Warning to anyone thinking of buying a new TVS Norton from  Norton Solihull

I have taken my tank off my 961 a few times but for the life of me I cannot get my head around your picture of the tank, maybe because of the angle. How about taking another one from a different position please.

Been there......got the T-shirt and the photos.
I had to remove the petrol tank, on my 961, just weeks after the first major service.
The petrol pump seal had failed and flooded the battery box area. The advice from the servicing agent was to remove the tank in order to disconnect the battery.

I was instructed to drain the fuel tank and then remove it. This entailed removing the seat, two tank bolts and a rear strap bolt. Followed by parting a fuel connector, two breather pipes and an electrical junction.  The fuel connector only disconnected after its plastic  clip was squeezed in a particular direction.
The tank finally came off but only after the clip broke.
With the tank clear of the frame, patches of rust were visible plus damage to the tank.
In the photograph below the red chunk is the fuel pipe connector and the shiny look neat fuel.

Are we talking about a Donnington model and a TVS one. if you had your first service at Thor Mc did you ask them about the marks.?

"Lotta Torque About Norton"!!!!!!!!!!!
One can only imagine monkeys at the assembly line at Norton allowing these kind of faults to be passed on to customers, absolutely disgusting behaviour and to then be confronted by an aftersales ignoramus, the mind boggles.
Can't see this firm lasting any great length of time if this is the way they treat their clientele.

No doubt this thread will disappear as the directors are still in thrall of tvs, same as they were with Garner ( and the scalbanias before that )
expect a flurry of people singing their praises !

The frame rust doesn't look very serious.

... but is disgraceful on a new bike costing £17,000.

With respect to the fuel connectors, this was a common problem on early 2000s Triumph triples. I replaced the plastic connectors on my 2004 Tiger 955i with metal ones from here: https://www.omega.co.uk/pptst/FTLC.html but shouldn't be necessary on a new bike.

Hello Iain, a couple of things sprang to mind when I read your post, when you stated:

I ordered and paid in full for a Norton Commando 961 SP at the end of July 2024 for delivery on the 29th August, registered 1st of septometer 2024. Several problems came to light on the first day.

Why did you attempt any type of repair as the machine was brand-new and would be under warranty?

You then said:

 I called Norton who advised that the replacement part was £1000!

Surely that's Norton's problem - as I said, the bike was brand-new and under warranty - the cost is immaterial (to you at least!).  

Should there be any corrosion on a 961 that was less than a year old???
OK most of the corrosion was on minor parts but the front spindle was a huge worry. I asked the serving agent to replace it under warranty and was refused on the grounds that these parts were massively over-engineered. The rear spindle was far worse and the internal section blocked with flakes of rusting metal.
I took my 4 month old 961 to a local motorcycle servicing agent for a check over. The examination revealed three serious faults which would have led to an MoT failure. A leaking brake fluid reservoir, an excessively loose brake pedal and the wheel spindles corrosion. 

Would those buying on a finance deal be better protected or be in a better position to reject a faulty bike? If you came to return your low miles Norton after two years and it was found to have corrosion as above that was dismissed as not worthy of a warranty claim, would the bike be deemed to be in poor condition and a penalty be charged?  My only experience of new bikes is of Honda mopeds from the 1980's, which of course worked faultlessly and didn't even need the spark plug cleaning once unleaded petrol came in.

On the other side of the coin, I traded my 2015 Sport in last November on a brand new TVS Sport and it's coming up for it's first service soon with 3,500 miles on the clock. No signs of rust and not a single small or large problem encountered in that time.  I still cannot make out where the damage to the tank is with that picture, it looks like the bottom edge but can't be otherwise you would have seen that and so would Norton and it should be replaced under warranty.  Somehow I don't think we have the full story yet. Please take another picture of the tank at a more favourable angle.

This all seems a little odd to me.

As Mark suggests above, it does rather beg the question why the whole matter was not dealt with under warranty ? 

It also seems just a little hard to understand why the owner having sorted out the mechanical fault at pretty modest cost, then chose to sell the bike within twenty days of having received it, plus taking a £7000 hit on resale and having never even ridden the bike ?

Is there something we are not being told ?

The new 961's have a 2 year warranty and it would be the responsibility of the supplying party to fix the fault. Also you are covered under the sales of goods act and have the ability to reject the product as unsuitable for sale and get a full refund. Finally the new bikes are heavily discounted and you did not pay £17000 for your bike, so to say that you took a £7000 hit is untrue.

i took delivery in July 2024 of a brand new 961 from South Downs Motorcycles. Cost £13,500. It came with a full PDI (Pre Delivery Inspection) report and it's been perfect for the 1350 miles so far, looks and rides great.

Undeniably the issues you report on are serious and the factory should have been all over this and it is deeply saddening to me, a very happy owner, to hear of your troubles, but there is enough bitter and false information in your post that suggest it should be taken down until verified.

The negative statements together without any real attempts to rectify the issues point to a spammer. Didn't know Norton sold direct either.
Couple in with selling a bike 2nd hand +VAT? Too many things don't add up.
 

Also very odd, bike apparently delivered new to purchaser on 29th August, advertised for sale here on 31st August - only two days later ! 

Come on Iain, give us more details.
Why did you take the tank off in the first place and break the spigot?
Why were you quite happy to advertise it on this site only 2 days later for £7k less than you paid for it? If you really wanted to sell, why did you think £10k was the price to start at?
Did you consider holding on for a few more days to see if TVS could sort the problems out on a bike that was not just still under warrant but only had 4 miles on the clock.?

I took the tank off  my old 2015 961 Sport many times but not once did I damage the spigot, it was a case of gently gently catchee monkey not ham-fistedness . I wonder how many spigots Stu has broken over the years.?

To get a balanced view of the bikes warrenty problems, it would be nice to invite the Norton factory to put their side of the story. Is it possible to contact them for a reply as their reputation is undoubtedly being damaged?

I don't think TVs will reply to all these post as it will only end in a slanging match and maybe legal issues further down the line. If I were TVS lawyers my advice would be don't get involved at all. Could be wrong but let's just wait and see.

If I were TVS I'd be wondering what my PR people are doing to minimise the negative feel of the latest Norton Issues that we have been reading about lately on these forums.
They must think that they are royalty, "Never complain never Explain".
Meanwhile sales are being impacted due to a head in the sand mentality.
I for one would like to read a response from a company that  are selling a product that I was considering buying.

A recent survey of world motorcycle sales has listed TVS as number 5 in a group of 10.
Well behind Honda but only just below Suzuki. 

No 5. TVS Motor Company
2022 Sales: 2.8 million; Projected 2023 Sales: 3.2 million
Between 2012 and 2018, sales of the TVS Motor Company grew from 1.9 million to 3.4 million. That said, TVS sales slumped sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Known for making economy motorcycles that sell in India for $750 a pop, cheaper than any
motorcycle could cost, sales of the TVS motorcycles are high enough to put it fifth on the list, even if these sales are mostly within the Indian subcontinent.
Top Models: Raider; Jupiter; Apache RR 310

I don't think that the TVS publicity department are going to be too worried following a few moans relating to their 961 contribution to global sales.