Photo: http://bmwmcmag.com
A poll on more than 4,000 motorcycle owners was carried out by the Consumer Reports National Research Center and one of the interesting results was that BMW bikes are less reliable than the Japanese competition.
Surprisingly, nearly one in three BMW owners reported having to deal with a "major problem" in the previous 4 years, followed by 4 Harley-Davidson owners with 1 in 4 cases. Only 1 in 10 Yamaha owners reported the problem, followed by Kawasaki and Honda.
Three quarters of all reported problems were under the $200 out-of-pocket mark, and the most commonly met were lights, instruments, switches, and radios (21 percent), brakes (20 percent), the electrical system (16 percent), and the fuel system (15 percent).
On the other hand, it was the same BMW and Harley owners who were the most attached riders: 74 per cent of BMW guys and 75 per cent of H-D guys responded that they would buy the same bike again, despite the problems. In this respect, Honda is the only Japanese manufacturer with a 72%-strong attachment, followed by Yamaha and Kawasaki.
The poll also revealed a great thing about BMW bikes: the significant increase of ABS-equipped bikes and the presence of the anti-lock system as a option for more bike models. With ABS-equipped bikes 37 per cent less likely to be involved in fatal crashes, this is really good news.
So maybe those ranting on the BMW editorial we posted earlier should be a little less snappy...
Three quarters of all reported problems were under the $200 out-of-pocket mark, and the most commonly met were lights, instruments, switches, and radios (21 percent), brakes (20 percent), the electrical system (16 percent), and the fuel system (15 percent).
On the other hand, it was the same BMW and Harley owners who were the most attached riders: 74 per cent of BMW guys and 75 per cent of H-D guys responded that they would buy the same bike again, despite the problems. In this respect, Honda is the only Japanese manufacturer with a 72%-strong attachment, followed by Yamaha and Kawasaki.
The poll also revealed a great thing about BMW bikes: the significant increase of ABS-equipped bikes and the presence of the anti-lock system as a option for more bike models. With ABS-equipped bikes 37 per cent less likely to be involved in fatal crashes, this is really good news.
So maybe those ranting on the BMW editorial we posted earlier should be a little less snappy...
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