Mama Kaw does it again

[cyclecat]

My friend Charlie bought a 2006 Nomad out of Texas last fall and is already having clutch problems so he took it to the dealer. Since he bought a US Nomad and it came with the extended warranty, he rode it to the nearest US dealer, 3 hours one way, only to be told he had no warranty.

When he got the Nomad, he had to put the VIN into the Kawasaki site to see if there were any recalls for the Alberta government paperwork. I did that for him and at that time saw the warranty expiry date was 08-30-2012 since the Nomad came with the extra 4 years. He contacted me and told me what happened so I put the VIN into the computer again and the expiry date is now 08-30-2006.

My first guess was he had given me the wrong number so I played with the VIN a bit but it always went back to the same number. My second guess was the dealer had done something and changed the date of the warranty expiration somehow to get money out of Charlie.

Turns out out my second guess was fairly close to what actually has happened. Charlie got a hold of Kawasaki USA and asked what was going on and got told as soon as the Nomad was registered in Canada his warranty became null and void and too bad, so sad nothing he can do about it.

To my way of thinking, that's a pretty crappy deal. Someone paid Mama Kaw big bucks for that warranty, that goes with the Nomad, and they just got out of honoring 2 more years of warranty on a Nomad with problems already with only 17,000 miles on it. It shouldn't make any difference where the Nomad was registered as long as it is being worked on in the States.

So if anyone from Canada is looking to buy a Kawasaki motorcycle in the US, check real close to see if you get any warranty, new or extended.

[AlabamaNomadRider]

That really sucks and I hate to hear that. I believe I would get with an attorney and see what their thoughts were. Just a thought.

[wheelie]

That sucks! I never fails to amaze me what lengths some go to just to duck responsibility.

[cactusjack]

what does it say in the warranty paperwork? Does it make any reference to only being valid in the USA?

[Jared]

Sorry to hear about this. Like others have mentioned, it might be worth taking the warranty paperwork into an attorney to review them.

[dougster]

It is nothing less that plain old GREED at work, sounds like to me!

[lomax]

I'm not real surprised to hear this. Mama Kaw is protecting its Canadian dealers. They don't want us buying bikes in the states and this is one way to discourage it. If he had bought it from a dealer in the USA, they may have told him this but on a private deal, he is learning the hard way. Very unfortunate for him!

[garyo4]

Good thing these bikes don't need much dealer work and thanks to this site we can learn how do do most of that work ourselves. Can you imagine being in that situation if you had a HD?

[MAS Tequila]

So if I buy a new bike and the extended warranty then move to Canadia the warranty is no longer valid?

That doesn't sound legal.

MT

[timebandit]

Originally Posted by wheelie

That sucks! I never fails to amaze me what lengths some go to just to duck responsibility.

That's seem to be fashionable nowadays!
Just look at all the deadbeat "Parents" (fathers/mothers)

[pagemastr]

It stinks that it looks like they basically voided the warranty, but it is sort of a moot point as they would not have covered the clutch problem anyhow as they turned down my clutch replacement at only 2000 miles. They did however cover a leaking seal on the hydraulic clutch release. Dealer stepped up and replaced the clutch on their nickle!

[dantama]

http://www.kawasaki.com/Content/pdfs/GTPPCert.pdf

NATIONWIDE COVERAGE
Covered repairs can be performed at any authorized Kawasaki Dealership within the United States.


http://www.kawasaki.com/HelpCenter/help_goodtimes.aspx

Is my Good Times Protection Plan valid at all Kawasaki dealers?

Yes, your Good Times Protection Plan is valid at all authorized Kawasaki dealers in the continental United States. Your dealer must be authorized to sell/service your Kawasaki product.

I'd push hard if I were him. I think the Kawasaki will back down and fix it. From what I read, he won't be able to take it to a dealer in Canada, but as long as he takes it to a dealer in the U.S. he should get taken car of.

If they want to make exceptions for not covering bikes taken to Canada and registering them, then coming back into the U.S. for service work, then need to except it in the contract. Even my Canon camera warranty specifies that the warranty only covers you in the country that you bought it.

If he pushes, he'll get taken care of. He just needs to show the contract, and show that there are no Canada exclusions, and that it is valid at all U.S. dealers, and he is at a U.S. dealer.

Ducking out of warranties is normal for Japanese manufacturers. I work at a car dealership and 9 out of 10 times we take a Japanese based import in for warranty work we are screwed out of it for various reasons. Mitsubishi is the worst but we have experienced it with all 4 of the Japanese car brands.

[ringadingh]

Thats too bad they won't honour the warranty even in the US, when I bought my bike it had a year of extended warranty on it, and when I called Kawasaki USA they said it would be honoured in the US only. I never had to use it regardless.
Since they don't normally cover clutch issues anyway I can see that they would turn him down, but they warranty should stand for any other problems in the US. The good thing is that if its a clutch spring problem, its an easy cheap repair to do yourself.
Id still call Kawasaki to get the warranty reinstated.

[Blue Rebel]

Generally speaking, just turning away a customer with legit warranty paperwork shows an OEM not backing it's product. Especially in the state of flux, today's auto market is in.