YES warranty transfer

Curious of others experiences and if any have run into this situation.

Am looking to purchase a used FJR from the bikes second owner.

Original owner purchased a YES for the bike but it was never transferred (or dealer inspected) at the time that the bike first changed hands.

Now I come into the picture as the bikes potential third owner and would really desire having the YES coverage.

Where the current owner of the bike is not the named holder of the YES, has anyone successfully transferred a YES under these circumstances?

The "YES" is attached to the bike not the owner. If it hasn't expired, you're good to go.

I think you might be SOL.

IIRC, there is a limited period of time (15 days?) for the YES to be transferred to a new owner. If the second owner never transferred it, it might be gone. I was able to transfer the YES on my new (to me) '15 with a simple visit to my local dealer. Nothing was needed except the VIN and proof of ownership.

I would get on the horn toot-sweet to Yamaha Cypress to see if they can (or will) help.

Good luck!

--G

I was under the impression that it went with the bike. Learned something new.

majicmaker said:

I was under the impression that it went with the bike. Learned something new.

Click to expand...

I didn't dig out my YES agreement VIC, so don't take it as gospel. When I transferred my new (to me) '15 YES I procrastinated a bit...made it by a couple days!

--G

Edit - Link to YES, Transfer of registration must take place within 15 days of ownership change. Don't know what happens after the time elapses.

I sold my Suzuki with their version of the YES and it went with the bike to the new owner without having to do anything. I guess it varies depending on the manufacturer.

There is absolutely no reason that a warranty that goes with the bike has to require an ownership transfer to be valid. I guess, at some point in the past, some Yamaha managers said, "ha! If I just add one more sentence in there, I can save Yamaha 'x' amount of money over time because somebody is going to miss the transfer. I'll get a bigger bonus! "

The following is taken directly from the YES Terms and Conditions:

TRANSFER RIGHTS

This Y.E.S. Contract is transferable.

To transfer the Y.E.S. Contract from you to the subsequent customer, it is required that a transfer of registration and inspection be performed by a Yamaha Dealer. A reasonable dealer imposed fee may be charged for this inspection. Transfer of registration must take place within fifteen (15) days of ownership change. At the time of transfer of registration, the customer will be required to provide all required maintenance receipts or the properly completed maintenance log to the new owner. Although there is no transfer fee to transfer this Y.E.S. Contract, any dealer charges for performing any inspections necessary will be the customer's responsibility.

In the above, "customer, "you" and "your" all refer to the owner of record of the vehicle shown in the Declarations registered with Yamaha.

Where the current owner of the bike is not the owner of record of the vehicle shown in the Declarations I suspect that this could be a problem.

As having YES coverage is a major selling point for me, I'd hate to find out only after all the other details of a deal are in place that the YES coverage expired when the current owner didn't complete the transfer of registration.

You might get a bit more of a definitive answer if you call Mama Yama: https://www.yamaha-motor.com/corporate/contactus.aspx

My current '09 FJR AE was one of the lot that got blown out a few years later as the last of the AE leftovers, and Y.E.S. was purchased by the original owner.

The original owner sold/traded the bike to an independent (not Yamaha) dealer. The bike sat at that dealer for a while before I bought it.

It was shipped to me. I was in no hurry, but I eventually took the bike to my local Yamaha dealer, and I sat down with their warranty manager.

He was very happy to take the paperwork, get on the computer, call Yamaha, and make the Y.E.S. transfer work. There was no fee, and no serious inspection.

I would say that if you have the Y.E.S. paperwork, and you go to your local Yamaha dealership and ask them to do the transfer, that you may luck out.

Maybe the paperwork and contract details have changed since the Y.E.S. contract that was transferred for me, but it's worth checking.

FWIW, I've had a couple of Y.E.S. contracts that I purchased on new FJRs. I thought these would make the bike more valuable at the time of sale or trade. It did not. I traded both times, and the advice given to me by the trade manager was simply "cancel the contract and get your money back." Y.E.S. allowed the contracts to be cancelled for a refund both times I did this. Y.E.S. looks just like other farkles to me. You buy them, and when you sell the bike, you'll get more if you take them off and deal with them independently.

The dealership's perspective is "Why would we want to sell a used bike with a warranty when we could sell a used bike and also sell a warranty?" The warranty sales on used bikes is apparently a pretty big profit center for the big dealerships.