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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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| My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review I booked X440 S during first few mins on 4th july and took the delivery Yesterday - 5th nov. And here it is- Freshly Baked- ![]() So, now as i have your attention - let me go through initial experience I will break it into 3 parts - Booking and waitMe- I used to own a RE 2003(the older one before all adjustments got made) till 2009. Coming back to two-wheeler which is most likely mid Life crisis induced buy ![]() I booked the bike within few mins of opening and was told it was 7th in queue (in dealership or the area from where phone came- not sure) As we know there was delay from earlier publicized date and then another delay over that. - All this while no communication from the company, only source of information were public forums. - I dropped a mail to the only mail ID I had for Hero motocorp and harley eshop India mail ID on 29th aug on status and wrong vehicle model mentioned on receipt. No response. - Checking on this thread, i booked a test drive after downloading the app - HD Connect-It took a long time but got the slot for 2nd Oct- rushed back to Bengaluru and drove directly go to dealership Tusker Harley on Lavelle road. Guess what- Showroom was closed ![]() Now the app didn't give me option to book another slot and kept mocking me "you have missed your appointment. " I said sorry to the app so many times- but it didn't budge. - Around 10th Oct, got a call from dealership- randomly selected by Hero/Harley - RT Krishna Hero motors, Hosur Road for deliveries starting 15th -20th Oct. (Could they have selected a farther store). Anyways, replied to pick it between 28th and 30th. And as usual when i called up , I was asked to come to Hero Showroom as the Primea Showroom was not yet ready. Took the test drive on 30th Oct, understood the payment structure etc and came back without confirmation. - Had multiple queries on RTO charges , full amount being considered for Registration etc- all were answered with reason - sooner or later. But with all details- made payment and booked My Birthday rather than showroom opening day for picking it up. To be contd ... on Dealership, Payment, Delivery Experience and Post Delivery - Vehicle observations, Yays and Nays Last edited by rustyg : 7th November 2023 at 23:45. |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
Posts: 28
Thanked: 91 Times
| re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
- As covered in previous post - all doubts were clarified on messages and calls. Cost, reg cost and paymentBelow is breakup of payment done finally as per discount on launch booking, RSA and Bangalore registration costs. - HOG I declined the HOG (Harley Owners Group) membership as I am not sure of utility of the same in my case. It is mostly leisure riding buy and I don't see myself going in Group meets or Ride plans. As I mentioned- more of mid life crisis buy. - RSA I am told that RSA is mandatory - which I didn't object to as it's new model and I am not sure of wide spread servicing / fixing capability just yet. Also, peace of mind which I noticed in case of my Vento. However I think people having good hands-on with bike maintenance may discuss further on this with dealership. - Road Tax and Registration - The registration will happen at new price as the older price is being shown as discounted price in RTO books/ System. It's 18% Road Tax + 10% of Road Tax as Cess + 10% of Cess as Infra Cess + Flat Road Safety Cess of 500 + Smart Card etc etc + They charged Registration of 8840 for which I don't have breakup and seems little extra. Cost Breakup ![]() Dealership- - They have opened a primea showroom (think Nexa for Maruti) for Hero 2 wheelers nearby older showroom but on other side of road. - Only 3 accessories available yet - Side Stand (1400), Base Plate (450), Crash Guard (880) - There are just too many teething problems right from beginning- whatever is the question, it is attributed to It's new, we are launching, We still dont have information on that etc. See some e.g below E.g-
All in all, the Hero Attitude of decades keeps coming out from under the outer clothes of Harley. It's just not the fancy showroom which transforms the service to primea- It takes more P's (Marketing Mgmt 101 thing) More related to vehicle in Next post on Post Delivery observations, + and - ... contd.... Last edited by rustyg : 10th November 2023 at 23:04. | |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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| re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
Post Delivery - Vehicle observations, Yays and NaysSo with vehicle in hand, let me share my observations, hits and misses and down right irritations, Value offered vis-a-vis Value delivered. BUT first a family photo- Hello I am HD 440S and me with my Biiiiig Uncle - ![]() Hits / Pros
Things That could have been better / Nuances
Problems / Issues / Cons / Irritants These are real problems and made my experience go sour with the bike and how company - both Hero and Harley have handled things. Seems rushed to deliver and selling without proper engineering and quality checks. Seems like there lot of operational issues in supply chain, vendor & order management
