[1madcat]

B) I'm talking to this guy about my F7, tell him I have about 250 miles with no problems. He tells me his died last night and the dealer he got it from was working on it for 4 hours. He tells me they think it might be one of the smart valves. I said yeah, there is a service bulletin for the smart valves. He said the dealer had know idea. This dealer is a joker, would never buy my sled there. Anyway, I feel like I know things about these sleds WAAAYYY sooner then the dealers. If it wasn't for these types of forums, we would have know idea what is going on. These forums are a powerful weapon against lying dealers! I would like to personally thank all the people who post here. I feel like I knew every inch of my sled before I picked the thing up from the dealer! Thanks!

 

[Roy T]

Ditto! -- Roy

 

[CatMan2]

I agree also! I am sure these forums are being discussed at Cat.

 

[f7firecat]

I agree, called my dealer on 12/26/02- had no idea on the recall for the tach, bolts, and smart valve. They called me back in the afternoon and said I was right and they would be recieving parts shortly. Thanks to all for the posts, great bunch of HARDCORE Sledders! Special Thanks to ROB for setting all this up!

 

[Racer X # 9]

I feel much more informed with regards to my sled (F7) vs. any other year cat that I have ever owned. I have been riding for 27 years. The thing that I respect regarding this site vs. a generic sled site is that the information tends to be pretty accurate, clear, and can be coraborated quickly with multiple input. That's not to say that you do not have to read between the lines sometimes, as some shit always gets mixed in to some topics.

All in all, I can say without hesitation that this is the best sled site by far, thank you ROB!

 

[IRONHEAD]

I AGREE WITH WITH ALL OF YOU. THIS IS THE BEST SITE. ROB AND YOU GUYS REALLY GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THESE PROBLEMS QUICKLY.

 

[looneytune]

These forums are great and contain a lot of useful information. I'm surprised to hear of the people still having the same problems that have posted over a month ago. How does this still happen? People are reading and responding to these posts, but still not checking the basics before they ride. Then, when something happens they get on here and bad mouth Cat or their dealer. Take the time to check your sled over instead of being a keyboard commando. Remember, we are only hearing your side of the problems. Keep dealers names off of here. It serves no purpose to badmouth someone who can't defend himself or his actions. Yes, there are some bad dealers out there. But there are also bad customers. They can never be satisfied, no matter what you try to do for them. They skip from dealer to dealer, badmouthing the last guy as they go on and on. A little patience is required when even Cat is trying to figure out what is going on.

 

[CCC Sniper]

Arctic cat employee of the month.....

anyone as great as this form is, its pretty sad that a sled requires so much attention, fixes, recalls......

This site does rule though, and with all the prevenitive maintenance mines still sitting pretty....... I also like having a heads up right away as opposed to having to wait on the dealer and stuff

 

[1madcat]

I agree, Generally you have to take care of something new. This is not a new Honda car, and even they have problems. I can't believe some of the stuff people post here: I put the wrong type of gas, I went WOT and I was still on the premix isn't that cool? I also don't understand some of the people who change the sled after driving 2 miles on a jack stand. Drive the sled a while, break the thing in, and then screw with it. If you don't do it that way, you won't have a benchmark of what you started with.

 

[F7&5]

I also agree. However there seems to be a big time lack of communication between dealer and arctic cat and it makes a good dealer look bad.

 

[czy42strokes]

This forum has been a great source of info. Bottom line though it still comes down to the dealer, and I have to say mine has been great, every time I bring in a bulletin they listen to what I say and it usually is only days before cat faxes them the bulletin. My sled was set up properly by them so most of these issues I have escaped, just need snow to ride it....

 

[es414]

a little defense for the dealer here-i am a ford dealer and quite often we are the last to know about things especially things like service bulletins which are faxed to dealerships-it could be lost or never received-remember guys,we are probably the best informed bunch on the net thanks to guys like rob and the rest who have posted here-my arctic dealer is great-he an i have snowmobiled together for 15 plus years-but there have been some things i have told him about that i learned from this site that he had not heard about yet from arctic

 

[Captainkev]

According to my dealer when I questioned him about the service bulletins, he said that is up to me to contact him. He said if it really something that Cat is worried about, they would send the owner of the sled a notice to call the dealer. Anyone else get this kind of feedback from their dealer?

Kevin

 

[madmike]

i think the responsibility of sending out service notices,should be on the dealer at least to start with,it is easier and in a timelier fashon for them to access names and adresses of the people that bought there sleds,

 

[lj 500]

Ever get the feeling that you guys are all doing Cats testing, R&D, and so forth, and don't even know it.... You test, Cat reads the posts and makes the changes and "sometimes" will let the dealer in on the updates and info. Really.....

 

[team arctic]

Originally posted by LJ 500@Dec 28 2002, 11:14 AM
Cat reads the posts and makes the changes and "sometimes" will let the dealer in on the updates and info.

What possible reason would Cat have to only "sometimes" let dealers in on updates and info? That makes no sense at all...Marc

 

[flyingf7sp]

Originally posted by es414@Dec 27 2002, 01:48 PM
a little defense for the dealer here-i am a ford dealer and quite often we are the last to know about things especially things like service bulletins which are faxed to dealerships-it could be lost or never received-remember guys,we are probably the best informed bunch on the net thanks to guys like rob and the rest who have posted here-my arctic dealer is great-he an i have snowmobiled together for 15 plus years-but there have been some things i have told him about that i learned from this site that he had not heard about yet from arctic

Right on about this. The mechanic at my dealer had heard nothing about any of the bulletins i had brought to his attention. The thing is with so many people on this site from so many areas as soon as one person finds out anout something they post it. It may take awhile for that info to be faxed/sent out to every Cat dealer. As the mechanic said, usually it takes a couple weeks from the time Cat issues an official bulletin for them to actually find out about it at their shop.

In a perfect world you would find out right away but it's not so have a little patience