- Consumer Warning
A Cautionary Tale About
Broward Motorsports and Yamaha
- Fort Lauderdale, Florida
- March 2023 – December 2025
The Complete Timeline
March 4th, 2023
How It Began
On March 4th, 2023 Marjorie and I purchased two new 2023 Yamaha VX Limited WaveRunners with a Triton Aluminum trailer from Broward Motorsports in Fort Lauderdale. For each WaveRunner we also purchased prepaid maintenance plans and the recommended GPS tracker units which they installed before we took delivery.
March 25th, 2023
Initial Service
On March 25th, 2023 I took both WaveRunners to Broward Motorsports for their service due at 10 hours. Since then Carlos and I have ridden them multiple times from West Palm Beach to Key West and everywhere in between. I even made plans to take them on a ride to the Bahamas before the end of this year.
October 12th, 2025
The Last Ride
On Sunday, October 12th, 2025 Carlos and I rode the two WaveRunners again for several hours. When we were done, we hand washed everything at the boat ramp, flushed the engines and generously applied spray lubricant, just as we have done every time.
October 13th, 2025
Where Things Went Wrong
Monday, October 13th we took both WaveRunners to Broward Motorsports for routine maintenance. On one unit I let them know there was an alarm which we believed to be triggered by the service interval. The service writer Michael informed me that the WaveRunners were not due for service until 100 hours so this isn't expected. I advised him that I was told the units should be serviced every 50 hours, and that they were last serviced around 10 hours for the initial maintenance at this same location.
October 14th, 2025 – 2:11PM
Here Comes the Bad News
Tuesday, October 14th at 2:11PM, I received a call from Michael, the service writer. He confirmed the alarm was indeed because of a programmed maintenance interval, but reiterated the standard interval is 100 hours. He asked if anyone else had done work on these. He then informed me that on one of my WaveRunners, they broke the spark plug off in Cylinder #1 and was requesting my authorization to remove the head and drill the spark plug out at my expense. He also said the other WaveRunner had a stuck plug in the same Cylinder #1 but they stopped work before breaking that one. I told him both WaveRunners were working fine when I brought them in, and I won't be paying for their mistake. He said he would get back to me.
October 16th, 2025 – 1:45PM
Continued Pressure
Thursday, October 16th Michael called me back at 1:45PM. He told me they were able to complete the service on the WaveRunner that didn't have a broken spark plug and wanted to know what I was going to do about the repairs needed on the other one. I reiterated my point that it was them who broke the spark plug, and the fact they were able to service the other unit which was reported to also have a stuck plug suggests they could have done the same on both if they had been more careful. Michael offered to contact Yamaha and see if they would cover the repair out of goodwill.
October 23rd, 2025 – 7:21PM
Yamaha Denies Claim
Thursday, October 23, at 7:21PM Michael called me back and told me Yamaha denied the claim. He again implied that I needed to pay for this repair. I asked him to have his manager call me.
October 24th, 2025 – 4:56PM
Still No Manager
Friday, October 24th at 4:56PM Michael called again. The conversation started the same as the day before, as if the previous conversation never happened at all. I told him I am very surprised he's still dealing with this instead of his manager calling me. He said his manager wasn't available to transfer the call to, but he would call me.
October 24th, 2025 – 5:07PM
Finally a Voice of Reason
At 5:07 PM I received a call from the service manager Randy. We spoke for over 20 minutes. I expressed disappointment that it was the 3rd time I was called about a problem that happened in his service department without the manager getting involved. I also reminded him that I spent good money on a respected brand WaveRunner that were not base model, including recommended accessories and prepaid maintenance to be performed at an authorized dealer.
Randy made comments about how well cared for the WaveRunners appeared to be. I emphasized that I owned WaveRunners before and used a local mechanic for my previous WaveRunners that could have performed all of my services on these at a lower cost than the dealer, but since I paid a considerable sum for brand new Yamaha WaveRunners that I wanted to ensure any work on them was done by Yamaha trained staff. The reputation for high quality workmanship by trained technicians is why the Yamaha dealer charges higher rates. In this case, the dealer is the one that caused the problem and that I expect them to take accountability. Randy told me that he would review the recordings of my previous conversations with Michael and get back to me on Monday.
About 15 minutes later, Randy called me back and told me that he’s going to use this opportunity to retrain his staff and they will take care of the repairs at no charge. He said the repairs would be completed towards the end of the following week.
November 5th, 2025
I Thought It Was Over…
On November 5th I received a call from Michael to inform me the WaveRunners were now running, but the speakers were not working on the one with the repaired motor. He also confirmed only the other unit (without motor repairs) needed a battery replaced. He told me there would be labor charged to diagnose the speaker issue and then would provide an estimate for the repairs. I declined any further work and let him know that Carlos would be picking up the WaveRunners but it might not be right away.
Since 2023 I have been storing the WaveRunners at Carlos’s house. Carlos was very familiar with the condition of the WaveRunners and he’s ridden them several times, so arrangements were made for Carlos to purchase them from me.
November 18th, 2025
Pickup and Inspection
On November 18th Carlos picked up the WaveRunners from Broward Motorsports. He was told there was no paperwork and I would receive an email instead. Carlos took the WaveRunners to Riva Motorsports for a pre-purchase inspection.
