Ya, I’m trying to calm a bit, however I’m really struggling with feeling violated. In my mind, the essential benefit of the bargain on which I made my purchase decision was untrue. Terms such as material misrepresentation (borderline fraudulent), and nullification of the benefit of the bargain come to mind. I truly would not have purchased the bike if I was properly informed that, a) I had to bring to dealer for routine sw updates, and/or b) the bike required break-in & similar routine maintenance. EITHER of those were dealbreakers. And both were assured to me to not be required, yet both are.
Indeed the bike runs fine as it is. However, the fact remains that at some point I am going to figure out how to drag this thing to a dealer. It’s not fitting in the back of my VW, and I don’t have any local friends with trailers. (knot in stomach returns). I’m looking at a supreme PITA that I would happily have NOT paid a premium to have to endure. I really wish I had just bought back my old ’94 K75 for $2,500, instead of getting fooled into paying over $10k more (including dealer fee’s, taxes, etc) to deal with the above.
Finally, my contrasting datapoint is my Nissan Leaf. I’ve had it for 4 years and 30k miles and have NEVER had to take it to the dealer. No sw updates, no routine maintenance. Absolutely nothing. Thats what I thought I was getting with a Zero, which is why I went against recommendations and bought one out-of-range from a dealer.
Anyway, I’m cooling down. Thanks for letting me vent. My biggest concern at the moment is actually that my anger and outrage could morph into resentment and disgust. I think many people who participate in a forum like this understand the emotional connection between man & machine (so to speak). So it saddens me to watch what I fear could become a toxic contamination of my personal relationship with my Zero.