Well said muddy4life. I doubt there would have even been a 5 year transmission warranty had it not been for the internet.....if they're not gonna do a recall because its too much money....and if its only a small minority of the units affected (as they claim) .....whats wrong with a 10 year or longer warranty on the first transmission? And then a shorter term warranty on the second one? Surely if indeed it is only a small number of units affected it won't cost them crap to give a 10 year or longer warranty and its much cheaper than a recall. And it would be a great bragging right for them in advertising to be the "industry wide leader" in standing behind their product. From and industry wide standtpoint a 10 year transmission warranty is not unrealistic anyhow. How many people have destroyed a transmission in existing ATV's? Other than the raptor ones I've never heard of any personally. A 1 year warranty on the replacement transmission would prevent owners from just trashing them for kicks and yet protect Suzuki from claims of not standing behind their product because even that is longer than the competition's. And odds are that the replacement of that bushing with the roller bearing might just make it one the best transmissions in the marketplace anyway. Its actually quite "overengineered" to use a bearing that large in such an application. If a manufacturer is going to use the public for a research facility on the reliability of their product they should bear the brunt of that cost .....not the consumer.
I guess the short version is simply this......if they're gonna claim its only a "small number of units affected" than back that claim up with a warranty and put an end to this whole affair Suzuki.....

 

I have to agree with neversunk and I would even take it a step further. Suzuki should simply say that if reverse fails on the '05 KQ's, they will fix it regardless of how much time passes. Period. That not only shows confidence in their projection of this being a very limited problem, it also shows great product support and customer service. Hey, this is their design mistake......they should be a proud enough company to stand behind any failures that happen as a result. By saying "5 year warranty", there is still that LOUD clock ticking in the back of eveyone's heads.

 

Fourlix, what are you? The minister of misinformation?
None of us knowing about this until Suzuki brought it up is a joke.
I personally talked to cust. service 3 times about the reverse, and until they sent the ecm letter they denied there being a reverse problem every time.
You saying we have no right to bitch until we loose reverse is just stupid. We have the right to bitch as long a we have paid for a machine with a design flaw. Wait till summer, then you will see how rare these instances are. When the majority start using their machines the failure rate is going to go way up.

 

I have been considering buying a KQ. I just came from my local dealer and two different sales people claimed to have never heard of any reverse problems from the KQ. I find that hard to believe. Either they are lying or have really never heard of it. Either way, I'm not buying anything from liars or people who could be so unfamiliar with the products they sell. Suzuki just lost another customer.

 

That was when I determined that I would buy another brand too....when the body language of the salesman told me he was lying when he told me he had'nt heard anything about a transmission problem with the KQ. I'm not a poker player....but I've done my share of interviews in life and this guy was darn near having sweat dripping down his forhead when he told me that. I bought a griz about a week later and am quite happy....but more importantly I'm not afraid to use it and have no fear of a breakdown.

 

Hey guys, let me tell you my story. I was one of those guys who had to have the first KQ that hit the showroom.(of caurse, that was after reading all the articals on it). I went on to purchase it and liked the quad allot, but after having read all the stuff on the reverse problems. I thought Suzuki should have recalled all of the KQ and fixed them wright. But they didn't. This made me loose sleep over knowing I spent $7000.00 plus on a machine that #1=had a company denied there was a reverse issue.#2=tried to fix the reverse problem with half the power ecm. I decided to put an add in my local paper and sell it. I decided to take the hit now, instead of a lot larger one later. After selling it , I went down and purchased a Brute 750 camo.( boy am I glad I did, I love this machine better than the KQ by far).I am won of those people that was lucky enough to own and ride both of them and I do not see any of the bad things people say about the Brute. I am not telling you KQ owners what to do, but you need to take a good hard look at it.(I don't think you will be dissattisfied at all.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I'm glad to hear you're happy with your brute. I was tempted to go that route myself when I chose to avoid the KQ I had my heart set on so badly. Isn't it nice to not have that nagging thought in your head that you could be stranded at any time?????? Suzuki is losing sales to plenty of people like us over this issue....but still not getting the point huh? I guess they consider us "invisible"....just like their paying customers......