| Author | Message | ||
     Snackbar64 |
Flint River Harley-Davidson seems to have given up on Buell. One day there were five buells on the floor including a Ulysses. Now there are soft tails sitting where they were. I know all of them weren't sold. I've purchased two Buells from them and now I can't get either of them serviced... I assume. There should be an agreement that any Buell motorcycle purchased from a Harley Dealership should be serviced for the life of the bike. | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Why can't they sercive your bike? Do you know they dropped it, or did they just move them? I dont think a dealer would like having rumors started about them (course, they might have dropped) Did you ask anyone? The only thing that a non-Buell dealer is unable to do is perform warranty work on your bike. I will assume that they still have the same staff that would be doing the service anyway. | ||
| No_rice |
it sure seems like once the buell dealership is dropped they wont touch a buell. i keep getting customers for parts and service because the dealers around here wont service them anymore. i honestly didnt know if they couldnt or just wouldnt | ||
| Pwnzor |
My dealer, Laidlaw's Harley Davidson in Baldwin Park California, sent me a very nice letter explaining to me that I am basically up a creek without a paddle. When I called them they told me they could still change my oil, IF I BRING A FILTER WITH ME. Tire changes can be done with an appointment and ONLY if I order the tire through them. Warranty service completely out of the question. I agree that a dealer should be bound to service any vehicle they sell until they close their doors permanently. By not doing so just makes our bikes less and less common on the road, and could be a contributing factor in the death of the species. Compile with that the apparently total lack of enthusiasm for the brand exhibited at every Harley dealer I've ever personally visited. I know I will probably get yelled at for generalizing and furthermore admonished for not having visted the Glendale CA store yet. I hear they are great. For the dealers that inhabit this message board, I sure wish I lived in your state. It just seems that if you really want any customer service with regard to your Buell, you gotta go to one of the dealers on this site, or call the factory and have them bitch the dealer out on your behalf. Am I way off base here? | ||
| Mattwhite |
The place I bought mine (Gilberts HD in Port Huron, MI) said they're dropping Buells but keeping the blast since they run the riders edge course. The mechanic says they'll still service other Buells but they only keep basic maintenance parts. If there was a real problem it could take a while to get the parts. It's too bad, too. They treated me well. They weren't ashamed of Buell, the bikes were right in the front of the shop. No clothes or accessories, though. | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Forgot to mention that a non-dealer cannot order parts either. We had a dealer that was close to us that had a tech that rode a Buell, it was funny when he had to come into our store to get parts. lol | ||
| No_rice |
that would suck, i hope they dont decide to get rid of ours. i get really tired of nothing but chrome, really fast. | ||
| Molly_hatchet |
for me the worst part of owning a harley based product is...having to go to a harley dealership....ive never been treated worse in my life...gee im sorry i didnt spend 30 grand on an over priced over weight heap of crap that only impresses doctors lawyers and accountants....bar none every single one of my firneds that own a harley has said the worst part about it is having to go to the dealership....i found one about 20 miles away from me that isnt too bad.....i looked at bikes for months before i decided what to buy and ricer dealerships arent much better....ive been around cars most of my life and car dealerships...if any sales person that sells cars acted like motorcycle sales people...they would all be looking for new jobs the next day...i hope there are some good harley dealers out there but its a crying shame that buell dosent have their own shops and has to be second best in a dealership that most of us hate going to and when we do we are treated like dirtbags cause we dont own a road king and have disposable income for another grand in chrome whenver we show up. (Message edited by molly_hatchet on June 18, 2006) | ||
| Destroy |
Three separate Harley dealers in my area dropped the Buell franchise line this year.  Sort of scares me to be interested in buying one. | ||
| Davo |
We have lost a few in VA as well. It appears the ship is sinking. It might be just as well. Buells do not belong in chrome boutiques. | ||
| Diablobrian |
Fortunately you don't need to go in the dealership much. Unless you live around Ames IA, or Appleton WI  | ||
| Mutation_racer |
sad but the good thing is its one more hd deal thats was just a hd dealer selling buell. see ya. the good thing is that what were gonna be left with is real buell dealers also selling harley too | ||
| Brad_buell |
My HD/Buell Dealership dropped Buell, too. They can still service my XB9, but I have to bring the parts. It's unfortunate because they're a Great Dealership with a Great service department. | ||
| M1combat |
Yell "Bingo" Anthony. | ||
