I was driving down the rode today in my 2001 Ford Explorer and hoping my tires stay together when I realized that Ford has gone to the extreme to make sure their customers are happy. Meaning it has cost ford close atleast 100 million to correct this tire problem, not to mention the media focus has been on them all year. Maybe Yamaha should follow their lead.


Now for Yamaha..... They haven't done anything about the tranny problem that they know exists. I have not had any problem yet, but this website along with this forum led me to buy the extended warranty to protect myself.

Now for the math:

Let's say for arguements sake there are 20,000 infected Raptors running around the country. Let's say the dealer would charge yamaha back $1,000 for each tranny job. This is a considerable high number. It would probably be more around 15 hours at $40 = $600 per quad. Take this times the original 20,000 quads and you get 12 million. Now this is why they won't do anything.

I think they are counting on people not buying the extended warranty and praying the quad stays together for 6 months. Then it's all up to you to fix.

Anyway, that's just my opinion, anyone else have one on this ????

 

Chas,
I am with you on this one. But Yamaha will not necessarily be off the hook six months from the date of purchase. Reason is that (in California) many cases state that if a manufacturer places in the stream of commerce a product with a defect, any warranty period is extended until the defect is corrected. Consumers are not to bear the burden of a manufacturing defect.

By the way, BansheeBrad and I believe that the new trans parts cost about $200 but the labor, especially if the trans blows, could be $2000. Another thought on the trans is that Yamaha does not have enough parts to fix all the trans problems. I say this because they have the same problem with the intake manifold boots. You cannot buy them. Any dealer that has some (I am told) has been instructed to reserve them for warranty repairs and not retail OTC sales. Gotta love it.

 

I don't own a yahama and please don't mistake this for a bashing post, it is not. I own a Honda Rancher and it has had two recalls, one for the A-arm brackets and another for the shift plate. I have taken mine in for both of them but did not have any trouble with either item before they were recalled. I keep hearing about the troubles with the raptor and it's evident through the posts on this board and others that there are manufacturers defects with the carb setup and 2nd gear yet it seems that yahama won't admit to it and recall them. I really think yahama is screwing up by doing this. I think honda had the right approach, if you find out something is inherently wrong with your product admit it, fix it, then you won't have to worry about it. There was a lot made about the ranchers having two recalls when they first came out but now nothing is said about it because Honda made it good. These things with the raptor could have been fixed easily and forgotten about but yahama refuses to do it which I think will cost them goodwill and money in the long run. Again, I'm not trying to bash but I think yahama is messing up by not owning up and fixing the problem. The raptor is a new high tech quad, you don't always get things like this perfect out of the chute, no one does, but you'll retain a lot more customers if you just suck it up and fix it correctly instead of giving your customers the shaft.

 

Yamaha doesn't have the resources or the economy of scale that Ford has. Ford brings a net profit of $8-10k per unit on their trucks and SUV's. On Navigators and Excursions it's higher yet. That's a pretty high percentage for a vehicle costing $30-40k. Ford is usually sitting on cash reserves of around $6-8 billion. Resolving the tire problem for a couple hundred million pays off in the long run becuase of the high profit per unit. They sell a ton of Explorers per year, a bunch of Mercury Mountaineers, and they're coming out with a "baby" Navigator based on the Explorer platform. They have to resolve this thing quickly to keep the shareholders happy. Also, if you have any unresolved TSB's with Ford and you're vehicle goes out of warrenty, they become your problem. There was a "piston slap" problem on early '99 Super Dutys (like mine). Ford put a new engine in at 24k miles with no hassle. If it had went past 36k miles, it would have been me putting in the engine.

Yamaha on the other hand is based in Japan, whose economy has been getting hammered now for years. Some thoughts: I don't believe they make as high a percentage profit per unit(as Ford), especially this early in the production run; I think they plow most of the profits from quads into dirt bikes, witness radically different YZ's coming out every year, while we still have the same old Banshee, Blaster, and Warrior; I don't think they realize the power of the Internet and these bulletin boards for customers to communicate with each other. So far, I've had no problems with mine, but I'll probably be getting an extended warranty next week, mostly because of reading the posts here in this forum. And is the '02 tranny really better? Did they just change the ratios, or did they change material/design?

 

The Raptor may in fact be a new high tech atv; however, the powerplant is based on a 10 year old engine that was designed and intended for a street bike and an enduro (XTZ and SZR). The engine is also used by MZ cycles in their street and enduros.

Over the years, the transmission has been a problem but not to the extent of the atv problem. Seems that the already weak transmission suffers from the greater load of the atv. Anyway, Yamaha has been aware that the trans was weak and did not bother to improve it even when they went in and added a reverse gear.

 

good posts guys, but the question is: What can we do about this as consumers ??? Is it going to take a class action suit against Yamaha ?? Or can someone provide a phone number that all of us can call and complain??

 

im having the same tranny problem with my 2nd gear, it went out on my 3 month old Raptor. right now im looking at $1300 in repairs for something that was not engineered correct. bottom line is that Yamaha know theres a problem with there $6500 Raptor. i have personally sent letters to Yamaha on this matter, right now my bike is in the shop. the hell if im going pay that repair bill, there is a few thing we could all do, i'd write a letter to them. i'll post a web site that fowards all complaints to them and also keeps them on file so that WE all could view them.

i've been asking people to step up and contact me if they have had there Raptor tranny worked on. i need signed statments and repair work orders from you so that i can build my case against them, possibly a class action case!

view the letters for yourself http://www.planetfeedback.com/shared...e-desc,00.html

as of today we have only 6 complaints!?

if anyone can help contact eman40000@yahoo.com

 

Welp,

I went in to drop my quad off... I've been getting some 2nd gear false neutrals... told the service manager about that, and my water leak.

Get this, they don't work on engine in the summer, they are 2 busy???

I went ballistic, I said it's under warranty, I want it fixed. He said yamaha will still pay in the winter, but he isn't doing it until the winter, it would have to wait 30 to 60 days... I left steamed!!

So I came home and did some checking.. under ohio lemon law, if it sits for 31 or more days in a shop, they have to buy it back, no ifs and or butts. The nice part, they have to pay lawyer fees, and they have to pay all finiacing charges etc. Now the shocker, it covers titled ATVS bought in ohio.. YES!

You guys might want to check into your lemon law.. I know Ohio has some of the toughest, but it still might not hurt to check into them..

Brad