Repair Costs and Warranty

[OgreRod]

This kinda goes along with extended warranty topic but slightly diff. I had my dealer do my first service. Since then I've been doing my own oil, air filter, chain clean and lube/tightening thing. I've been really busy and brought my 03 Kat in for service to the dealer. They asked me if I was familar with the "service warranty" saying no service guy goes into his speal finally comes to bottom line for $1200.00 they cover all services for the next 3 years or something like that. No i'm not interested just want to get my oil & filter changed and check air filter, clean and tighten chain. Figures it out to 2.5 or 3.0 hours of work at $75.00 per hour..labor only, needless to say I told him to jump and I'd do it myself or take it someplace else. Called a place in Orlando that quoted me half that price..just curious if this is typical or is my little small town area just gouging for service.

[the wind]

that seems high on both time and per hour to me.the only thing i have done at the dealer is a tire change and it's 25 for the 1/2hour.

[WildKat]

our local dealers average 65.00 per hour labor..although the one I bought it from cuts me a break, and only charges 50.00 hour better than nothing I guess

[SweetLou]

Sounds kinda spendy to me.

[1BlueKat]

In Tulsa, there is only one Suzuki Dealer, they charge 75.00 and hour and I am not looking forward to taking my Kat in next month. I bought the bike with 13000 miles and I have no idea what service has been done. I changed the chain and sprockets myself, always take the rim and tire off the bike to have tires mounted. But my question is, dont I have to have my valves adjusted, and will probably have the carbs checked at least. So I am planning on not having my baby for at least a week and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 500.00. That sucks, but I guess it has to be done. Good luck.

[SweetLou]

What about taking it to another sport bike dealer? I would imagine they would have no problem doing it. My main dealer that I started taking mine to was a Honda and Yamaha dealer, and they had no problem working on mine.

[1BlueKat]

I never thought about that, I tried to take my old Kaw to a non-kaw dealer and they wouldnt even look at it. Maybe it was because of its age, I dont know, just figured that a Suzuki dealer would do me the best job. I dont trust the local shops that are not dealers, had some bad expierences.

[SweetLou]

How mechanically inclined are you? You could always spend the cash on the Repair Manual, and tools (if needed), and probably still come out way ahead, and just do the stuff yourself.

And then if it takes you a week, at least you know what is going on during that week.

[The CyberPoet]

Let me guess -- PowerSports?

It's a thing that a lot of dealers are doing, offering pre-packaged deals on maintenance to guarantee their own staff have work. Sometimes it can be a deal, but in general, it's not (the only major advantage I can see is for those who have radically varying income levels and want the peace of mind of having no further expenses, or those who tend to skimp on service otherwise -- no excuse if it's prepaid). Often they tie it into the purchase of a new bike, as a way of offering the rider a fixed-cost.

I looked at the service intervals on one of these "maintenance packages" when I got my first Kat (new), and skipped it -- later, I realized I would have burned through the whole "3 year" package in the first year because of the type of mileage I was riding at the time. If it were truly valid for all services for three years instead of just for a half dozen services or some such, it would make it way more worthwhile.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[OgreRod]

Now that you mention it Cyber I think there was a stipluation of like 6 services. I thought it was pretty high myself, but I do know one of the guys who works there..probably just give him some cash to work on the Kat when I'm too busy. I've always been the type of person (cheap) that likes to get things done for myself. As for the full service I think they had like 4.1 hours on the full monty.. valves, oil, tighten everything up so just the labor on that would be $330 with tax here in Ocala.

[OldandReallySlow]

Here in LoCal, that's about what they charge per hour. Some places even go alot more (Lee's comes to mind) but they are specialists and such. I do all of my maintenance as well as some others (hey Gecko, you listening???) and only go to the stealers when I need tires changed/balanced.

[The CyberPoet]

Now that you mention it Cyber I think there was a stipluation of like 6 services... As for the full service I think they had like 4.1 hours on the full monty.. valves, oil, tighten everything up so just the labor on that would be $330 with tax here in Ocala.

If it was 6 major services (7500, 15000 mile services including valve adjustments, oil, filter, torques, etc.), then $1200 would be a deal -- as long as you were sure the dealer would remain solvent for the whole period. If half of those were just oil changes and minor services (the 3500 mile services), it would be a no-real-advantage thing.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[escahoe]

I bought my 04 kat with 480 miles on it . I ended up getting the service plan and parts warranty for an extra 1800 just becouse I knew that the previous owner had to have torn up the bike , The sales guy told me that the previous owner didn't think it was fast enough and seeing that the thing was not broken in yet it had me worried . However my warrenty is for 3 years w/ no deductuble and no milage and the part warranty is for 2 years no milage and 50$ diductuble . I thought it seemed to be worth it . I'm sure I could work on it my self but I know that I'm going to put some serious milage on the bike so I figured it might save money in the long run . 8)

[trinc]

In Tulsa, there is only one Suzuki Dealer, they charge 75.00 and hour and I am not looking forward to taking my Kat in next month. I bought the bike with 13000 miles and I have no idea what service has been done. I changed the chain and sprockets myself, always take the rim and tire off the bike to have tires mounted. But my question is, dont I have to have my valves adjusted, and will probably have the carbs checked at least. So I am planning on not having my baby for at least a week and spending somewhere in the neighborhood of 500.00. That sucks, but I guess it has to be done. Good luck.

have a look at the valve adjustment page. it's very easy.

http://www.pacifier.com/~trinc/katana

[Yellow]

How much do you usually pay for a tire change and balancing? I went to a local Honda dealer with my front wheel and a new tire, and paid 15 euros (~19 dollars) to have it done within an hour, and thought that was quite ok.