Last October 2007 I purchased a Baja ATV from Canadian Tire. The ATV was my second ATV at the Cottage and it was meant for friends and my wife. After a month, after driving it for 100 km (60miles), the clutch started to slip. It accerated, then hesitate, then accerated. It was not engine hesitation, it was like someone disconnected the clutch and reconnected it.

I called Baja, received a service number and was told to take it to an authorized service center in Mississauga (a neighbour city of Toronto). I was surprised the ATV was not serviced by Canadian Tire, but the place I took it took it to was a motor cycle shops so all looked good.

I travel for business and had a pretty busy fall, I got the ATV to the shop December, they were slow with Christmas and I was in no rush for it. They fixed it by January and I picked it up in February. We had a record amount of snow this year and we I went to pickup the ATV there was was three feet of snow on the ground. I took it around the parking lot, all seemed fine. The store owner told me they found a burr on the clutch which was causing it not to engage properly. I toke the ATV home, and stored it in my garage until May.

In May I took it back to the cottage and as soon as I went up the driveway the same drive train hesitation happened. I noticed it did not do it under light load (like in a flat parking lot) but any load, like going up my steep drive way it hesitated. Back on the trailer the ATV went. I took it back to the shop and this is where the problems started.

The shop only gets paid if they have a work order from Baja. Canadian Tire only sells the product, so you have to deal with Baja. I called, and spoke to the person that answered the support phone. I was told flat out the warranty is three months and they will not fix it. I tried to explain (politely) that it was the same problem that was report when it was in warranty. I was told that I should have tested it better. Baja is in Phoenix, I tried to explain the snow conditions here and it fell on deaf ears. I asked to escalate the call (again not raising my voice, or being rude, learned long ago that does not work). I was told that there is no escalation process. Again, tried to be a more insistent and was told firmly "OUT OF WARRANTY, I AM going to hang up the phone" and the person hung up.

I was amazed. After searching around on the internet I found the president of Baja Motors, called his office, confirmed my information with his secretary, and the company address. I sent an overnight URGENT Fedex package asking for help in the matter. I waited over a week and I did not receive any calls. I have proof of delivery and signature from Fedex.

My wife works at Canadian Tire and she helped find the Category Manger and we informed him of the problem and he initiated a call to Baja and all of a sudden we got a work order.

Over the summer the ATVs complete drive train was taken apart, parts that should have been shipped were not, we had to wait weeks for parts, overall it was going very slow. Finally early in August the machine was put back together and the mechanic took it for a ride, the same hesitation happened.

We asked for our money back, copying the Canadian Tire category manager in the email request. Over a week went by and we finally received authorization to return the ATV and get a full refund.

To conclude, I don't know if all their ATV's are crap, I've seen a lot of complaints on forums like this. But is that a small or large percentage of people I don't know. I do know, it took considerable effort, and it would have taken even more if I did not have the help of Canadian Tire to get this problem escalated. Canaidan Tire has no authority, they only sell. The repair shops don't get paid without work orders, and Baja seems, from my experience, unwilling to support their product unless extremely pushed.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

I would NOT purchase or do any business with Baja ever again.