Which manufacturer offers the best Warranty?

[Zak Tempest]

Lets face it the reason for EMTB not MTB is a technical bit of stuff, generally comprising of three components,

Motor, Display and Battery.

When one or more is not working the EMTB becomes a heavy and expensive MTB.

Much to my amazement and disbelief almost all manufacturers do not give a warranty that survives the first owner. Only Specialized offer a warranty that can be applied to a second owner.

By not giving subsequent owners the remaining warranty the manufacturers reduce the likelihood of an owner replacing their current ebike within the first two years.

It seems ridiculous to me that a maker will not honour the warranty just because the bike has changed hands. That they have such poor faith in their product to limit the warranty speaks for itself.

I appreciate this is a bike industry specific thing. The seven year warranty on my Hyundai car is independent of who owns it.

Each manufacturer has a choice of how to draw up the terms of their warranty. Specialized deserves credit for being best in class in this respect.

 

[Cb750stu]

I went with specialized purely because of the warranty , I've just had my 2nd motor fitted under warranty, I tend to just ride it until I'm due offshore for work again drop it off at the shop the day before or so and it's sorted by the time I get home,

Tbh I couldn't be arsed with selling a bike with no transferable warranty and if anything goes wrong I'd have to contact the shop where I bought it from to sort out any warranty issues for the buyer of the bike

 

[Pdoz]

Specialized warranty is not entirely transferable - the original owner has " lifetime" warranty on the carbon frame but subsequent owners only get the remainder of the 2 years. A replacement carbon frame can cost 4x a new motor . (Dit, I was wrong , spec do have rolling warranty ) Unfortunately, the old rolling warranty on their motors is gone - so eg if you get a new motor on the last day of warranty and. it then dies - tough luck. Keep the original receipts , and make sure everyone registers the bike with S.

Trek also has original owner lifetime warranty on frame / bontranger wheels, they go one better than specialized and extend the frame warranty out to 3 years for subsequent owners.

I think yamaha offered an interesting option - get the motor inspected within 10 days of sale and they transfer warranty. Unfortunately Giant don't offer this with their modified Yamaha motors.

 

[Trig]

Do you have to register a bosch bike,a cube, when you buy it for the warranty to be active?
Is there a time limit on it if so?

 

[Mikerb]

With regards to warranty there is a danger of reading half the story. Just what does the warranty cover? Brakes...no, drivetrain...no, Bosch/Shimano motor , battery, controller.......no, tyres........no, wheels....no.

Specialized do include their wheels in the warranty since Roval is their company, and the warranty for the Brose motor/battery and controller is also with Specialized since it is bespoke to them. So Spesh is a little different to many of the other brands.

Apart from the frame the majority of any warranty for most brands lies with the supplier of the component. SRAM, Shimano, Bosch etc. what may vary is what sort of arrangement any brands has with their retailers regarding the cost of managing warranty claims via those OEM suppliers, including labour.

When you think a bout it, there are 2 ways of looking at warranty. Does a very generous warranty mean the brand worries that potential customers fear unreliability....maybe for a good reason? Does a very minimal warranty suggest the brand...and its customer base has complete confidence in its product.... for good reason.... and a more comprehensive warranty is not necessary to get or maintain market share.
At the end of the day many warranties give the buyer little more protection than is afforded by consumer rights, and the right of recourse is with the retailer not the manufacturer.

Do you select your next car purchase on the basis of how long the warranty is, or by the reputation for reliability of the brand??

 

[Snrbrtsn]

I’d look more at what your local bike shop sells and how good bad they are, they do become invaluable!
Elite distance sales seems a nuisance if the bike has to returned - but then that’s my opinion which sees the tech “still” in its infancy.
EMTb are hard on components and consumables most parts are specced to outlast the year warranty motor battery and controller aside, the rest is wear and tear, they rip through chains, brakes in record time
i think it would be hard to distinguish which is best, on the premise the ordeal is all to easily tarnished by the retailer before getting to the manufacturer

 

[Zak Tempest]

With regards to warranty there is a danger of reading half the story. Just what does the warranty cover? Brakes...no, drivetrain...no, Bosch/Shimano motor , battery, controller.......no, tyres........no, wheels....no.

Specialized do include their wheels in the warranty since Roval is their company, and the warranty for the Brose motor/battery and controller is also with Specialized since it is bespoke to them. So Spesh is a little different to many of the other brands.

Apart from the frame the majority of any warranty for most brands lies with the supplier of the component. SRAM, Shimano, Bosch etc. what may vary is what sort of arrangement any brands has with their retailers regarding the cost of managing warranty claims via those OEM suppliers, including labour.

When you think a bout it, there are 2 ways of looking at warranty. Does a very generous warranty mean the brand worries that potential customers fear unreliability....maybe for a good reason? Does a very minimal warranty suggest the brand...and its customer base has complete confidence in its product.... for good reason.... and a more comprehensive warranty is not necessary to get or maintain market share.
At the end of the day many warranties give the buyer little more protection than is afforded by consumer rights, and the right of recourse is with the retailer not the manufacturer.

