Consumer Reports Reveals Most Reliable Motorcycles

[chrisnlb]

Consumer Reports Reveals Most Reliable Motorcycles | RideApart

 

[DragonBlu]

Not surprised at all. Their close relationship and shared engineering with Toyota has a lot to do with reliability. I enjoy three Toyota's and two Yamaha's.

 

[Scott_Thomas]

Not really surprised either. Yamaha makes some bullet proof bikes.

 

[yellowfz]

Yeah, saw that the day it came out. CR is slapping Harley and BMW hard, I have always said a Harley was one of the worst bikes to own now there is solid proof.
Makes you feel proud that you chose the top motorcycle company huh?

 

[JT]

definitely the feeling it get from the couple years I have had my bike and the constant major problems other bikes have.

 

[latony007]

Certainly not surprised to See Harley near the bottom of this list. Also certainly not surprised that despite the problems they have had people who had problems with their Harleys said they would buy another one and nothing else. What a shocker. Those people (and I know there are a couple on this site so sorry are brain washed. I am surprised Suzuki wasn't more represented, seems like every bike I see on the road is a GSXR

 

[Detrich]

I know someone who bought a brand new Harley from the dealership. It started leaking oil like mad the very next week and he wasn't even sure if he could safely ride it back to the dealer and loaded it on his truck.

Felt badly for him, but it's comical that the HD dealer did such a lousy job assembling the bike.

 

[rhnatyk]

I found the following quote from the article most interesting:

"Despite the higher number of problems, Harley-Davidson and BMW owners told CR that they were among the most satisfied with their bikes. When asked whether, considering everything, they would buy their bike again if they had it to do over, 75 percent of Harley-Davidson owners said definitely yes, closely followed by 74 percent of BMW owners and 72 percent of Honda owners. By contrast, only 63 and 60 percent of Yamaha and Kawasaki owners, respectively, were as emphatic."

After thinking about it though, I was not surprised. People who buy motorcycles (or cars for that matter), based on value and reliability aren't necessarily loyal to any one brand and people who buy based on brand identification aren't going to change just because another brand is less expensive or more reliable.

Which group do we fall into?

 

[leem00]

I found the following quote from the article most interesting:

"Despite the higher number of problems, Harley-Davidson and BMW owners told CR that they were among the most satisfied with their bikes. When asked whether, considering everything, they would buy their bike again if they had it to do over, 75 percent of Harley-Davidson owners said definitely yes, closely followed by 74 percent of BMW owners and 72 percent of Honda owners. By contrast, only 63 and 60 percent of Yamaha and Kawasaki owners, respectively, were as emphatic."

After thinking about it though, I was not surprised. People who buy motorcycles (or cars for that matter), based on value and reliability aren't necessarily loyal to any one brand and people who buy based on brand identification aren't going to change just because another brand is less expensive or more reliable.

Which group do we fall into?

I agree... that it didn;t surprise me but was most interesting of a comment.

Its strange though, for cars I look at ford and only ford...for a couple of reasons.... "only car built with out my tax dollars" (lets not start a debate on that though), I have found them to be more reliable for me personally 4 of the five ford vehicles i have owned lasted 200,000 miles +.

Bikes I am more about comfort and fun... honda shadow 1100 and then the fz6r... next will be a harley street glide....

 

[latony007]

I agree... that it didn;t surprise me but was most interesting of a comment.

Its strange though, for cars I look at ford and only ford...for a couple of reasons.... "only car built with out my tax dollars" (lets not start a debate on that though), I have found them to be more reliable for me personally 4 of the five ford vehicles i have owned lasted 200,000 miles +.

Bikes I am more about comfort and fun... honda shadow 1100 and then the fz6r... next will be a harley street glide....

Since this article is about the low reliability of certain bikes (and remember this is only new bikes to 2009, what do you think the stats are on bikes older than that? 1 out of 1 harleys with problems and like 1 out of 7 with Yamaha?)Why a street glide? I really know nothing about their models, is there no Suzuki,vstar,kawi model that is similar?

I found the following quote from the article most interesting:

"Despite the higher number of problems, Harley-Davidson and BMW owners told CR that they were among the most satisfied with their bikes. When asked whether, considering everything, they would buy their bike again if they had it to do over, 75 percent of Harley-Davidson owners said definitely yes, closely followed by 74 percent of BMW owners and 72 percent of Honda owners. By contrast, only 63 and 60 percent of Yamaha and Kawasaki owners, respectively, were as emphatic."

After thinking about it though, I was not surprised. People who buy motorcycles (or cars for that matter), based on value and reliability aren't necessarily loyal to any one brand and people who buy based on brand identification aren't going to change just because another brand is less expensive or more reliable.

Which group do we fall into?

Well said Sir. They could put out a pink brick and call it an iphone and there would still be certain people waiting in line to buy it.

 

[leem00]

Why a street glide? I really know nothing about their models, is there no Suzuki,vstar,kawi model that is similar?

I like the look of that model, its kind of a half and half full bagger and fat boy mix. Think the goldwing f6b basically a gold wing with a short wind shield think 6 inches (that what she said), and no top trunk.

From the other models that look like it this was the most comfortable saddle wise... strange I know. I have a bad hip and back so the ergos of actually sitting on it for an hour I had less pain than on the kaw 1300 (dash was to tall for my stature), and honda gold wing f6b (to wide - hurt my hip throwing a leg over).

 

[knightmare]

This is why I love yamaha... Fast sexy and reliable.....


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[Bert-Aus]

Whilst this data capture is limited to CR readers,
the positive results can be assumed to be slightly higher than recorded due to happy customers being less inclined to comment.
When consumers are unsatisfied with their purchase/ service they are more likely to promote their dissatifaction than, consumers that are satisfied.
Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

 

[latony007]

Whilst this data capture is limited to CR readers,
the positive results can be assumed to be slightly higher than recorded due to happy customers being less inclined to comment.
When consumers are unsatisfied with their purchase/ service they are more likely to promote their dissatifaction than, consumers that are satisfied.
Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2

Meaning happy customers wouldn't participate in the survey? I guess that's possible but I think the ratios would hold the same. Just as many happy Yamaha people would not participate as happy Harley riders. Lets face it the Japanese can build bikes and cars to last better than we can. I think its because if something does go wrong with a new bike the person who assembled it is required to kill themselves