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Harley Softtail Custom


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Howdy,

 

I know this is a little off topic, but I wanted to tap into the collective wisdom of the wire. My 09 FXSTC has about 10000 miles on it. A 3 year extended warranty will cost me $1200. I just had it serviced and there were no issues. 5000 miles a year is about all I can manage in the 4 or 5 months of riding weather in upstate NY. I know it is a gamble either way. If the bike has a major breakdown, it is money well spent. No problems for the next 3 years, wasted money. (Except for the peace of mind).

I believe that it is a great and well built machine, but anything mechanical can have issues.

 

Any comments or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you, Colesville Bob

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Waste of money.

 

Heck, when my 07 Suzuki S83 was coming off after 1 yr, I coulda bought an extension, I said "no thanks". Self-insure, it's money in the bank. In the following two years, I did NOTHING except normal brakes, tires and oil changes (not covered anyway.

 

I feel the same way about cars, appliances, etc. Self-insure instead of buying an insurance man's car.....

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I'd stick the money away for future repairs and forget the extended warranty. Sometimes what you think is peace of mind turns out to be a pain in the rear when you have to fight the company for things you thought would be paid for.

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Manufacturers, big and small, from toasters to heavy equipment, sell extended warranties to make money, not to save their customers money on potential repairs. Yes, sometimes it pays off and a consumer will actually save some money by having an extended warranty, but a very high percentage of these policies never see any use.

 

If extended warranties were costing the manufacturers more than they were making on them, then extended warranties will go away. It is actually worse than that. Often times it is third parties that offer these extended warranties. They are willing to take the chance that the product will outlast the coverage time frame.

 

On the front end, $1,200.00 doesn't sound like a high price to extend the coverage on your bike. On the back end, though, you really should be able to reasonably expect 25,000 miles out of a bike that you most likely have about 20 grand in.

 

YMMV, but my $1,200.00 would stay in the bank.

 

Boondock

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Better yet,

 

Spend the money on a nice used Colt SAA. Shoot the heck out of it and "if" your Scooter craps out sell the Colt (most likely you will recoup all your $$) and use the money for repairs!! :lol:

 

I wasted money on several extended warranties when I was younger. Never needed to use them. If I had of thought of what I posted above back then I would have 3 more nice Colts in the safe. :o

 

Keep the shiny side up!!

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+1 on the waste of money on an extended warranty.

They are for suckers who can't discipline themselves to save money for a rainy day. The same people who borrow against their next pay check at 50% interest because they just gotta have that new toy right now and they've already spent this week's check.

 

Just my humble opinion, others may disagree.

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Back in 88 I bought a new Dodge Dakota truck. Got the extended war. On the very last day of it, Truck broke down and it was the entire ignition module. Cost: $1000. Cost of the extended: $700.

 

Some times ya win on them and sometimes ya lose..

 

I am puttin my 05 Jeep Cherokee in on Friday because it is starting to stall. They can't find anything wrong with it..no codes show up, nothing is wrong, but still stalling...go figger..

 

curley

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Just something to think about.. Today I had to drop mine 06 Ultra off to have the timing chain and tensioner replaced because they start to fail around 50-60k, mine had 55+k on it. The upgrade parts which should last linger because they are hydraulic instead of a spring which doesn't put as much pressure on it so they do not wear out as fast. You would that the redesigned part would be the only thing available nope, still making and selling the bad ones.

 

Now to what it may cost. The replacement upgrade is $429, labor is around $400, that doesn't include the new oil pump that the chain took out and the labor on it.; Will know more once they tear it open. It will get a new oil change so I am looking at close to $1k I think. If the piston are shot from the loop around the place then I am really screwed. I wished a warranty would been available when I bought it used last year.

 

Last month the truck keep going to the shop this month it is the bike. Luckily the truck did have a warranty and it only ran me a couple hundred buck for the deductible and something else that was wrong but not covered. One thing on these bike will sky rocket the cost of maintaining them.

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Hell, that bike isn't even broken in yet.

 

No known issues with '09s. They sorted out the cam chain in '08 and the bikes after that are GTG.

 

Most Harleys that guys don't mess with are good for at least 100 K miles. That's what folks regularly get around these (hot) parts.

 

I'd rather spend the 1200 bucks on flowing the bike. New mufflers (I think that's where the cats are on an '09) and dyno tune with Harley performance programming.

 

If you pay a Harley dealer to tune the bike, you've bought insurance on the one thing that might give you trouble, the engine control system.

 

Nothing mechanical will fail on that bike in the time you own it.

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Hi, from an Ultra Limited:

 

I'd save the money against the future, take care of the bike (don't horse it around), AND I'd also find a good indie mechanic who can adopt the thing nearly as his own, instead of going to the dealer.

 

I like the dealerships, and I've always found them to do good work, but at something like three times the cost of a good indie.

 

Aunt Jen

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I'm a sales mgr at a harley dealership if I were in your position i wouldn't worry about the ex-warr for now. stay up on your reg maintance. wouldn't start to think about til you reached 35 to 40k at that time you can go in and get a harley ex-warr if you want to. all you'll have to do is get the service dept to give a quick once over then you can put the same warr on the bike as you would now. hope that helps..

 

BPS

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Bob the only time I've ever had an extended warranty on any car is to have coverage for the life of the loan on it,didnt want to be paying a note and repair bills at the same time. Now the factory warranties are so long they probably dont make sense. That said the one on my Dakota paid off nicely on two occasions, the second time the dealer found some front end stuff that I would have had to lay out more then the price of the warranty. Had em look for anything else that might look shaky and we racked up as much as possible about 150 miles before it ran out.

 

None of the three HDs that have come and gone ever needed any repairs that would have justified the price of the additional expense. Now if they covered the motor upgrades that would have been real different.

 

Even though bikes are getting almost as technically complex as cars the twin cam motor in your '09 is more bullet proof then anything HD has ever made. The lack of power everything and gadgets compared to cars makes life a lot simpler too. Save the money and spend small amounts on good old preventative maintenance, checks and services (PMCS as it was called in the Army) and you should be good to go for a long long time.

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I've learned to be careful with factory warranties. I found oput the hard way that the "full coverage" on my wife's Chrysler didn't include sensors and a lot of electrical parts. And that if a failed tranny sensor was responsible for a mechanical failure, then that was an operator maintenance failure -- or some crap like that. I had four breakdowns in 2 years that weren't covered. Like someone else said, I can't afford payments and repair bills. Save your money on the warranty and self insure.

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Harleys??I remember the days when harley guys wanted to be cowboys...My Granpa was a maintenance man at the factory up by Menominee Falls Wis.....We were farmers and horse people....Not many of us wanted to be bikers...Harleys guyS want to be "cowboys"...Cowboys don't want to be "BIKERS".......I was invited to 3 brandings this year and no one wanted to be a biker....Just wanted to share that with ya ,the next time you read some place "Real cowboys shoot this...or real cowboys do that....."Real Cowboys don't want to be bikers"...Just a point!!!!Now let's get back to shooting here......Tuco.

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