Spirit Motorcycles / Triumph San Jose — Attraction in San Jose

Avoid at all costs.

I was eagerly looking to purchase my very first motorcycle in June of 2023 and I initially found a used 2017 Triumph Bonneville on Spirit Motorcycles website, but when I got there I was told that the bike had mistakenly made it on the website and was unable to be sold as it was mistitled as an off road vehicle. I wasn't interested in any other motorcycles and I was about to walk off the lot when the sales manager himself George told me that they could sell me the vehicle, I would just have to place a down payment to secure it, and I'd have to give them a couple of weeks to handle the DMV mishap. A couple weeks later I received confirmation from the salesman I was working with that the title had been fixed and the motorcycle had been registered in my name and it was ready to be picked up once I made the final payment. I thought everything had gone smoothly but fast forward to August and I still hadn't received a title or tags. I contacted the DMV to see what the hold up was only to be told that I was not the registered owner of the vehicle. I contacted Spirit Motorcycles after this, and I spoke to Kristie who works on anything related to the DMV and by the sound of it, she hadn't even began working on the issue at hand of fixing the title and making it street legal. In September my temporary tags expired and was unable to be street operable. After a few weeks of dialogue I eventually was unable to get into contact with Kristie anymore, which ignited a 3 month long period of me trying to contact anyone I could at Spirit including the president Martin who wouldn't return my phone calls. In November I filed an official complaint with DMV investigations and they finally moved the needle somewhat as I finally got a phone call back from the president of Spirit in January of 2024, after which he told me everything had been fixed and that he was sorry for the delay (7 months). Fast forward to February and I finally received the title and had hoped everything was completed and I could move on. I get the title and clear as day it states that this is an off highway vehicle. So after what has been 8 months of stress and time spent on this situation, I learn that the initial problem with the vehicle hasn't even been touched. Infuriated I obviously contact the dealer again only to be told that the their is a new person working on the DMV issues and to contact her. I call her and she tells me everything I already know about the issue with the motorcycle and that she was waiting on a response from the DMV for the next steps. I waited a few weeks and I had to contact her again and she said I needed to take it to a vin verifier so that they can go to the next step, but also said she was waiting on a response from the DMV. I expressed to her that since the motorcycle had been sitting for so long without having the option of being ridden, the battery was dead, the gas needed to be pumped out of the tank due to sitting, and essentially I had no way of bringing the motorcycle anywhere. I was then told that if I paid the fee for a mobile vin verifier, I would be reimbursed. I was on board with this idea at first but then given the history of not being told the truth multiple times I've been hesitant on the idea. It's now May of 2024, I initially purchased the motorcycle at the end of June of 2023, 10 months of waiting is an absolute insane amount of time to wait to ride a motorcycle. After all the headache all I wanted to do was return the bike and get a refund given the length of situation and the declining state of the bike due to sitting. They declined and tried shifting to blame on to me for the hold up.

After all of this and almost a year of waiting for the registration, all I can say from one consumer to another, is to just do yourself a favor and purchase from someone else. I'm sick to my stomach that this dealer has my hard earned money. You'd have better luck buying from someone on Craigslist. My dream of owning and riding a motorcycle has unequivocally been shattered from this...

I purchased a 2020 Triumph Thruxton RS on August 11th, 2020. On the same day we ordered a fairing for the bike which was promised to be delivered mid-October (8-weeks) to my house in Morada. That day I placed a $6,000 down payment in order to complete the transaction. The salesperson responsible for contract signing (Martin) said “the bank approved me on the condition that I get the GAP insurance with the bike.”

I went home and researched IF forcing a consumer to purchase GAP insurance was legal. My father said that if I put a down payment of $6k on my bike, the GAP insurance does not make sense since the bike is now under MSRP. When I looked into the legality of such, I was informed that the law is that no dealership can position GAP insurance as a stipulation of a financial agreement. This is illegal.

Response from the owner

Martin claimed: “we even offered to install the fairing for free upon arrival. As you know it is a $600 labor job that you agreed to get for free for the waiting.” Reality: I called on 11/27/2020@03:33 PM and talked to the salesperson asking if they ever located the fairing and the parts specialist said no. He said that the UPS tracker said it was delivered to the dealership, but they can’t find it and will have to order a replacement which will take another 8-weeks at least. I asked if they are going to offer any compensation such as free installation? He said he cannot approve that since he would have to ask the service manager. I then proceeded to ask if they would then approve a store credit as compensation? He said in the future if I purchase any items in the store that they could work out a deal with me. He never got back to me with an compensation offer nor anything was agreed upon. It is not feasible for me to drive 4-hours for free labor, especially with no trust in your capability to do a good job.

