Well, that did not take long. BMW North America has lifted its recent stop-sale order for all new and used BMW internal combustion motorcycles still on dealer’s showroom floors.
Now, the German manufacturer is releasing dealers from its “voluntary” stop-sale order by saying:
BMW Motorrad USA has announced that the Engineering Division has concluded our testing and evaluation and have determined that the voluntary stop sale measures can be lifted.
Dealers may resume the sale of all new and pre-owned BMW Motorcycles as of Friday September 29th.
The stop-sale order struck suddenly for the US and Canada late last month with immediate effectivity. At first, it wasn’t clear why it had been issued. However, because the stop sale order stopped the sale of all new and used internal combustion powered motorcycles, not its electric CE-04 scooter, many presumed that the problem was related to an emissions-related issue. And it turns out those people were right.
Shortly after the order was put in place, BMW Motorrad clarified the reason for the stop-sale order by issuing a statement. The brief release made it clear that the order did not affect the safety of their motorcycles. Further, the problem was with a component in their motorcycles’ emissions system, particularly the evaporative system. The statement said:
“BMW of North America is dedicated to providing vehicles to our customers that meet their expectations. To ensure that our vehicles are of the highest industry standards, BMW performs ongoing testing and evaluation.
Following a recent quality analysis, BMW is pursuing measures to further evaluate the material used in a component of its motorcycle evaporative system, which may not have been produced to material specifications.
As a result, BMW of North America is issuing a temporary, voluntary stop sale for all new and pre-owned BMW motorcycle models in dealer inventory, except for the CE 04.
This temporary stop sale is not safety related and BMW owners may continue to ride their motorcycles as normal.”
Now that BMW has lifted the stop-sale order, both riders and dealers can breathe a sigh of relief. Whether BMW will take some additional actions in the future is unclear. But for now, BMW is giving us in the US and Canada the all-clear signal.