| Aatch |
so why doesn't buell open up their own dealerships? i know it's probably obscenely expensive, but i agree about being treated like a second class citizen at a harley dealership...they build great bikes, show 'em off! | ||
| 99cyclone |
Diablobrian, I'm not sure what you mean about the Ames dealer (Zylstra's). Heck, I live in Ames and won't do business there. For starters, they don't even have a Buell sign out front. They also seriously gouge you for parts. This spring they quoted me $102 for a $78 battery and $45 for $22 worth of gaskets. They won't be getting any of my hard earned dough! | ||
| Ctyxrnr |
i'm glad to say that the dealer i go to Gail's Buell and Harley in Kansas City, MO. actually treat me like i am one of them. anything i need done no problem. parts discounted through some of the fellas i have gotten to know. even though i didn't purchase my bike there. got it when i was living in NC. unfortunatly the dealer were i got it from dropped Buell. my bike was the last new one they had to get rid of to seal the deal. had a electrical issue last week. dropped it off last Sat. morning no appointment or any warning. brought a tire on tues. afternoon. got the bike back Fri. afternoon. unfortunately the tech could not duplicate the short and found nothing wrong with the wiring anywere. the tech had a good bit of time invested in the bike and he got paid absolutely nothing for his time. plus the dealer didn't charge me for his time just the tire install. kinda pisses me off since i am a 4 wheeled tech. plus the service manager says my front forks are leaking to get the fluid changed under warranty. part of having over 10k miles in less than a year and not having the funds to have it done. they didn't have the fork seals in stock so that is why the long wait. i wish other people in this area would drop all the B.S. towards the dealer here. they have been top notch in my book. from what i have heard is that they used to treat us like dog crap. now that they have gotten new staff since moving into their new building. Also they are now the only Buell dealer in the KC region. Kudos to Gail's!!! | ||
| Ridesinnm |
Lots of Harley dealers won't even service the older Harleys. If you have a 70s or early 80s shovelhead Harley you will probably have to go elsewhere. Brad. | ||
| No_rice |
Joe, you just have to hit up the right people. the no sign out front thing bugs me but cant change it. and as for the prices on stuff, all i'm going to say is i dont have control over what they want for stuff but i do have some control over what they get for stuff. not trying to step on any of the sponsors toes here and they should know that about me by now, but if you need something and end up going to my shop, talk to me, i do what i can... | ||
| Snakedriver |
The H-D dealer in Morgantown, WV. Triple S ditched the Buell sign as well. They said that they would continue to service the bike. They have a great staff. Leo | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
So is there a current list of Buell dealers? Maybe one that points who is good, and who to avoid? I may be fortunate that I have 3 buell dealers within 25mins of me, but the thought of me doing some traveling has me wondering? What the hell would I do if something went wrong in a Buell-unfriendly area? | ||
| Whodom |
My local dealer (Lowcountry HD/Buell in Charleston, SC) has me a little worried. They moved into a fancy new building a few months back and haven't bothered yet to put a Buell sign on it. OTOH, they are still stocking a few Buells and I actually found some new Buell merchandise (caps) on the shelf this past Friday. I figured I better buy one while I had the chance. The cashier says "Oh, we just got those in" and I mentioned it was the first Buell merchandise I'd seen in 4 or 5 years. She says "Yea, lots of people have been asking us to get some Buell stuff". I figure that's a good sign. A new dealership also just opened near Columbia, SC, "Thundertower HD/Buell" and they have their Buell sign prominently displayed. Stopped by there on Saturday and they had 3 (yes three) Ulysses in stock in addition to one XB12R and a couple of Blasts, but no Buell merchandise. When asked about it, they said they were still unpacking and thought they had some; asked us to check back later. I'm hoping they'll turn out to be a good Buell dealer. | ||
| Bmwdavid |
In my neck of the woods-Southwest Indiana- we used to have three Buell dealers. Terre Haute (Wabash Harley Davidson/Buell), Evansville (Buds Harley Davidson Buell) and Bloomington (Bloomington Harley Davidson/Buell). Terre Haute and Evansville have dropped Buell. Mind you that these are two relatively large modern cities. Bloomington is the farthest from me but they are a dedicated dealer and really like Buell. I bought my Uly from them this May. I saw the same thing happen with BMW bikes in the past. Had three dealers in a 100 miles radius of me several years ago and now zero. Nearest BMW bike dealer is well over 100 miles from me. Scratch BMW from my list. Sure hope Buell remains strong in my location other wise I'll be looking at Asian bikes again. David | ||
| Mojave_mike |
