[rbrdky]

I bought my Titanium (#196/500) in December of 2015. On mile #80, before I'd had the bike a full week, the starter sprag broke and I noticed a fork leaking. Those were replaced/repaired under warranty. Almost exactly a year later, I noticed areas of the finish on the titanium panels that were flaking away. I took it back to the dealer and the tank panel and seat cowl panel were both replaced under warranty. It took a full 3 months for those parts to come in.

When I got the bike back, i noticed that they'd done a s**t job on my bike. The number panel was lifted up from the tank panel on one side, the seams between panels were all uneven like a snaptite model. They'd also left out a screw from the back of the LCD display and the back of the housing was gaping open. I noticed at that time that the finish was also coming off the exhaust headers as well. The replacement titanium panels were also a different color than the ones that came on the bike. I took it back to the dealer to have these things addressed, prior to my warranty expiring (this December). After about 2 weeks, they called me and said that the "Rep" had authorized the replacement of the other panels, and that Ducati would pay to have the exhaust ceramic coated.

Two days ago, they called me to say that they'd noticed that the REPLACEMENT panels were starting to flake. They said that they again called "The Rep" and he'd authorized replacement of the REPLACEMENT panels as well, but this would take a while to get the parts, so they were bringing the bike back to me until the parts came in. Delivery was scheduled for this (today) am.

We had 4 inches of rain yesterday, with flash flooding in many areas.

I got the bike back this am and couldn't believe my eyes. The dealer had apparently let my bike sit outside in the rain yesterday, which, according to the dealer, is standard practice when the shop is full (!!!???). The water found its way under the clearcoat on the body panels, and the attached photos show the result.

This is a $28K motorcycle with 3K miles on the clock.

I called the dealer immediately, completely livid. He (parts mgr) was apologetic and said he'd get "The Rep" on the phone with me right away to "make this right."

An hour later, parts mgr called me again to say that "The Rep" wouldn't talk to me (!) and that he'd said the reason the replacement panels were also defective was that they came from the SAME BATCH as the originals, and he would have all the panels replaced with ones from a NEW BATCH.

This is a production run of 500 bikes. I'm supposed to believe that there is was another "batch" of panels made to support 500 bikes???

Furthermore, by the time the panels finally make it to the dealer, my warranty will be expired. I have zero faith right now in these replacement parts from this "new batch," but I will have zero recourse when they start to disintegrate!

I voiced these concerns with the parts mgr, and again, very apologetic, he gave me the phone number to Ducati Customer Service and told me I could call them.

I don't know what to do at this point. I have a dealer who let my bike sit outside in a monsoon while in their shop for repair, a Ducati "Rep" who won't talk to me, a practically new bike that looks like it came from a scrap heap, a warranty that expires in 60 days, but I have a phone number for Ducati Customer Service...

Please if anyone can give me any advice on how to make sure I don't get it broken off inside me, I'd really appreciate it. And if there are any other Titanium owners who are having a similar experience, please report.

 

[rbrdky]

Replacement panels

Here's the panels that they had already replaced, after a day out in the rain.

 

[rbrdky]

update

There have been some developments in the saga...

After posting this thread here (and others on a few other boards), I sent an email to my dealer's service manager, including links to these forum posts. Several days later, I got a phone call from someone at Ducati North America. He said that he'd been forwarded my email by "one of [his] field reps" and he was very sorry for the experience I was having. He said that Ducati was going to extend my factory warranty by 2 years, and that he was working on how to do that for documentation purposes. I thanked him profusely for this, but I also pressed on the issue of the exhaust finish.

They'd previously told me that they didn't want to replace the exhaust because the problem would simply recur, and offered instead to have the bike's exhaust refinished and ceramic coated by a third party shop. I told him that I wasn't really satisfied with this solution, as it would result in a bike that was no longer "stock;" I feel that the whole value of this limited edition motorcycle is in its finish, and my fear is that their solution would decrease the value of the bike in the long term.

I asked him instead to consider replacing the exhaust system with the full Termi system... this would give me a bike that was still "stock," since the Termi system is a factory option, and this upgrade would show good faith on their part towards making things right. He told me that my request was very reasonable, and although he couldn't promise that, he would try to make it happen. I thanked him again for taking the time to call me personally.

A few of weeks later (last week) I got a call from the service manager at my dealership, who told me that they'd located a termi system on a "demo" bike that they were going to remove and ship to my dealership for installation on my bike. He said they'd received all of the titanium bodywork replacement parts, and that the rep said they were working on giving me something in writing regarding the extended warranty.

So... if they do indeed deliver on what they've promised me, I will be completely satisfied and my Ducati fanboy status restored 100 percent. I will post more updates as things occur, but this doesn't seem to be a quick process. I'm okay with that, as long as the end result is Ducati being true to their word.

 

[DrgnRcr]

I hope it works out for you. Sorry to hear all the hassle to begin with and agree that none of it ever should have occurred. Also sucks to see DNA only jump after the negative publicity but it could have been worse and I'd like to think Ducati wants to make things right but getting to the people who make the decisions has always been a problem with any manufacturer.