Cheers Stuart - let us know.

Ducati UK do read this board, so they will know what the feeling of the Ducati community is.

When is the line crossed for life threatening/niggles.

Brakes seizing in anyones books has to be life threatening.
Misfires - ala JPM et al. Life threatening if your turning onto a main road into a flow of traffic (believe me.... you clutch it, gas it hard and hope for the best)
[rant] ANY vehicle which has faults should be rectified/recalled forthwith by manufacturer - fit for purpose etcetera.

Considering that Ducati, imho, are considered to be the upper end of the quality bike market then I am becoming more dissapointed in their end product. Until a couple of weeks ago I thought it was probably just me being critical of what is an otherwise excellent bike.
When it's on form then I don't think that any other bike comes near giving the same grin factor and feeling of self satisfaction.
But now..? I now have to wait 2 weeks for bike to go in for the potential lfe threatening misfire to be resolved. Dare I ride it in the meantime? Like fook I will. I've still gotta get it to the garage and I ain't lookin forward to that.
Everyone's got their own opinion and the majority probably got excellent machines with maximum grin and no problems.
But for an £11K+ motor? C'mon.

Unless DUK magically pull a rabbit out the hat and restore my faith then I shan't be revisiting the fold after this bike.


btw, if DUK are reading this, WAKE UP TO THE PROBLEMS!!!!
[/rant]

I'm off to the Nuburgring this weekend with one of MCN's road testers. I'll run this by him & see if MCN want to take up the story/ investigation.

Well said Alan.

Ducati should note that people like Alan have been Ducati fans for a long time, having owned many of their machines, and would like for this to continue. These people deserve better treament.

Is anyone from DUK looking in? any chance of a response?

This is true of many I am guessing, myself personally am on my third Ducati on the trot, had a few issues with my 996 which were sorted under warranty, my 998 never ever missed a beat, and the 999 well I'm already having my doubts to the point where I am pretty close to shopping it in for a ZX10R if things don't improve.

The 749/999 hasn't exactly set the world on fire in terms of sales, but that isn't surprising considering what they had achieved in the 916 et al. But they made the rod for their own back there really I guess.

So trying to sell the new bike it must be seen as a major leap forward not only in performance/handling but more so for joe public reliability, which it seems to be lacking for some at least

I won't be buying a 749 then!:o

I wouldn't be writing Ducati (or 749/999s) off on the strength of these problems just yet. They're waiting on Brembo to finish their analysis of my brakes, and may well have others to look at too. They'll then need to decide how best to deal with it.

The level of customer care that I receive will be the deciding factor (for me at least) in whether I stay in the Ducati fold or defect ASAP.

Comthing to consider :

http://www.vosa.gov.uk/vosa/motteste...andrecalls.htm

Yes I am a long time fan of Ducati, and yes I have owned a couple.

But I don't think it matters whether you've owned one or one hundred.

Put yourself in my shoes for a second, although not on a bike.
[soapbox]
You buy yourself the new model lexus / honda / bmw / vauxhall / ford / peugot / daewoo / hyundai / etcetera
(Delete as necessary)
It's one of the top models, no extras, no embellishments, bog standard.
Within it's first year you climb in and start it up.
You get half a mile down the road and at a tee junction you join the main carriageway...****, firing only on two cylinders, popping and farting. The engines still going but only just and with half power you try desperately for added boost just to avoid an accident with cars rapidly approaching from behind.
What do you do?!? Car fires back up and you carry on your journey.
Next available opportunity you take it to the dealer who apologises profusely, gives you a courtesy car and doesn't expect the car back till it's sorted good and proper.


Now tell me why that should be any different to the way you're treated by Ducati.

:mad:
[/soapbox]

You should get exactly that kind of treatment from Ducati.

Yourself, me any many others tend to be very loyal to Ducati, this loyalty can be built up over many years, but lost overnight.