QUOTE (I know I will probably get yelled at for generalizing and furthermore admonished for not having visted the Glendale CA store yet. I hear they are great.) + 1 on that statement. Harley/Buell of Glendale go out of their way to promote Buell. On Sunday, 2 BRAG staff members from Wisconsin came to Glendale and organized the "Ride to the Races". This was a whole day event..donuts and coffee at Glendale, then a ride thru' the twisties in Angeles Crest to Willow Springs Raceway to watch the Harley/Buell race team do their stuff. I think there were 3 Buell team members and 3-4 independants. Hamburgers/hotdogs/watermelon/brownies and sodas/water were provided all afternoon (temp was over 100 deg). After the races, Ernie, the head sales honcho (who rides an XB9R and also races) hearded all the BRAG Buellers together and off we went to do a few more twisties on the way to our next stop, dinner, at Chichis pizza restaurant. It was about 6.00pm when we finaly broke up and made our way home. A great day, and all organized by BRAG and Harley/Buell of Glendale. Mike | ||
| 99cyclone |
Tim (No_rice) - I take it you work for Zylstra's? I should stop in and say Hi some time. I work at Sauer (I-35 & 13th St), so I ride past the dealer about 4x every day. Have you guys started stocking any Buell gear or accessories? I usually try to buy a t-shirt when I visit a dealer that acually carries them. | ||
| Eboos |
The problem with a seperate Buell dealership is the lack of variaty. Buell has roughly 7 models (XB9SX, XB12S, XB12SS, XB12X, XB9R, XB12R, and the Blast) 5 of the 7 look very much alike to the untrained eye. I don't think that it would attract enough business alone to sustain itself. Look at most foreign bike dealers. YaKaHoSu are usually grouped together. Even BMW, Ducati and Aprilia are sold together near me. I think that if there were seperate Buell dealers, then you would have a group of sales people and techs that are very passionate about the brand, and that is a good thing, I just don't see it generating enough volume to make it work. | ||
| Crusty |
So is there a current list of Buell dealers? Maybe one that points who is good, and who to avoid? The problem with that is who decides which dealer is "good". The dealer I bought my Ulysses from has always treated me fairly. I bought a couple of Harleys from them back in the '80s and was treated well. They just started carrying Buells a couple of years ago, so I bought my Uly from them last December. They have a Tech (mechanic) who seems to know his stuff (before I ever picked up my Uly, he checked and reset the timing). Their parts dept isn't overly stocked, but they treat me as a Customer (i.e. with respect)and will order what I want. Their sales staff is pretty much clueless when it comes to Buells. All in all, I'd recommend them with reservations. However, there are some people who hate them. I had someone tell me that they wouldn't do business with them if they were the only Buell (or Harley) dealer in the world. Whose opinion is more valid? There are some shops that everyone will agree suck, and there are some shops that everyone will agree are great; but there are a lot like the one I deal with. | ||
| Corporatemonkey |
Crusty, I agree that there would be disagreements, but much like ebay let the market decide. I as consumer could look at reviews (good or bad) about a dealer and decide if they are for me. So people have had good sales experiences, but crappy service experience. Which one is more important? Depends on your needs. Being that I live in a city I don't have a place to wash my bike, let alone change the oil... I am depended on a decent service department. Now if I was reading reviews on a certain dealer, and service issues kept popping up, at least it would allow me to decide for myself. Currently we have nothing. If I travel to another city and need help, at this point I would be at the mercy of this group to guide me to a Buell friendly dealer (or at least a competent dealer). It just would be nice to maybe have something. Hell even Buell's website is not 100% up to date. | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
The disappearing dealer problem and the lack of response from East Troy are clear signs that either 1) Buell is being allowed to die, or , 2) management is asleep at the wheel. In the short run, any dealer that has the proper training and tools should be allowed to work on Buells. Like Mack trucks and Saturn did for years, independent shops and even Buellers that meet standards should be authorized to service Buells while the dealer network can be rebuilt. Hopefully some of these folks will become dealers- HD can legally award a Buell dealership to an independent, brand X, or new start up once the Harley dealer in the area has abandoned Buell. HD should be moving agressively to establish such new dealerships. | ||
| Pwnzor |
...but they aren't. In my experience, technicians who say they are doing everything they can to re-create the condition which brought you to the dealer in the first place are just plain telling stories. I've not found one yet that actually takes the bike out and rides it. Its difficult to get a bike to fail for you if you just run it for 5 minutes in the shop while its connected to a computer. Top that off with getting charged for an oil change that never happened, twice. Oh and even when they do change the oil, they like to "forget" to change the o-ring on the drain plug or to clean the drain plug at all for that matter. |