Martin claimed: “I am surprised you are raising this issue as we had an agreement. What I told you is that we discounted so much the bike based on your request that in order for us to make the deal (and not losing money) you needed to buy one of those products. So we could be break even at least.” Reality: MSRP is $16,200 and that is the price I requested from the bank (see attached photo). On the sales contract I paid $17,889 before sales tax, fees, GAP, and the Fairing. Under the amount financed it states $16,209.16. The facts are I never requested a discount, nor did I receive one (see attached photos). Your claim is a lie.

Martin claimed: “You came a week later and mentioned you did not wanted the GAP coverage. I reminded you of our agreement. and you remembered and you left with the bike.” Reality: I live 2 hours away and have never been back to the dealership since the 1 day I walked in and walked out with my bike that same day. I called the very next day upset at your lies regarding how it was mandatory of me to purchase such insurance. I emailed you a written request on (08/18/2020) which was ignored (see attached photo).

Martin claimed: “As few weeks later you called again asking to cancel GAP! you talked with Terrence our finance manager. You either have bad memory or just trying to change the terms of our agreement. In order to make you happy, and asked Terrence to cancel GAP” Reality: On (09/01/2020) I emailed Terrence and requested his help since you were not responding. He was professional and emailed me the form (you never even responded to my requests). No one has a bad memory and luckily I am a professional whom knows the importance of keeping paper documents of all communications. Your lies are not fooling anyone. It is embarrassing that you have the title of “president.”

Martin claimed: “No matter how much effort and money we lose to make you happy, you still give us a 1 star review.” Reality: Your sales team sold a bike at full MSRP with an $1000 accessory which was promised in 8-weeks

UPDATE: it’s now 03/15/2021 (7-months) and I still do not have the fairing, they cannot even provide me...

Long review but long story short is make sure you allow plenty of extra time to complete a transaction with these folks and check ALL the bolts on any bike purchased here. First Ride (and start up ... had to leave dealer with a brand new bike that would not start more on that later) on new Himalayan very noticable rattle in front end when revving up and riding... found all 4 10mm head bolts holding the front fender on LOOSE(only had 9 miles at pickup, and I tightened them up at 16 miles so no way they just rattled loose)... you would think for the almost $900 set up and "saftey check" per bike that they claim almost takes 9 hours to complete that someone could perhaps run a few wrenches over everything? So someone doesn't DIE when the front fender falls into the tire! Luckily I knew a metallic sound from the front end isnt normal and checked it before something happened. Needless to say 0 confidence in the service department. Now the long story, Purchased 2 Royal Enfield Himalayans on Saturday May 1st. Didn't even attempt to squabble on the price they had the colors we wanted in stock. Salesman Nate was very friendly and asked questions to make sure we were filled in on all the details of the bikes he gets 5 stars. We are about 2.5 hours drive away we explained several times and several employees we were bounced around to offered that they could have them both delivered for us, as one needed a battery replacement so wasn't quite ready to leave but its a ten minute operation to put one in they will have someone do it before delivering on the coming Tuesday. They were busy on a Saturday this the soonest they could do it,...Okay sounds great! we sign the paperwork with Martin and get up to leave and he asks for the $600 for delivery we need to pay that before leaving....okay no one mentioned this extra service charge in the entire time from 11am to 3:30pm we were there asking multiple employees about delivery to confirm. (We assumed it was a dealer courtesy when you spend close to $15k in a day there ) ... Martin apologized that noone mentioned this but they can't do it for free how about $300? No thanks we will pick them up Tuesday morning...a little annoying to have that sprung on you right after signing but hey people forget and make mistakes no problem... everything seems simple enough. I head down Tuesday morning with a trailer and communicated with Martin that Morning and to let him know my ETA would be 9am at the dealership...he asked if I could come at 9:45 so they can get the dealership ready?...nope sorry I gotta grab the bikes and go... Bikes are paid for and insured mind you, by 9:30 bikes are not ready to go... one just still needed a battery or jump start or perhaps they could of put charger on it when they knew it was dead Saturday? By 10 am dead bike is still sitting dead by the service bay. I had to leave to make an appointment so had to make the decision to push a brand new bike I couldn't start and leave with it, there was confusion as to if it even had a battery installed between Martin and the service tech so they were nice enough to give me the battery to install myself once I got home... easy enough pop the seat and side panel, a couple minutes battery installed dont know what all the fuss was about ...these were just minor annoyances and Im not normally one to write reviews but after finding the front fender LOOSE something you would expect ordering a Chinese motorcycle online not an Authorized dealer that charged you almost $1800 for 18 hours combined set up and safety check that obviously did not get completed. Vin number of the bike with the loose fender is ME3FSM248MK470548 if there is a way you can check what "technician" signed off on that one, you should provide him with a 10mm and put at on you safety check list "Tighten ALL bolts not just the ones...