My first street bike was a 02 suzuki intruder.. Done nothing but oil changes and rode it for 3 yrs and sold it for $50 less then what I payed for it so I could buy my warrior. Its an 06 and everyone asked me how I could afford a brand new bike (had it 2 yrs now).. Could of flipped it for $1,500 more then what I had in it but its badda$$ and I couldnt find anything I liked better in my price range at the time..lol
Gripnrip PMd me to get status on this bike. Thought I'd bring you brothers up to date. Here's the current status report on Sopowa, the 2015 Indian Scout motorcycle:
Major Clusterfudge.
Originally, all first-run pre-orders were promised in December. I ordered September 9th; a month before the deadline. All through December, Indian shipped bikes, but at a rate which made it obvious they would not make their target. Still, they stuck to their promise.
In January, dealers were told the rest would ship before the end of the month. This was a lie. Shipments slowed to a trickle.
February ditto. Except shipments ceased altogether.
Right now they are sticking to an end of March promise, yet nothing is coming out their door.
Polaris treats their dealers and customers like mushrooms -- keeps us in the dark and feeds us horse manure. However, here are the monkey wrenches, as far as we on the Indian Scout forum have been able to divine:
Long about December, someone identified the paint booth as being the big bottleneck. So they spent millions to double or triple its size. That's when the poop hit the propellor. I can imagine some Indian sachem on the phone with the contractor saying: "How many days minimum you need to get this done?" "Four if we work round the clock." "Do it in three and you have the contract." Six days later, the booth looks cherry. Just about to fire it up when there's a knock at the door: "Hello. My name is Hate Profit, and this is my assistant Geek Stickler. We're here from OSHA." A month a a half later, they're still mired in change-orders. Not to speak of software glitches plaguing robotic paint equipment.
So Polaris got to the point they farmed out the paint job in desperation. Paint sub-contractor asks: "What do you need done here?" "Well, we need you to pressure test each tank, sand it, and paint it." "Can do." So they pressure test each tank, then they sand it, and... wait a minute! You pressure tested it BEFORE you sanded the welds? No wonder we got paint bubbling up on gas tanks. Ay Chihuahua!" "Well, you told me..."
Meanwhile, back at the plant, a dealer calls in: "We have a customer brought his bike back in, This is odd. The rear master brake cylinder piston retaining clip won't seat in its groove." "We'll shoot you out a replacement. UPS that MC here." Next week, a similar call. Now they stop everything, search their shelves, and discover the Brembo factory in China incorrectly machined the groove in which this retaining ring seats about 4% of units. Out goes the recall letter. Dealers to disassemble and inspect. Likewise with all machines waiting at the factory yet to be shipped.
The positive is, after just two complaints they jumped right on it. Compare this to Harley's high speed wobble debacle, or scratched cams debacle; or Honda's overheating woes on STs, or all the dreadful stonewalling over GoldWing cracked frames. Or Kawasaki ignoring KLR cylinders bored out of round, not to speak of doohickey denial which has persisted for like 30 some years now. Typically, a vehicle manufacturer faced with defects, first call they make, they call their liars (I spell the word 'attorney' phonetically for clarity). Indian, by contrast, has taken a BMW style approach. First thing they do is the right thing to do --- while charging half the price of a beemer. This is excellent. This is superlative. This is far and away the brightest news in this otherwise Stygian buying nightmare.
The bottom line is, I have zero idea when they will deliver. I only know from history that they continue to break one promise after another. It will be here when it gets here. What's more, some brilliant twerp, prolly the wastrel son of a chief exec who graduated college unable to find a job, so Dad put the boy in charge of delivery, this **** decided early on that they would scramble the order of the orders, so that those who plonked down a deposit in August had no assurance they would receive their unit before someone who ordered in October. Where he got this notion, I have no notion. Perhaps he never went to a deli counter and pulled a number out of that contraption. Perhaps he was home schooled by his nanny so he never learned to stand in line in kindergarten. Perhaps he is not from planet Earth. I have no clue why he has no clue. The result is, no one can reckon: "Well, they are almost done with August orders, so mine can't be far off."
On the Indian Scout forum there is a list of those who put their deposit down. That list ceased to be updated back in December. There are 200 members on it. There's another thread of those who have received their bike. Taking 200 as a good sized sample, I compared the 200 against the second thread. Near as I can tell, out of 200 pre-orders, some 67 have been delivered. Extrapolating, only a third of last year's orders have been fulfilled. Virtually none have been delivered since mid-February.