Finally, the feel of ride is good , but it seems company is experimenting on first few people who showed faith on it's brand and product and mostly for the tie-up and information asymmetry they have . It seems someone was given target of taking out bike and they went with it despite of issues and channels and supply chain not set. Advice for Hero and Harley- While the bike is becoming more digital in features, attitude and dealing of Dealer and Harley Execs is becoming more mechanical. For god's sake train your execs to understand problem before hand, Invest some effort in software testing, Make disclosures for known problems. DO NOT take customers and especially early adopters - for granted. Service and quality matters when positioning a product in a segment which you want to crack. Harley bringing cheapest bike doesn't mean this is cheaper segment- It still is premium segment for Indian market. Last edited by Aditya : 11th November 2023 at 05:07. | |
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Team-BHP Support ![]() | re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing! |
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Distinguished - BHPian ![]() ![]() Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: Bangalore
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Congratulations on your new bike. Looks like at this point of time you have quite a few concerns with the bike and the company. Buying a new product or even a major facelift from an established company itself can be a little risky for the first lot buyers due to niggles and issues. Here it is a new product from a new partnership which atleast in my view has not stabilized based on my experiences during the process which ultimately led to me picking another bike. So I think there will be a period of issues and instability you will need to go through. Hopefully it will all be cleared up. The fact that you cannot use the connected features with an iPhone is a major bummer. Is it a temporary glitch that they have said will get fixed or they have categorically said you cannot use connected features with an iPhone? Wish you miles of happy ownership. It is a great bike from my limited experience with it. |
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review This post has truly been an eye-opener for me. Even though the HOG club in Dubai had its fair share of setbacks, I anticipated hearing about challenges when they launched in India, but not such basic ones. I can relate to the issue of mud being kicked up by the tires, as I faced a similar problem with my CB 350. Installing an aftermarket tyre-hugger should help resolve this. Wishing you the best of luck and countless safe miles on the road. Last edited by Sebring : 11th November 2023 at 11:41. |
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BHPian ![]() | Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
From some searches online, it seems that RTO charges should be 50-55k at best (eye watering compared to 30k I paid for the speed 400 in MH ![]() Also, RSA for 7k seems to quite steep for a two wheeler. It seems to cost more than if you paid cash for the 1-2 times you might have had to use it. Also, did you check if your insurance already had RSA covered? Some of them have it. Mandatory fittings worth almost 3k are also unreasonable. Anything mandatory should be covered within the ex-showroom price. If these are optional accessories, they cannot call them mandatory and charge you for them unless you asked for it. It might sound like I am trying to poke holes in your review but I am not. I am asking these questions so other customers are aware, because your review is the first detailed one out there. Thanks for taking the time and enjoy the rides on your new Harley! | |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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Road Tax + Cess in Bengaluru will cost approx 57 K for this vehicle and model. I did calculations with cess, etc by Registered list price. You are right on leftover above that - There is a number plate and registration charges over that. Unfortunately- there was no clarity given even on asking on this and an online search returned 500/800 + tax to 6000 Rs for registration. I had a sense that 2-3.5K extra might be getting paid here - But I let it go as nothing was yielding from the discussions. Quote:
RSA is steep- but few reasons I had to go ahead- 1) that comes from the Harley side I guess 2) smaller places have an understanding of the machinery 3) I had a bad exp with my VW Vento where I was stuck without RSA and Harley has an even lesser presence in smaller places or even parts of Bangalore, I have used it 3 times in 3 years. 4) What I guess is around 800 per year kind for RE etc so close to 3/4 K for a longer period. I called Harley's contact us number and they refused to help in get any idea on RSA details or amount and forced me to talk to the dealership only. I was left at the mercy of the dealership, who I think made it mandatory unnecessarily. Although, you are right that RE gives it free for the first year, and is still cheaper in subsequent year. Also, what I didn't consider is I am not planning to go out of the City on this one. So maybe I went with emotions. I feel that I didn't follow 'Jago Grahak Jago' correctly. Those are very valid points, though. Quote:
The point I am not happy about is - a) not informing about a glitch beforehand so that I can make an informed decision before buying to maybe downgrade to mid-variant. b) Trying to attribute it to iOS and not accepting their app, and the system has a problem, c) I specifically asked for a demo of this pre-booking but was told that this gets unlocked for the vehicle only after the sale is done and hence can't be seen unless an invoice is generated and that this restriction is from Harley's side. RT Krishna guys even refused to show it for a test-ride vehicle. Last edited by Turbanator : 11th November 2023 at 18:10. Reason: Back to back points merged. Too many errors. Please proofread before posting. | ||
