At this stage of the game I have wondered what becomes of the motorcycles that the MOCO has bought back from the original purchasers because of problems with either transmission fluid migration or sumping issues. If your state has a Lemon Law that includes motorcycles and you decide to avail yourself of it, I am told by a friend who just got finished with a long and stressful legal battle in which he endeavored the MOCO to buy back his motorcycle because a host of different dealers could not fix it. At one point the MOCO even went so far as to fly out a person from Milwaukee to inspect the bike, ride it and watch as several dealer mechanics tore it down. At the end of the day the MOCO rep had some parts over nighted to the dealer and supposedly "the fix was in". Sadly, "the fix" was not in and the bike still was not fixed. Before leaving back to Milwaukee the dealer rep even went so far as to make a recording of the data on the ECM in the hope that they might see something show up when they examined the data back in their lab, shop, cubicle or wherever they do such things. He never heard from them after that so he does not know what they found or saw. Most likely nothing.

From the start of the Lemon Law filing using a lawyer it took about 11 months before he got an offer from the MOCO. In total he took it to 5 dealers and all of them kept it for anywhere from one week to 5 weeks. Most Lemon Laws give the dealer three opportunities to fix it before you can Lemon Law it and ask for a buyback. He noted that after he hired a lawyer he was immediately considered a "persona non grata" by his selling dealer. He says they refused to talk to him and treated him like he had a communicable disease.

The bike was 12 months old and it took 11 months for the Lemon Law filing to play out before the MOCO legal department cut him a check. Essentially they bought back the bike and he had to give his attorney about 30% of his proceeds. He was making payments on the bike all this time. When it was all said and done my friend actually went in the hole because the buyback depreciated his year old bike. He was not happy about how it ended up but he was just glad to get rid of the pos and move on with life. I asked him if he knew what became of the bike after the MOCO took possession of it and he said "they just put it back out there and resell it to some unsuspecting buyer". He did not know if they had to mark the title as being a "buyback" or not. I suppose every state that has a Lemon Law has different ways of handling it but to just put it back out without telling the prospective new buyer that it was a dealer buyback does not seem right.
Anybody else have some practical experience on things like this?

 

 

Motorcycles were moved from motor vehicle's to RV in the 80s. With that reclassification, many states no longer have lemon laws that apply to motorcycles. Lemon laws do not apply to used vehicles. So if the bike gets "fixed", it can be resold simply as used.

 

After 5 attempts and both, a West Coast Guru and an East Coast Guru looking at it and still could not stopping the dreaded "Tranny Transfer", the MoCo gave me a brand new bike. At their expense, my new Stage IV kit was installed in the new engine, the dealership swapped over all my chrome and extras onto the new bike, plus, because there were no other '17 Laguna Orange RK's within the state of CA, they had to give one with ABS and Security already on it as well for free. Mileage went from 13,500 to 47 and the warranty started over at day 1. The loan amount stayed the same with only a VIN change, so I gained equity because of the mileage difference. I definitely came out ahead in the deal. After the bikes were swapped out and I was back on the road, the MoCo had my dealership keep the old bike there and made them put it on the floor for resale right there. The MoCo said that, "Usually, the problem goes away with the previous owner". It sat on the floor and 2-3 months later it got sold. I'm pretty close with my service guys, so if it comes back in for the transfer, I'm sure I'll hear about it. So, although it wasn't an actual "Lemon Law" buy back, I was taken care of but you are right OP, they DO resell the old problem bikes!

 

 

I didn`t with that scenario, but I felt I got ripped off by the MOCO that resulted from an accident that wasn`t my fault, and my bike ultimately got "totaled" when it shouldn`t have. Ultimately, I got screwed by the deal in a similar way that the above story implies. That soured me on ever buying another Harley bike again. It suggested that the MOCO is nothing but a bunch of corporate thugs whose only goal is to separate the buyers` money from them for their own selfish gain. They long ago, in my opinion, ceased trying to build good quality American motorcycles. But, that`s just me.

 

 

Not sure about how MoCo handles it, but Ford would sell these vehicles at auction as-is, no warranty. I processed several lemon-law buybacks for them and that's where they landed.

 

I watched the used Sportster market around me for a while and couldn't tell you how many 15 - 20 year old bikes I saw with under 1,800 miles.

I received mine new on a Wednesday with 4 miles on the OD and it was back at the dealer that Saturday for the 1,000 service. lol

 

You are incorrect. All lemon law buy backs not only have the remainder of factory warranty the issue that created the buy back is warranted for an additional 12 months.

A quick google search turned up this dealer who says it very well....

https://www.sneedford.com/MB.html

"...As mentioned above, the balance of the factory warranty remains, and a new 12 months/12,000 miles warranty starts the day you buy the vehicle. .."

You will find most manufacturers have similar buy back policies.

The thread is about motorcycle buy backs but I always want to correct misinformation for the benefit of others.