mounting class action law suit

[Greg_S]

Originally Posted by papawheelie

yea, a class action suit will get nothing. get the tank coated. done.

If that is the fix, then Ducati should coat them and then send it to my dealer when it is replaced, again.

[Chuckracer]

Originally Posted by Greg_S

How many tanks have you replaced? I'm on number 4 in 4,400 miles

None. The tanks on my KTM fit like crap, so do the tanks of most other Adventure owners. So what? We work with it.

I think if I've had three new tanks at my disposal, one of them would have been coated before it went on the bike. Probably would have been the last one.


Class Action Lawsuits are not going to get everybody new tanks. If Ducati looses, a giant check will be cut to the law firm and you will get $.79. Lawsuits are not payed in gas tanks.

[SE84]

Originally Posted by Chuckracer

None. The tanks on my KTM fit like crap, so do the tanks of most other Adventure owners. So what? We work with it.

I think if I've had three new tanks at my disposal, one of them would have been coated before it went on the bike. Probably would have been the last one.


Class Action Lawsuits are not going to get everybody new tanks. If Ducati looses, a giant check will be cut to the law firm and you will get $.79. Lawsuits are not payed in gas tanks.

While not 100% disagreeing with you, after talking personally with an attorney from the firm in question, I was led to believe that the desired settlement would be for Ducati to properly honor the warranty, e.g. replace the tanks with non-deforming ones.

[Greg_S]

Originally Posted by Chuckracer

None. The tanks on my KTM fit like crap, so do the tanks of most other Adventure owners. So what? We work with it.

I think if I've had three new tanks at my disposal, one of them would have been coated before it went on the bike. Probably would have been the last one.


Class Action Lawsuits are not going to get everybody new tanks. If Ducati looses, a giant check will be cut to the law firm and you will get $.79. Lawsuits are not payed in gas tanks.

The problem is that they're not at my disposal, they're at my dealers and Ducati's disposal. If I coat it after words, all that is on my wallet and then if any issues arise thats also on my wallet. Maybe I could just send you the bill. Its easy to be the devils advocate when its not your bike.

[holligan]

It is hard to believe that Ducati does not care about the tank troubles.
I have had 3 ducatis with plastic tanks that had to have a tank replacement
under warrentee. The first time on a rs monster. It did not bother me a whole
bunch. My dealership is very good so it was taken care of. Then it happened
again 3 months later same bike. I was pissed! Had to wait a while for the second tank right in the middle of riding season. Got the run around from ducati because it happened so quickly. I was ready to set flame to the bike.
Got the new tank finally then i sold one of my favorite bikes of all time because i was nervous about the factory not replacing the tanks.Well i assumed that they would have the issue resolved on the 2010 streetfighter
so i bought the S model. 400 miles on the bike and the tank got a big buldge
on the left side. Man i could not believe it! I had a ton of money in this thing
and a month old! Well thats when i seen a thread about caswell coating. I did some research on the effects of ethonol on plastics/carbon and fiberglass. The caswell coating was the answer. So the dealership recieved the warrentee gas tank and they sent if off to have it coated by my request.The new tank has been on for a while and so far no problems. I think problem solved!!! All for a couple hundred bucks. I wish i would of known about it
sooner. It brought the wow factor back on this bike!!!

[Backhome77]

Legal actions are not always brought simply for cash awards. Instead the claim can seek specific performance (i.e. fix the tank) + legal fees, . I'd prefer the latter. But my instinct tells me that even if that's what is sought, if the case has any merit, Ducati will want to settle out of court for a lower dollar amount and the lawyers will likely take it. And we may actually wind end up getting something akin to the $.79 apiece mentioned earlier. (Though hopefully not that paltry)

But, I'm in regardless because:
1. I've got nothing to loose.
2. Maybe, just maybe, we might actually get our tanks fixed for good. This alone makes it worth a shot. And the more people on board, the better our shot is.
3. Even if it is settled and we only get a nominal award, it will make me fell better knowing Ducati will finally have to acknowledge there is an issue and that they were wrong for ignoring it and their customers.

I love Ducati, and don't wish to financially hinder them (I really doubt this law suit would have much effect on the company as a whole.), but no corporation should be allowed to abuse and neglect loyal customers without some form of recompense. This is no place for brand loyalty. Ducati is a business. Do business well and they will be rewarded. Handle business poorly and they need to be punished. Corporate appeasement rarely benefits consumers (us) or makes the corporation in question any more competitive.

Just my 0.02$

[ducSculptor]

Originally Posted by Backhome77

But, I'm in regardless because:
1. I've got nothing to loose.
2. Maybe, just maybe, we might actually get our tanks fixed for good. This alone makes it worth a shot. And the more people on board, the better our shot is.
3. Even if it is settled and we only get a nominal award, it will make me fell better knowing Ducati will finally have to acknowledge there is an issue and that they were wrong for ignoring it and their customers.