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Thanks for the great review.I am getting delivery of my S variant from Tusker and they are only charging 269000 ex showroom price and road tax and registration which is the same 65 k amount . For insurance they are offering ICICI Lombard for 24k. But I am planning to go for Acko as it's costing 18k. Not planning to go for HOG membership and RSA. |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Ownership review -- Contd 2 weeks on ... and the bad experience continues with Harley and Dealer - RK Krishna Motors (basically hero dealer, not even trying to be HD dealer by actions) Dealer Harley Davidson India and Vehicle If only they chose a decent professional dealer for me to pick the vehicle and have not rushed in to taking out the bike with no sign of accessories being available yet and problems being acknowledged or resolved. |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
[indent][list][*] I checked with HD customer care on RSA . They were also surprised that Dealer told me that this is Mandatory. Although only way he told he shall help is on knowing name of who told me the same . ![]() Suggestion to buyers Please be aware of this unprofessional practice being followed by the dealer (s) on forcing RSA on you, as well as being mentally prepared on time that it will take for number plate to arrive. | |
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Mod Note : Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers. Thanks! Quote:
Being a 1st lot customer of X440 Vivid variant myself. In my review on X440, the premia Calicut experience related to booking and delivery was quite "premium". Sad to see this level of quality is not being maintained everywhere. The fuel indicator has a mind on its own. I noticed this in TD bike. But after owning this, I found out that once you start riding, after few minutes, the fuel indicator displays the correct fuel level. There is heat on right side on my motorcycle too. But in now way hot. For context: I drove for 60km wearing crocs and light jeans. The water/dirt splashing issue was surprising. The rear tyre does throw dirt and water onto swigarm and rear shocks. But none lands on my body. Infact I was suprised by jeans calves section not getting wet from driving on soaked roads. One thing I found out, there was something ratttling. when I came to a rest and revved a bit in nuetral, I found out that it was rear HSRP plate vibrating and hitting on a cone like small thing on rear mudguard behind HSRP plate. Some manual pressure and this was fixed. Last edited by Sheel : 24th December 2023 at 08:11. Reason: Mod note attached. | |
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
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I agree that unfortunately the dealer experience was not a pleasant one. They could and should have managed it much better especially when it's now the bread and butter for Harley Hero tie up in India. But, as far as the bike is concerned, there are hardly and sore points that you mentioned, and that is really impressive because the product per se seems to be really good. The indicators, mirrors and tyre hugger are easily fixable with aftermarket or HD accessories (as and when available) I'm sure. The engine heat management is something that you probably need to get used to this being a new liquid cooled bike and you being used to air cooled REs earlier. The display connectivity and fuel gauge inaccuracy are something bugging most Indian motorcycles. Most of these connectivity apps are useless and people ultimately resort to using a mobile phone on a handlebar mount. Fuel gauge is something you cannot rely upon even in bikes North of 15-16 lakhs. It is a calibration issue and either a hit or miss. Know the tank range, usable fuel and keep a tag of the miles you munch. Quote:
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Most of the votes were for either the RE and Triumph, hardly any for the baby HD. That is understandably because of HDs present status, of which not many people are confident. Such poor experience as yours will further create inhibition in the mind of buyers and people who recommend it alike. A good product will ultimately get neglected and fade away in oblivion if corrective actions are not taken at the right time by Hero and HD. | ||||
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The following BHPian Thanks aviator1101 for this useful post: | rustyg |
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
There are no concerns or issues with the reliability of the bike. The performance also is good. Watch the videos posted by Pune rider Happiest life and you will see his experiences. He just finished a 1500 km ride on the X440 and its been good. He has also called out some challenges with the light thrown on curves and turns in Ghat section. Hope your experience improves. Better to reach out to Tusker and see if they can help. Last edited by Dushie : 21st November 2023 at 22:04. | |
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BHPian Join Date: Jan 2020 Location: Bengaluru
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| Re: My Harley-Davidson X440 | Ownership Review Quote:
1- there is no delay here - I booked on 1st day i.e. 4th Jul and got it on 5th Nov (as I wanted 5th Nov date rather than 3rd which was offered) . So its almost same time from 31st Jul to 28th Nov , give and take 2 days. 2- The booking and fulfilment is more from Hero Manufacturing side rather than Dealership Quote:
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