Do you select your next car purchase on the basis of how long the warranty is, or by the reputation for reliability of the brand??

Thank you for your thoughts. Yes I did base my car purchase choice on warranty length AND reliability (I bought Hyundai, ioniq 5). Hyundai offers an industry leading length of warranty BECAUSE they have quality systems in the background. Each individual Hyundai warranty claim is investigated to examine the broken / faulty parts to see if they can be improved / reengineered. If a emtb has no warranty after re-sale then the makers are cutting themselves off from a valuable source of product testing data. They could use that data to improve the next generation.

 

[Pdoz]

Imagine if specialized took all those failed brose motors and examined them !!!!

 

[7869hodgy]

I have just ordered my third Giant. I only had an issue with the 2nd Giant 2021 Trance X. They dealt with it very well, from dropping off my bike to the dealer it was returned three weeks later having been back to Giant for complete replacement of electrics. it has been fine for the last 400-odd kms. i didn't talk to Giant, I guess the dealer did a good job too.

 

[Kingerz]

Mitsubishi has a ten year warranty but car companies have a huge $ reserve and decades of development. EMTBs are really new. They should still adhere to modern appliances laws and standards.

 

[Mitchb]

I have a Yamaha Ydx moro in the shop with a warranty issue right now. Im the third owner, the second guy never transferred it, and it took me a month and a half after fighting with Yamaha to transfer the warranty. The shop it was bought at flat just refused to do it. The fact that it was a Yamaha motorcycle dealer had everything to do with it; they wanted nothing to do with the eBikes after they sold them. Yamaha has a great warranty, 3 years and transferrable on the frame and electronics. Finding a shop to honor it? Thats a different story. I bought the bike with only 217 miles and the problems started at about 550 miles; not an abused bike.

Finally got the transfer done, but the a few months later I started having constant shutdowns. The motorcycle dealers wouldnt touch it, and to my surprise neither would the two bike shops listed on Yamahas' website. Why? Because I didnt buy the bike from them, even though they sold my model.

I called "customer service" at Yamaha, the guy I was dealing with was trying but couldnt quite grasp that Yamaha that no warranty service in San Diego County, likely one of the most bike friendly places in the US. The manager he thought could help me wasnt getting back to him. I had to threaten to go to the managers house( I knew his name, looked him up, and he lived just a half hour away) before he finally started trying to figure something out. So after a month, he figured out he should call the head of Warranty for Yamaha Motor Sports.

Finally something changed, he told me management's realization that they had authorized dealers refusing to service their bikes despite that being part of their dealership agreement was a serious issue . No shit! My experience should be an eye-opener for them. They even offered me compensation for my trouble; I told them a battery would be nice and he said that was a possibility. We'll see, the bike's in the shop that that prevously refused to do the work. Once finished I plan on pressing them on getting that battery.

 

[Lee Dove]

When Spc. updated the motor they upped the Warranty from 2 to 4 years to attract people back. I am not sure if it is still 4 years. My wife is looking at a Spec. Creos and tells me it is only 2 years now same as the other major manufactures.

 

[Zimmerframe]

When Spc. updated the motor they upped the Warranty from 2 to 4 years to attract people back. I am not sure if it is still 4 years. My wife is looking at a Spec. Creos and tells me it is only 2 years now same as the other major manufactures.

It was only on Mag S bikes where they considered it possible that a firmware fault might have been causing belt failures (power micro pulses). This was fixed with a firmware update and didn't apply to any new bikes.

 

[Lee Dove]

It was only on Mag S bikes where they considered it possible that a firmware fault might have been causing belt failures (power micro pulses). This was fixed with a firmware update and didn't apply to any new bikes.

OK, that makes sense.

 

[1oldfart]

I prefer a reliable bike/ebike.
When i read my third motor was free i plan on never buying from that brand.
Please get your shit together than offer some reliable products.

 

[edruid]

started a new thread which might be of interest to those watching this thread:

Frame Warranty duration and tranferrability graph - EMTB Forums

I'm doing a graph JUST OF FRAME warranty. Making lifetime =10. Please can owners let me know of mistakes. Also please confirm how long the warranty is transferrable to new owners I'll repost updates Thanks

www.emtbforums.com

 

[Mark24]

YT also allow the transfer of warranty


DO I HAVE ANY WARRANTY OR GUARANTEE ON THE BIKE IF I BUY IT USED?

As a second-hand owner, you will need the original invoice to make any warranty claims.
If you buy a YT second-hand, you are still entitled to the statutory warranty, two years after the original purchase date

 

[Pdoz]

I was wrong in my earlier post - specialized DO provide a rolling warranty. If the motor is replaced just before the 2 year mark, you get a NEW 12 month warranty on that motor.

Awesome service - bike dropped off at lbs close of shopping sat, new warranty motor shipped and in the bike by Tuesday!!!