Rejecting a bike?

[Davel]

Got a 1200GS new late January. It now has 3,750 miles on the clock.

Recently had a problem with red warning triangle coming on - with no other symbols, after riding for a while.

BMW Mobile Emergency guy came out and couldn't trace it, so bike recovered.

BMW told dealer to re-programme and do a long'ish test run. They did that and returned to garage with the light coming on again.

They now propose to try various other things to try and find the fault. The diagnostic kit only showed the need to re-programme.

What would you do now. Would you allow them to fumble around till they find the fault which could take days or weeks bearing in mind their other ongoing works, or do I attempt to reject the bike now and demand a refund or replacement bike?

I have no criticism with Blue Bell Crewe - I just don't want to accept a repair which may or may not resolve the matter.

 

[riverking]

Your local Trading Standards office will advise and even give you a sample letter for the rejection. It's very important that you act now as there is a serious threshold at 6 months whereby the burden of proof changes over to you.

 

[Davel]

Ta - will do just that...

I don't want to be awkward, it's just the fact that they seem to be using trail and error to find the fault and I guess that this could go on and on.

 

[jimbo]

Whilst I agree its not good enough, I doubt that a single spurious red light is suffice to reject a motorcycle.
Suggest you write a polite letter to the top man, explaining you are concerned with the lack of progress and ask him to sort it out for you.

 

[riverking]

I take your point Jimbo, but the important thing at this stage is to register the rejection in time - did it with Mercedes last year, they tried very hard to draw out the 'we're still trying to resolve the problem' process - but, though I allowed them as much time as they liked to find a solution, when eventually they conceded that they could not solve it, my earlier formal rejection got me my money back in full.

 

[Joyseeker]

Davel

it seems to me the new 'bus' has to settle down..... its a new idea and the dealers to me are still getting there heads round it.

i've had problems with my bus. the latest being when the left indicator switch failed it caused all sorts of other symtoms. then it settled down to just the indicator switch being the problem.

vines of guildford also said the problem with the new bus is that if the failed 'bit' does not send the fatal signal the dealer can't do checks except substitution to find out what is wrong (unlike the 1150). i don't believe this..... i feel it is more a matter of the dealers getting used to the new technology.

the bus concept when it works is great...... the highlight bulb blew and the warning came up immediately..... a nice comfort.

stick with it....... you don't want to be running the twin in again

 

[Spout]

Whilst I agree its not good enough, I doubt that a single spurious red light is suffice to reject a motorcycle.

Although, this is on a bike which relies on electrical circuits for fully functioning brakes!
Makes the red a little brighter eh?

 

[Davel]

I take your point and really don't want to reject the bike - and I'm not convinced that I could anyway.

My concern with the 'red triangle' warning light is their thoughts that it may need re-programming, or it may need electrical components replacing - but they just don't seem to know.

They try one thing, test drive it, then try something else.

I know nothing about the electrics or the engines and rely totally on the experts. Suggestions other than electrical, from BMW's own team are possibly low oil pressure, possibly brake related or maybe rear light related. If they could pinpoint and fix, then I wouldn't be concerned.

If, however, it's the start for a long running saga, then I'd sooner they replaced.

Hopefully they'll ring me tomorrow and it'll be fixed!