NORTON ‘UNFIXABLE’
New firm says they can’t repair original V4
Norton say they can’t source the parts needed
Norton Motorcycle Co. Ltd have told owners of firstgeneration V4SS models built by the previous company that they will be unable to repair their bikes after finding more faults than initially anticipated.
The news was delivered last week in a letter to owners by the new CEO, Robert Hentschel, in his first communication since taking over from Interim CEO John Russell last month. He has been appointed by parent company TVS, who bought Norton for £16m at the start of 2020. In the letter to owners of the ‘generation one’ machines Hentschel said that since discovering 35 individual faults with the V4SS bikes built by the previous company, NMUL, they have been searching for the best way forward, despite having no legal responsibility to do so. Initially they said they believed the best option for owners was for Norton to repair these bikes, however Hentschel says “our view of the likely best solution has changed over time as more material defects were identified. The legal responsibility for the defects remains with NMUL which is now in liquidation,” and that owners’ best route forward now is a claim against the original business. Hentschel said Norton simply cannot reliably source all of the parts needed to repair the existing bikes to a safe standard. He also reiterated their previous statement that bikes should not be ridden on the road due to the number and severity of the identified defects. So what does this mean for the future of the V4? Hentschel says that any new bikes built will be completely re-engineered and will not be continuations of the NMUL bike. They have not yet set a start date for production but are hoping to begin by the end of 2021.
As a gesture of goodwill Hentschel says all existing V4SS owners will be offered a new V4 “at a special price and with a two-year warranty” once the liquidation of the old company has been completed, although Norton have yet to confirm just how special the goodwill price will be.
In the meantime owners of the original bike will have to go through a process with administrators (BDO) of the old Norton company (NMUL) in a bid to become an unsecured creditor. Any financial settlement can then be used by the owner of the machine to fix the issues affecting the V4SS. This change of stance from Norton has left affected owners, who have already been waiting for over a year to find out the fate of their ‘gen one’ bikes, back in limbo. It looks like there will be no simple solution for those wanting to get the original machine roadworthy. Meanwhile Hentschel and his team are busy getting the new factory in Solihull up and running. Outstanding orders for the Commando are being fulfilled and then production of the ‘second generation V4’ will start. Once this has happened, the more affordable 650cc Atlas will be re-engineered to make it production-ready, and the order books reopened.