[JPF]

Thanks for the heads up re the cat. :clap:

I think you hiot the nail on the head when you mentioned the problems at MotoGB.

Until you get stability at the importer then the brand will ALWAYS suffer; either in PR terms or worse loyalty terms. :doh:

The situation probably hasn't been helped by the reorganisation going on since the aquirement by the Chinese.

When new bikes start being designed and then enter the country on a regular basis then I think a "new dawn" will emerge. :ele:
I think the problem at MotoGB is that they are still essentially firefighting from the previous regime and inheirited bikes that had known problems that were viewed as unreliable by the biking public in general, (similar to Ducati and Aprilla at the turn of the century), those companies took a long time to pull themselves around and in truth are only now seeing good returns on new investments.

To date because of these known issues, MotoGB probably hasn't seen sufficient return on it's investments to justify its expansion with any feeling of security.
Sure they got a bargain snapping up all the bikes they could, and fair play to them; they saw a niche market opportunity and tried to pass on the bikes for very reasonable money. Many of us have taken up that offer on the promise that any retrospective faults would be addressed either before sale or whenever the issue reared its head. I think what has actually happened is that MotoGB failed to recognise the extent of the problems they had inheirited and failed to ensure that enough back up (in the form of actual parts) were obtained at the time they purchased the bikes, and so as such are now running themselves ragged trying to satisfy warranty claims to all and sundry, with the impression that they are trying to tread water in quicksand.

Perhaps the message to send back to Italy is that their importer actually needs back up and more importantly, spare parts.
In the car industry, I believe a manufacturer has to guarantee supply of spare parts for ANY new model he produces be available for at least 10 years after production of that model ceases...( probably shot myself in the foot with that last statement! :doh: ), surely it shouldn't be beyond a bike manufacturer to agree to something similar over say 5 - 6 years?
I imagine BMW , HONDA, SUZUKI et al capable of this.