many complaints.

[NHRstein]

I have a 2016 R1200R In one year I packed 20K miles on it. Yes, the maintenance on that bike is more costly than that of a Honda or Kawasaki, but it does run flawlessly. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new one. But given that I don't have many miles on this one and I have an electric from Zero, I have no need to buy another bike for a while. I don't ride the BMW much since going electric, but I like to keep it around for longer rides.

For a while BMW had a couple of issues, final drive seals and other things that I can't remember. But so has Honda and Kawasaki. I had a z900 I put 25K on and Kawasaki recalled it because the bolts on a section of the rear suspension were not tightened enough from the factory. All said, most manufacturers have issues, it is more about how they handle those issues.

[JaimeC]

I'll just leave this here.
https://monimoto.com/blog/motorcycle-advice/most-reliable-motorcycle-brands/