Dealership gripe

[Griso Guy_imp]

I have given up on all motorcycle dealerships for service in Arizona. Well almost all, Renaissance in Tucson where I bought my Griso is pretty good. It's a long way to ride for service however. When I first moved here from Ohio back in 1987 I had a vintage 1970 Triumph Daytona. I took it to Dave Hull's Triumph shop in Mesa. Excellent mechanics and a pretty cool place, full of local characters along with Ducati and Moto Guzzi motorcycles. Dave sold the shop to a guy named Greg Ruiz, he eventually moved the business to Chandler renamed it to AZ Superbike. Greg carried on the tradition of excellent service. Over the years I bought 7 bikes from Greg, Ducati's Guzzi's and several Hinckley Triumph's. All were serviced there. Greg finally sold AZ Superbike to the Coulter Group aka Ride Now. Their service department is a scary place. Mostly young guys with very little acumen and or experience. I had the Griso's first service there and vowed to never go back. Dave Hull's son Tom is a certified Ducati and Moto Guzzi mechanic, my Griso goes to him today for the 6,000k service. I am unsure about where the CB1100 will have it's next service, maybe East Side performance. I have a friend who works there who previously worked for Dave Hull and his forte was always Japanese 4's. I need to have a prior relationship or at least feel comfortable with the staff before I let them take the bike behind the curtain. It's not always about cost.

[ChipBeck_imp]

I took my 2013 in under warranty and asked them to torque the handlebar bolts and anything else that could cause handlebars to vibrate. And they tried to charge me $25 which I refused. Got it home, popped the covers off the handlebar bolts and I could tighten them by hand.
/don't trust western Honda in Scottsdale.

I picked up a used KLR which had a new rear tire and recent oil change. Went in to Kelly's Kawasaki in Mesa and asked for the service history. The guy said he couldn't show me. But I was due for 3,700 mile service. My BS alarm went off and don't plan on going back there either.

The real reason motorcycles drive with our light on is that we're all in search of an honest mechanic (or service dept)


Sent from my Commodore 64 using Tapatalk

Gentlemen,

Western Honda has been in business since the 1960's. It was located across the street from my family's auto dealership and I met the owner when I was 12 years old (47 years ago). It was a great store then and I have purchased over 15 motorcycles there. When that owner died his son in law took Western Honda over and it's been a disaster ever since. After having a terrible service experience with caustic employees I requested a meeting with the owner. In that meeting he called the employee in to his office and as I calmly relayed what had happened that employee turned to the owner and told him he didn't have time for this and wasn't going to listen, then he walked out of the owners office without being excused.

I was dumbfounded to see the owner of that dealership allow an employee to humiliate him in front of a customer. He was afraid of his own employees. Then the owner turned to me and said "There is nothing I can do if he doesn't want to listen". It was amazing. I have been a General Motors and KIA dealer myself for over 20 years and if any employee walked out of my office without being excused he would be fired on the spot.

The problems at Western Honda today all start with an owner who did not buy or build that business. He inherited it from his daddy in law and he's not up to the task. The employees do what they like and they are openly disdainful of their cowardly boss. I was one of their best long term customers and I will never do business there again.

Chip

[Ack-CB11_imp]

Wow!
Glad I do my own work.

[PowderToastMan_imp]

Yeah, I agree that's not the level of service you should ever have to expect when that amount of money is changing hands, but if it's something simple that you can just unscrew a bolt and shimmy into place then I'd be inclined to let it go.. just my two cents!

PS how are you holding up these days?

[Randy B]

Not bad. Not 100% yet, but I'll get there in time. I took the bike out for the first time since the surgery yesterday. Only put about 11 miles on it, but it still felt good to get out on it.

[Cormanus]

Glad to hear you're back on the bike, Randy. That dealer sounds appalling. As does yours Chip.

My local Honda dealer is OK, but, when the bike comes out of warranty next month, I'll be looking for someone closer and perhaps a smaller business.

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

I take the CB to the local dealer for warranty only. I use a local, old school, cottage industry type mechanic that has a home garage for everything else motorcycle. He was a professional mechanic at 4 Honda dealerships over almost 50 years, 3 motorcycle, the last 10 years at the car dealership.
He's worked on all my bikes, including Guzzi, several vintage Yamahas, MV Augusta, Aprilia and the CB. I recommend him to all my friends and they bring everything his way including HD's, cruisers, SportBikes, dirt bikes and scooters. He's my age, so when either of us go, I'm sure the other won't be too far behind. But when guys like him who really know their stuff are gone, who's going to be left? Sad enough now, hard to imagine what the future will hold.

[JustJohn_imp]

JustJohn--At MY Honda dealership, for one.

Well I'm glad you got a good dealership...with trained mechanics. Seems that's not the case for the majority. And certainly not just for Honda.

[rboe]

I've had good luck with Steve down at Renaissance in Tucson, but a buddy did not. Luckily, for the Griso there is little that I can't do my self. Looks like I get to learn how to adjust shimmed valves now.

The fellow up in Prescott is real good with older Guzzi's, for the newer ones I'm less confident. A buddy has one mechanic at Ride Now (assuming he still works there) that he'll let touch his Guzzi's. But I get the impression Ride Now is more about the profit margin than hiring good qualified mechanics (and paying what they are worth) and establishing a long term relationship with the Euro bike owner community. Businesses have to make money, but if that is your only goal, if the relationship with your customer is not at least on equal footing with the mighty dollar you will not be around in the long term.

I'm not as good as a good mechanic; but I'm better than what passes for mechanics at most bike shops. If anyone is going to learn how to wrench on my bike; it's going to be me. May as well be me!

Troy over at Apache Honda on Camelback has rebuilt my XR650L after the folks at North Valley dropped the ball. He does dirt bikes at his place on his own time for extra cash. Decent wrench - and only dirt bikes.

[rboe]

Chip; ever consider getting a Honda dealership?