New JD Powers survey

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jazzbiker · Thu Dec 21, 2006 11:24 am

Guess this is a good place for this....

Here is a new JD Powers and Assoc survey on bikes...

http://www.jdpower.com/autos/ratings/motorcycles

Should stir the pot a little

sharpmagna · Thu Dec 21, 2006 1:52 pm

Wow, Victory has high marks across the board.

schwartzkm · Mon Dec 25, 2006 2:18 pm

I am not surprised Victory scored so high (I wonder how high they scored during the height of their tranny problems????). They make a very good, solid product. My suprise is where HD rated on the qaulity scale. What's up with that????

Yes, i smell an anti-HD conspiracy in this survey.

Is this a result of their new engine/tranny they released biting them in the tail?

curious

XJ1100 · #4 Unread post by **XJ1100** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:29 am

Victory is producing some very reliable machines! The information is gathered by surveying current owners...thats why it is so surprising to see Harley get rated as low as they did.

MotoF150 · #5 Unread post by **MotoF150** » Sun Mar 04, 2007 10:08 pm

NO NO NO!! don't believe everything you read, Victory is owned by Polaris and everybody knows the Polaris ATV's are scrap. Another thing there are NOT that many Victory bikes sold, so this survey is bogus!

#6 Unread post by **Big B** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 4:41 am

MotoF150 wrote:NO NO NO!! don't believe everything you read, Victory is owned by Polaris and everybody knows the Polaris ATV's are scrap. Another thing there are NOT that many Victory bikes sold, so this survey is bogus!

hmmm.... who to believe, the industry standard, or a complete idiot
golly, i don't know what i'm to do!

moto, just shut the hell up

Doogie · #7 Unread post by **Doogie** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 2:54 am

JD Powers puts out some interesting surveys, but I usually take information like this with a grain of salt.

They don't release any of their methodology, demographics, or any real statistics. For example, what were the percentage of returned surveys for Victory as compared to Harley Davidson. Did they have a statistically significant sample? Did demographics play a part in the responses?

JD did talk about engine problems representing 41% of the total average problems. This seems high to me for new motorcycles, especially when you talk to other riders and visit other forums.

I also find it interesting that under the product category, from which I can see rates how you initially liked the bike, rates as a "two" for Kawasaki. I find it hard to believe that the majority of people who buy Kawasakis would be that disillusioned with the looks, comfort, etc., of the motorcycle. Why buy a particular brand if you don't like the way it looks?

I would hope that the manufacturers are using this information as indicators on where to improve, but I also wouldn't put too much credibility into this information when buying a motorcycle. I would be looking more at websites like this, magazine articles, personal experiences, etc. for more detailed information.

MotoF150 · #8 Unread post by **MotoF150** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:17 pm

You guys just don't get it????You Can't survey a new brand of bike thats only been out for 2 years and maybe they sold 8 new bikes. You must wait untill more and more Victorys are sold and reviews are taken before you can call it fair! Like Kawasaki sold 16 millon Ninja 250's, thats a fair survey!

XJ1100 · #9 Unread post by **XJ1100** » Mon Mar 19, 2007 11:30 am

MotoF150 wrote:You guys just don't get it????You Can't survey a new brand of bike thats only been out for 2 years and maybe they sold 8 new bikes. You must wait untill more and more Victorys are sold and reviews are taken before you can call it fair! Like Kawasaki sold 16 millon Ninja 250's, thats a fair survey!

They are actually going on 10 years of production and are growing very rapidly.

These numbers really don't surprise me, I have heard nothing but good things about Victory motorcycles. Good looks, very reliable, powerful, great sound...

It would be very interesting if JD would release some specifics of how the survey was conducted.

schwartzkm · Thu Mar 29, 2007 1:20 am

MotoF150 wrote:You guys just don't get it????You Can't survey a new brand of bike thats only been out for 2 years and maybe they sold 8 new bikes. You must wait untill more and more Victorys are sold and reviews are taken before you can call it fair! Like Kawasaki sold 16 millon Ninja 250's, thats a fair survey!

They went into full production in 1999 and are currently selling around 10k bikes a year in the US. Not much compared to the big 4 and HD which are in the 200k range, but they are outselling most euro bikes in the US and will likely surpass Triumph this year in US sales.

If they surveyed all 16 million Ninja owners, you would have a valid point. However, I believe these polls are randomnly sent out to recent bike owners, and I would be willing to bet that a larger percentage of Victory owners were surveyed than Kawasucki Ninja owners.

As a former Victory owner of their first model year production bike I can comment fully on its reliability. I rode it for 5 years and logged over 50,000 trouble-free miles on the bike. The bike was literally a "change the oil and go" bike which coming from Japanese cruisers I was not accustomed to in the later miles of ownership. I have owned Honda and Suzuki bikes and both were very reliable unitl the odometer rolled passed the 30k mark. I know I might be an exception, but when you sale 16 million Ninja's theres bound to be more lemons.