And no promises we can depend on.
“It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
Sorry about the delay, but the update was an entertaining read. Hope they get their act together soon so you can get Sopowa in the wind.
"When I have found intense pain relieved, a weary brain soothed, and calm, refreshing sleep obtained by a cigar, I have felt grateful to God, and have blessed His name." - Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Comments
Major Clusterfudge.
Originally, all first-run pre-orders were promised in December. I ordered September 9th; a month before the deadline. All through December, Indian shipped bikes, but at a rate which made it obvious they would not make their target. Still, they stuck to their promise.
In January, dealers were told the rest would ship before the end of the month. This was a lie. Shipments slowed to a trickle.
February ditto. Except shipments ceased altogether.
Right now they are sticking to an end of March promise, yet nothing is coming out their door.
Polaris treats their dealers and customers like mushrooms -- keeps us in the dark and feeds us horse manure. However, here are the monkey wrenches, as far as we on the Indian Scout forum have been able to divine:
Long about December, someone identified the paint booth as being the big bottleneck. So they spent millions to double or triple its size. That's when the poop hit the propellor. I can imagine some Indian sachem on the phone with the contractor saying: "How many days minimum you need to get this done?" "Four if we work round the clock." "Do it in three and you have the contract." Six days later, the booth looks cherry. Just about to fire it up when there's a knock at the door: "Hello. My name is Hate Profit, and this is my assistant Geek Stickler. We're here from OSHA." A month a a half later, they're still mired in change-orders. Not to speak of software glitches plaguing robotic paint equipment.
So Polaris got to the point they farmed out the paint job in desperation. Paint sub-contractor asks: "What do you need done here?" "Well, we need you to pressure test each tank, sand it, and paint it." "Can do." So they pressure test each tank, then they sand it, and... wait a minute! You pressure tested it BEFORE you sanded the welds? No wonder we got paint bubbling up on gas tanks. Ay Chihuahua!" "Well, you told me..."
Meanwhile, back at the plant, a dealer calls in: "We have a customer brought his bike back in, This is odd. The rear master brake cylinder piston retaining clip won't seat in its groove." "We'll shoot you out a replacement. UPS that MC here." Next week, a similar call. Now they stop everything, search their shelves, and discover the Brembo factory in China incorrectly machined the groove in which this retaining ring seats about 4% of units. Out goes the recall letter. Dealers to disassemble and inspect. Likewise with all machines waiting at the factory yet to be shipped.
The positive is, after just two complaints they jumped right on it. Compare this to Harley's high speed wobble debacle, or scratched cams debacle; or Honda's overheating woes on STs, or all the dreadful stonewalling over GoldWing cracked frames. Or Kawasaki ignoring KLR cylinders bored out of round, not to speak of doohickey denial which has persisted for like 30 some years now. Typically, a vehicle manufacturer faced with defects, first call they make, they call their liars (I spell the word 'attorney' phonetically for clarity). Indian, by contrast, has taken a BMW style approach. First thing they do is the right thing to do --- while charging half the price of a beemer. This is excellent. This is superlative. This is far and away the brightest news in this otherwise Stygian buying nightmare.
The bottom line is, I have zero idea when they will deliver. I only know from history that they continue to break one promise after another. It will be here when it gets here. What's more, some brilliant twerp, prolly the wastrel son of a chief exec who graduated college unable to find a job, so Dad put the boy in charge of delivery, this **** decided early on that they would scramble the order of the orders, so that those who plonked down a deposit in August had no assurance they would receive their unit before someone who ordered in October. Where he got this notion, I have no notion. Perhaps he never went to a deli counter and pulled a number out of that contraption. Perhaps he was home schooled by his nanny so he never learned to stand in line in kindergarten. Perhaps he is not from planet Earth. I have no clue why he has no clue. The result is, no one can reckon: "Well, they are almost done with August orders, so mine can't be far off."
On the Indian Scout forum there is a list of those who put their deposit down. That list ceased to be updated back in December. There are 200 members on it. There's another thread of those who have received their bike. Taking 200 as a good sized sample, I compared the 200 against the second thread. Near as I can tell, out of 200 pre-orders, some 67 have been delivered. Extrapolating, only a third of last year's orders have been fulfilled. Virtually none have been delivered since mid-February.
And no promises we can depend on.