I'm with you.. I joined a class action suit against Samsung for a video camera that had gone bad after only 10 hours or so of video, but after 1 year warranty had expired. I did a little research and found that Samsung had joined some other manufacturers in a class action suit against the maker of the CCD chip for selling them a bad batch - and they won a bunch of money. Problem was, they didn't turn around and pass that on to consumers like me. I joined the class action suit because it made me angry that a corporation would treat it's customers that way... I ended up getting a new video camera out of it.

[spyvito]

Originally Posted by Backhome77

Legal actions are not always brought simply for cash awards. Instead the claim can seek specific performance (i.e. fix the tank) + legal fees, . I'd prefer the latter. But my instinct tells me that even if that's what is sought, if the case has any merit, Ducati will want to settle out of court for a lower dollar amount and the lawyers will likely take it. And we may actually wind end up getting something akin to the $.79 apiece mentioned earlier. (Though hopefully not that paltry)

But, I'm in regardless because:
1. I've got nothing to loose.
2. Maybe, just maybe, we might actually get our tanks fixed for good. This alone makes it worth a shot. And the more people on board, the better our shot is.
3. Even if it is settled and we only get a nominal award, it will make me fell better knowing Ducati will finally have to acknowledge there is an issue and that they were wrong for ignoring it and their customers.

I love Ducati, and don't wish to financially hinder them (I really doubt this law suit would have much effect on the company as a whole.), but no corporation should be allowed to abuse and neglect loyal customers without some form of recompense. This is no place for brand loyalty. Ducati is a business. Do business well and they will be rewarded. Handle business poorly and they need to be punished. Corporate appeasement rarely benefits consumers (us) or makes the corporation in question any more competitive.

Just my 0.02$

This is just my opinion and insight but let me give my 2 cents.

My company had a similar issue, using an assembly from a trusted supplier in a major assembly (think telecom). These assemblies had components that "time bombed" on us, failing about a year after deployment. Proper action was taken to do root cause analysis and then replace thousands of units in the field with assemblies manufactured to higher standards. We had a good design, just a flaw from our supplier (who we still use).

If we took the Ducati approach we would just send new "time bomb" assemblies as they are doing with our tanks.

Maybe the difference is that we have a limited number of customers and to survive we need to keep them happy.

I assure you, it was EXPENSIVE to do the right thing for our customer and goodwill was impacted regardless. But, we did gain respect for taking care of our customer.

Ducati is not just following a poor practice (again, my opinion). The tragedy is that they know they have a major component issue and are continuing to make products with the SAME POTENTIAL PROBLEM. How many models have deforming plastic tanks? All of them that have plastic tanks?

I love my Paul Smart. I don't want to sell it to solve the problem. If it takes legal action to get a factory endorsed solution--so be it.

[lewmoto]

Ideally it's best not to get the Lawyers involved, but I think in this case something needs to be done to prove to Ducati that this problem isn't going away, and must be resolved for a long-term solution. For all the money spent replacing tanks multiple times on the same bike, they could have issued new steel or aluminum tanks for all SC's. Think of the goodwill that would've been generated if all SC owners received a new 'ally' tank for their bike. The 'Lemon Law' solution doesn't work for me because of the $10K+ of mods that I've done to my PS. I do believe that the vehicle must be surrendered to collect under that law; OK for owners of stock machines, but not so for most on this bling-happy Forum. I think I'm going to reluctantly join the CA.

[MajorSoftie]

Originally Posted by Backhome77

Legal actions are not always brought simply for cash awards. Instead the claim can seek specific performance (i.e. fix the tank) + legal fees, . I'd prefer the latter. But my instinct tells me that even if that's what is sought, if the case has any merit, Ducati will want to settle out of court for a lower dollar amount and the lawyers will likely take it. And we may actually wind end up getting something akin to the $.79 apiece mentioned earlier. (Though hopefully not that paltry)

But, I'm in regardless because:
1. I've got nothing to loose.
2. Maybe, just maybe, we might actually get our tanks fixed for good. This alone makes it worth a shot. And the more people on board, the better our shot is.
3. Even if it is settled and we only get a nominal award, it will make me fell better knowing Ducati will finally have to acknowledge there is an issue and that they were wrong for ignoring it and their customers.

I love Ducati, and don't wish to financially hinder them (I really doubt this law suit would have much effect on the company as a whole.), but no corporation should be allowed to abuse and neglect loyal customers without some form of recompense. This is no place for brand loyalty. Ducati is a business. Do business well and they will be rewarded. Handle business poorly and they need to be punished. Corporate appeasement rarely benefits consumers (us) or makes the corporation in question any more competitive.

Just my 0.02$

+1000. Specific Performance awards are not unheard of, but are quite rare. IF IF IF owners were to win or settle such a case, odds are way over 90% that it would be dollars, and by accepting the award the issue would be legally "resolved," and you'd get no more help from Ducati.

If you're in a state with a strong Lemon Law, that has a much better chance of success, but the accepted solution for most Lemon Laws is often for the manufacturer to buy back the vehicle, and that doesn't give you what you want either. It really leaves everyone with tank coating being the most viable solution. Why Ducati has not seen this as a viable choice for their replacement tanks, I can't imagine.