Last november I bought an 04 TBX 400 Auto. It was a great machine for 2 months. At 120 miles I took it out riding from my home . We went about 10 mile out and while on a gravel trail coming out of a sand pit, the front left spindle just snapped. When that happened the knuckle pulled out of the axle, the tire then got sucked under the machine, and the the steering arm then snapped off the top of the spindle. this all happened at 40 mph in a straight line. Before this the machine was only used in the yard to pull trailers and such. When I brought it to the dealer they laughed and said it was in a collision with a rock or stump or something else. This would never happen like that period. end of story. (I forgot to tell you this was all cought on a video tape. The reason was that when you come out of this pit all you can see is the mountains behind you. So we were tapeing this ride to make a video for a club we were starting.) I told them I wasn't leaving the shop until they took pictures and got it covered through warranty. So they took pictures and sent them to the factory. A week later they called me and said to come pick up the machine, and bring 755.96 $$ in cash or credit. I said wait a minute, I didn't authorize any work. They said huhhhhh. I told them that if they didn't have my signature on a work order I wasn't paying for squat.
After 2 months of going back and forth with the dealer and them sending the video th the factory they said that it still had to be in a collision, and would not fix it. That is finnaly when I said I need to talk to the owner of the dealer. After a week of that he calls me out of the blue and says to come down to the shop and bring the title with me. So I did.( c this guy owns two shops Artic Cat in one town and a Polaris dealer two towns over. At the Artic Cat dealer he sells salvaged street bikes ,and quads)He tells me to go up to the Polaris dealer and pick up a new Polaris as an even trade. After that whole ordeal I did and ended up with a lesser machine but with more options and more power.
The main question is has anyone ever heard of this shady of a dealer or had this problem with a Cat before????
Moral of the story is we think this quad was a salvage with a clean title, and he was trying to get dump it...