Quad Bike Rip Offs!

Frank-the-Wool

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
East Sussex
Having only bought Yamaha Quads for some years, decided to try a Suzuki as it was difficult to get Yamaha this last winter.
It was slightly cheaper and seemed a similar spec.
When you buy a new Yamaha the first service the labour is free, so you just pay for oil and filters which are reasonable.
When we had a Honda it was the same, the first service was labour free.

Not the Suzuki and the parts are eye wateringly expensive and some unnecessary to replace at 20 hours, such as the fuel filter at nearly £40. Two Spark plugs, yes it is a single cylinder but has two plugs. It is seldom we ever change a plug on a Yamaha.
When the first service came to nearly £400 I was not happy.
The dealer has now credited the labour but it was still almost three times the price for the parts and consumables compared with the Yamaha.

Sometimes cheaper to buy isn't cheaper at all!
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Having only bought Yamaha Quads for some years, decided to try a Suzuki as it was difficult to get Yamaha this last winter.
It was slightly cheaper and seemed a similar spec.
When you buy a new Yamaha the first service the labour is free, so you just pay for oil and filters which are reasonable.
When we had a Honda it was the same, the first service was labour free.

Not the Suzuki and the parts are eye wateringly expensive and some unnecessary to replace at 20 hours, such as the fuel filter at nearly £40. Two Spark plugs, yes it is a single cylinder but has two plugs. It is seldom we ever change a plug on a Yamaha.
When the first service came to nearly £400 I was not happy.
The dealer has now credited the labour but it was still almost three times the price for the parts and consumables compared with the Yamaha.

Sometimes cheaper to buy isn't cheaper at all!
Put a Honda engine in a Yamaha and I’d be ecstatic!! Had problems with the Yam engines yet never had a problem with Honda engines but plenty of gearboxes. I have heard the Suzuki is a good bike though 🤷🏻‍♂️
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
All this meas is you have a good Yamaha dealer and not quite so good a Suzuki dealer.

Neither of my 2 Suzuki's cost £400 for first service. 9000 miles across 2 bikes so far and I'm very happy (and IMO they're a lot nicer to drive than a Yamaha 450)
My 2019 Yam was nice to drive compared to the 2015 Honda, the 21 Yam is a totally different league to the 19 Yam, I’ve driven it a few times in a few months and everything about it feels heavy and slow compared to the new models. Models with all makes are always being upgraded etc so you need to try 2 new bikes of the exact same age to compare fairly.
 

Tony1989

Member
Having only bought Yamaha Quads for some years, decided to try a Suzuki as it was difficult to get Yamaha this last winter.
It was slightly cheaper and seemed a similar spec.
When you buy a new Yamaha the first service the labour is free, so you just pay for oil and filters which are reasonable.
When we had a Honda it was the same, the first service was labour free.

Not the Suzuki and the parts are eye wateringly expensive and some unnecessary to replace at 20 hours, such as the fuel filter at nearly £40. Two Spark plugs, yes it is a single cylinder but has two plugs. It is seldom we ever change a plug on a Yamaha.
When the first service came to nearly £400 I was not happy.
The dealer has now credited the labour but it was still almost three times the price for the parts and consumables compared with the Yamaha.

Sometimes cheaper to buy isn't cheaper at all!
Have you ever thought it might be the dealer and not the bike 🤷‍♂️
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
My 2019 Yam was nice to drive compared to the 2015 Honda, the 21 Yam is a totally different league to the 19 Yam, I’ve driven it a few times in a few months and everything about it feels heavy and slow compared to the new models. Models with all makes are always being upgraded etc so you need to try 2 new bikes of the exact same age to compare fairly.

Close friend runs Yamaha's I've driven them all. The current model 450 is a lot nicer than the older one, but it simply isn't a patch on the Suzuki 500, to drive all day - even he admitted my Suzuki is nicer.

He bought a Yamaha 700 in January, and it is almost as good as the Suzuki
 

Al R

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
West Wales
Close friend runs Yamaha's I've driven them all. The current model 450 is a lot nicer than the older one, but it simply isn't a patch on the Suzuki 500, to drive all day - even he admitted my Suzuki is nicer.

He bought a Yamaha 700 in January, and it is almost as good as the Suzuki
Fair enough, I don’t know anyone with a Suzuki and my dealer doesn’t do them.. yes I could change dealers but when we’ve had gearboxes go on a Sunday during lambing the owner himself has dropped bikes down to keep us going from near 3 hours away. You can’t fault service like that!
 

Tsa115

Member
Livestock Farmer
Having only bought Yamaha Quads for some years, decided to try a Suzuki as it was difficult to get Yamaha this last winter.
It was slightly cheaper and seemed a similar spec.
When you buy a new Yamaha the first service the labour is free, so you just pay for oil and filters which are reasonable.
When we had a Honda it was the same, the first service was labour free.

Not the Suzuki and the parts are eye wateringly expensive and some unnecessary to replace at 20 hours, such as the fuel filter at nearly £40. Two Spark plugs, yes it is a single cylinder but has two plugs. It is seldom we ever change a plug on a Yamaha.
When the first service came to nearly £400 I was not happy.
The dealer has now credited the labour but it was still almost three times the price for the parts and consumables compared with the Yamaha.

Sometimes cheaper to buy isn't cheaper at all!
Ours was shy of £500 the other day, fuel and air filter at £38 each, oil was only a couple quid though, price including oil , changed diff oils and also managed to wack the speed sensor off so new sensor as well, labour came close to £200. One or two around here dont bother with service drive for 3 years and change the bike , they rekon the £4- 500 quid a service soon helps towards a new one.
 

Tony1989

Member
Ours was shy of £500 the other day, fuel and air filter at £38 each, oil was only a couple quid though, price including oil , changed diff oils and also managed to wack the speed sensor off so new sensor as well, labour came close to £200. One or two around here dont bother with service drive for 3 years and change the bike , they rekon the £4- 500 quid a service soon helps towards a new one.
That is considerably more work than a 1st service
 

Nithsdale

Member
Livestock Farmer
10mins on Google will get you much cheaper parts. I buy a service pack online and get a fitter to do labour only service. If you've a mechanical mind and some tools you could probably do it yourself.

Sadly, that is fine until you need warranty carried out and they get hissy because there's no service history... risk you take I guess
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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