| Author | Message | ||
     Bigdog_tim |
Well - am a little depressed. My dealer had me come in, sign all the paper work, give the title to my trade in, etc on 12/1. In effect, I have already paid for my bike. The dealer told me that my bike would be delivered this week. Well - it hasn't been delivered and now they said that it MIGHT be here next Thursday. At this point, I am not ready to totally flame my dealer - but this has me really concerned. For example, they can not tell me FOR SURE if my bike has even been manufactured! Personally, I find that statement incredible. Assuming it has been manufactured, they have no way of knowing if it has been shipped. Now - I know that Buell/Harley contracts the shipping of bikes to the dealerships. But I am equally certain that someone from Buell/Harley knows where every truck is - otherwise, they would all end up in Mexico getting their serial numbers filed off. Anyone have any suggestions? All I want to know is when my bike will be in. | ||
| Bigdog_tim |
Oh - and I should add - my dealer said there was a Plant SHUTDOWN/SLOWDOWN after Thanksgiving. Again - this sounds like "BS" - but before flaming my dealer.... And for what it is worth - the last four digits of my vin are 0285 | ||
| Andrewwegbert |
I feel your pain brother. I'm not getting one personally unfortunately but I have three customers who've had money down for months now and keep getting bumped to a later date. I can tell you that even though I work for a dealer my resources are limited. It's frustrating to say the least. Why do other dealers have 3 and 4 now ,uncommited, and I haven't gotten the first one yet? My 3rd guy got bumped to late January! Word on the street is that my first one was shipped Wednesday before last so where is it? I would like to at least give my customers a solid answer, they deserve that!  | ||
| Hughlysses |
Tim, There was mention of the shutdown in another thread- it affected HD plants only; no impact on Buell. | ||
| Ratbuell |
If you have a VIN that begins with 4MZHL, the bike has been built. Before there is a bike, there is no VIN. The plant shutdown was an HD plant IIRC, *not* a Buell plant. Dealers are given limited information when ordering / tracking bikes. We get the following: Pre-build: Option cutoff date (color, etc. for HDs) Status (allocated, credit approved, released to plant, shipped, invoiced) ESTIMATED ship date Post-build: VIN number but only *after* the bike exists ACTUAL ship date, but only when the bike is loaded on a truck at the dock. There is no mechanism in place to track a bike once it has shipped. Dealers are not given in-transit information, nor do we have a way to get it (I'm sure Corporate tracks them, but not at a dealer level). As you noted, Buell does not distribute bikes to dealers, they send them to HD for distribution. In our case (East coast) my understanding is the bikes go to York and are unloaded. They wait at York until the regional trucks are filled enough to be shipped (that means my Maryland bikes have to wait until the Maryland truck is filled with not only my one 1125r, but 44 or however many Maryland HDs). Then the truck leaves and brings bikes to the dealers as weather, traffic, and CDL licensing laws allow. Our 1125 shipped on 11/28 (estimated date was 11/19). We received it on 12/7. Between those 2 dates it was a hateful waiting game...but we knew it was coming sometime soon! We have one that shipped on 11/30 that still isn't here; I figure end of next week we'll see that one. Much as I'd love to see a truck head out for just one bike...I know it won't happen. Sorry Pete. Don't flame your dealer. They have absolutely no way of knowing where your bike is once it has been shipped. The weather hasn't helped shipping either up north. Ask if they'll run a report for you: H-Dnet Vehicle Order Inquiry They enter your factory order number (6 digits, only your dealer can run your order). It should show the information above. If it has not yet shipped, they should have told you but sometimes we get afraid to disappoint the customer. If they mis-red the "estimated" ship date as an "actual", they're human like the rest of us and read the wrong column by mistake. We all want these bikes, and even without knowing your dealer, I can pretty much *guarantee* they want you to have your bike as much as you do. Ask nicely, I'm sure they can run the report for you. | ||
| Zac4mac |
Good info Joe, thanks. I've got a VIN, wish more people in Colorado would buy a new Buell or even an HD so it would get here sooner. Snowing like a bad word right now, so it's moot. I'd rather her sitting in my garage instead of an ice cold dock somewhere though. Z | ||
| Bigdog_tim |
Thanks Ratbuell. I am avoiding flaming my dealer - they have been great people in the past. But this situation has been crazy. For a little background: the guy that owned the dealership (Russ Thom) died just prior to selling the dealership to a multi-brand dealership. Everything - and I really mean everything - went straight into the toilet after the sale and (if possible) more after Russ's death. The staff at my dealership is like family. But since the change of ownership (and Russ's death) it is like there is some wierd corporate policy. What I am trying to do is filter "corporate policy" from "how it really is". My S/N is 0285 - so my guess is that the next truck from BUELL has my baby on it. The really suck thing: I have a business trip to Milwaukie next week (a surprise trip). I will most likely FLY over my baby enroute.  Thanks | ||
| Ratbuell |
Dunno if VIN has much to do with it. Our first has a VIN of 0283; our *second* has a VIN of 0230. <shrug> They don't necessarily ship in the order built. It's like my Shelby Dodge - car 135 of 500 with a dash plaque and all. No VIN sequencing. The 500 were built, parked, and apparently in a day someone went out with a bag of dash plaques and a notebook, and logged which (random) dash plaque got stuck to which VIN. No rhyme or reason - that's what makes it fun  | ||
| Zac4mac |
Talked to Reed at Sun, yesterday. My VIN is 304, the next bike they get is 154. Order # on #1 is ~1000 lower than the #2 bike. Z | ||
| Court |
There was no shutdown. There is a lot of information there that is incorrect. VIN has little to do with shipping, delivery, sequence or anything. HD can tell you where every bike is at anytime. All dealers have access to that information. |
