• There has been a recent cluster of spammers accessing BARFer accounts and posting spam. To safeguard your account, please consider changing your password. It would be even better to take the additional step of enabling 2 Factor Authentication (2FA) on your BARF account. Read more here.

Lemon Law Advice/Experience?

Jumpin' Jeebus, all this for a bike that cost KTM probably less than $3000? How much would they fight over a 1290 Duke?

it's not just the one bike-it's a whole bunch of them.
 
Weird? It sounds like the KTM guy got everything he wanted: you still haven't called a lawyer ...

:confused Huh? I am following the advice of a lawyer. It's just gonna be slow like all legal things and her advice seems to be right in line with the other lemon law stories here on barf.

EDIT: In my limited experience, lawyers will give you a list after your initial consultation of things to document and general instructions on getting your ducks all in a row. It's not like they just take over and you kick back and wait. I'm plugging my way down the list and one of the items is that I have to give them 30 days from once I've asked for a buy back for KTM to respond. Then we escalate. The only thing that short circuit's that is if they say, "No" which ends that clock immediately.

Apparently, we're making "good progress" FWIW :)
 
Last edited:
:confused Huh? I am following the advice of a lawyer. It's just gonna be slow like all legal things and her advice seems to be right in line with the other lemon law stories here on barf.

Calling KTM without a specific action plan or list of demands doesn't seem like sound legal advice to me... Perhaps your free legal advice isn't worth what you've paid for it?
 
We need to do more as a collective group in situations like this....
(Yes I am a child of the 60's).....
As a group we should write and call both the dealer and KTM and let them know that we will not buy their product until they improve their response to situations like this.
I have run this approach by a very high level motorcycle exec and if they get a critical mass speaking to a problem they listen and things get dealt with.
He told me of a guy who got a tv consumer show to run his story about his - year old bike that was down 60% of the time. Within 3 days he had a full buy back and an apology.
Yes the lemon law will work but in reality it takes too long and they just take their time because a lot of people just give up.
I had a similar case with Ducati.
They responded in a reasonable time and took care of the problems and gave me an extended warranty and money towards future service.
Whole thing took only 3 weeks and I was satisfied.
You should be given a buy back no problem.
Good luck and keep us posted.
 
this post has pretty well scared me off of owning a KTM

seeing the fustercluck that people went through with the faulty electrical gremlins on the hypermotard has me pretty skeptical about a Ducati.

Pretty sure my next bike is going to be Japanese (sportbike) as a result of this cavalcade of incompetence from KTM.
 
After owning a Duc my two new bikes are now Japanese.
Happy, happy, happy.
RC
 
After owning a Duc my two new bikes are now Japanese.
Happy, happy, happy.
RC

Sigh. My MTS has been in the Motor Cafe since July 9 because of a CEL that turned out to be a failure in the gear sensor, which, in turn, is a 1-2hr job. Nice way to waste the summer. This would not be that bad if the Ducati dealerships provided loaner bikes. As it stands, this is a major PITA. If 21 days is a trigger for the lemon law, I'm not that far from it on this one...
 
I see a Ninja 300 in your future... Mine never skipped a beat
 
The KTM was supposed to be my primary commuter: fuel efficient, nice and thin for lane splitting and fun in the twisties (80 miles/day - half twisties). It's been in the shop so much that I've been leaning heavily on my Ducati 848 SE to get the job done. It's been rock solid.

So much so, that I'm considering an older 2-valve air cooled monster as a replacement for the KTM. I hear those engines are super reliable and very easy to maintain. Maybe a S2R or M695?
That or I just play it safe and buy a Honda CBR650F for commuting duty. I'd love an electric but, the most affordable one that can make the distance is $19K-$22k out the door. That or one of these:

...assuming I could get my hands on one ;)
 
Last edited:
S2R800 are bomb proof.. although they have the sucky plastic tank. If you can find a S2R1000, you get dry clutch, adjustable susp, AND the sucky plastic tank
 
Ninja 300 is way more sensible... Heck get a year old one
 
S2R800 are bomb proof.. although they have the sucky plastic tank. If you can find a S2R1000, you get dry clutch, adjustable susp, AND the sucky plastic tank
Heh, well the ethanol issues is a drag but, new tanks are not too pricey (for Ducati things).

As for the Ninja, I'm just a little tired of working on one yet. It has some good practical arguments and the best range in it's class but,...
 
i had hoped for a better outcome for you.would you go for 2016 390 if ktm offered?i have had 0 problems with my 2016.well,except for upper fairings cracking around bolts.but that was handled in a week.
 
There is more than the cost of a new bike worth of damaging PR in this thread alone that's for sure
 
There is more than the cost of a new bike worth of damaging PR in this thread alone that's for sure

And the longer they wait the worse it will get for them. Seems this is NOT the only forum its posted on:
http://www.rc390-forum.com/forum/engine-and-technical-discussion/1092-bike-suddenly-louder.html

That thread has around 7.3k views plus the one on our site 1.7k
Maybe its time to step it up and spam their twitter and FB? Maybe the message is not LOUD enough yet?

since they did replace this guys engine for him...
 
For a practical commuter, maybe check out the CBR500R or CB500F? My wife rented the latter and it was a lot of fun, torquey motor and holds up well at highway speeds. About the same ballpark price on CL.
 
Based on what I have read you still do not have a verbal refusal to buy back the bike. Also, I can't conceive of a situation where a lawyer would give legal advise to seek an unsubstantiated verbal statement in a private phone conversation from anyone let alone a corporation. What is the value in that when best case scenario is your word vs someone else's word?

However, if you want to complete that process you need to call that guy back and say, "based on our prior phone conversation I'm taking your statement to be a verbal refusal by KTM to buy back my bike and I am now prepared to move forward with my next step."

That will fulfill your obligation as far as the advice that you got. Don't engage with anything he has to say that isn't related to how soon you get paid. Let me say it again, do not get baited and don't engage. That will stop the clock and you are free to do what you want.

Keep in mind that you are engaged with someone who is paid to protect the interests of KTM, not your interest. Part of that is to keep you from getting a refusal to buy back the bike. If you get the refusal then your position is strengthened and KTM's is weakened.
 
Last edited:
My suggestion is to write down a timeline of all the purchase and all the failures and summarize with the x days out of service of Y days of ownership and all due to mechanical failures of their defective product that is not fit for the use it was sold for and you want a refund.

Address it to the Customer Service Manager that you spoke to.

Then see what KTM NA does.

I would also follow-up with phone calls to the Customer Service Manager and requests for a specific contact in KTM NA Legal department that handles lemon law refunds.
 
Back
Top