November 19th-20th, 2025
You Better Be Sitting Down, You Won't Believe This
I received a call from Carlos on November 19th letting me know Riva found major problems and he would be going back to Riva the next morning so I could speak with the service department on speakerphone.
When Carlos called me from the Riva Motorsports service department the next morning, he shared with me some pictures showing burned connectors and burnt wires covered with electrical tape. Adam, the Riva service advisor indicated they found debris in the hull from a fire extinguisher being used and pointed out the burned wires covered by electrical tape. Adam said to fix this properly would require replacing the main harness all the way to both handlebars. Adam also indicated that a compression test showed the motor wasn’t in the best condition and mentioned the broken spark plug in the center console. There were also some comments about how the aftermarket parts were wired in (GPS).
Evidence of fire damage: burned connectors and wires covered with electrical tape
Riva Motorsports Estimate to Repair Damages
At this point, Riva had not been told the extent of what was previously serviced, only that they were recently serviced at another (not named) authorized Yamaha dealer which was the only people who have worked on them. I asked Adam to document everything and provide an estimate for the necessary repairs as these WaveRunners were in excellent condition when I left them for service in October, and I was shocked to hear about the condition they are in now. I told Adam I needed some time to decide what I was going to do and asked him to provide me contact information for Yamaha Consumer Relations.
Same Day
Email Seems to Work Just Fine Today
Broward Motorsports Service Record
November 21st, 2025 – 10:24AM
Yamaha Passes the Buck
November 21st at 10:24AM I contacted Yamaha Consumer Relations at 1-866-894-1626 and spoke with Heather. Heather took notes of my complaints, but was adamant that all Yamaha could do would be to notify the District Manager to discuss the complaint during his next visit to Broward Motorsports and I would have to work out any resolution directly with Broward Motorsports. Heather made it clear that Broward Motorsports is independent and Yamaha can’t remedy the situation. She offered to call Broward Motorsports and arrange for me to bring the WaveRunners back to them. She placed me on hold, but was unable to reach someone at Broward Motorsports and said she would attempt again later and get back to me either way. She said details of this call would be under reference number #1-11222641198.
At 1:25PM, Heather returned my call and told me she spoke with Randy at Broward Motorsports and I should take my WaveRunners back to them.
November 21st, 2025 – Afternoon
Communications with Broward Motorsports
I did a quick search on Google for Broward Motorsports General Manager and found https://www.browardmotorsportsftlauderdale.com/meet-our-team–xstaff I called the main number and spoke to the receptionist, asking for Romel Rodriguez by name. I was told he’s not at that location and I said the website showed he was the General Manager. I asked who the General Manager was and at first she could not provide me his name, then she had difficulty finding the correct spelling. Eventually she told me Danny Ayala was the General Manager. I asked to speak with him and she transferred me to his voicemail. I followed up with an email to him at 2:05PM and CC Marj in which I suggested we could remedy the matter by Broward Motorsports purchasing the two WaveRunners and trailer as a package.
At 4:02PM I called Broward Motorsports to speak with Randy. I let him know about the damages and while on the call I forwarded him the email I had sent earlier to Danny. I asked him to research any video recordings he might have of from when my WaveRunners were being worked on. Randy told me he didn’t think that video recordings went back more than a week. Randy was empathic to how I may be upset about the damages to my WaveRunners and seemed relieved that I was very calm today. I explained that while I am quite upset that I preferred to handle this professionally, swiftly and quietly in the hopes they would prefer the same. Randy told me Danny was out of the office, but he would contact him immediately and ask him to read my email.
November 25th, 2025
I'll Get Back to You...
On Tuesday, November 25th Danny replied to my email letting me know he had been out of the office but would be meeting with Randy in the afternoon and would get back to me by end of that business day. I replied that I would be looking forward to his call.
December 3rd, 2025
Something Smells Fishy…
Over a week later, on Wednesday, December 3rd I called and asked to speak with Danny. The secretary placed me on hold for a while then eventually transferred me to his voicemail. I followed up with an email and Danny and added Randy to the email chain.
Danny replied a few hours later indicating that he had replied the prior week and referenced an email that I had never received. The subject line didn’t match and it didn’t show CC to Marj as previous emails had been. In his message, he denied there had been a fire, but offered to repair the damages anyway. Everything about the email he referenced seemed very suspicious to me.
December 4th, 2025 – 9:47AM
Take Notes, Not Action
I called Yamaha again on December 4th at 9:47AM and spoke with Jonathan. I expressed to Jonathan that I didn’t trust Broward Motorsports and their communications seemed very suspicious. I asked who the District Manager was that would be looking into this case and was told he can’t provide his name or any contact information. Jonathan was able to provide a generic email address (mcs@yamaha-motor.com) and suggested that I forward the recent communications and add any previous attachments. He said it would be added to the case and passed along to the District Manager. While Jonathan reviewed the notes from my prior call with Heather and seemed empathetic, he reiterated that Yamaha can’t get in the middle of it and I had to work through the issue with Broward Motorsports.
I then replied to Danny pointing out that neither I nor Marj had received the email he referenced and questioning why he didn’t follow up sooner given the seriousness of the issues. In his next reply he suggested that Broward Motorsports recently had some email problems which might be why I didn’t get his prior message and he didn’t follow up sooner because he thought I may have sold the WaveRunners.
December 2025
I'm Getting to the End of My Rope
At this point I forwarded the email thread to mcs@yamaha-motor.com, adding some comments about my distrust of dealership and concerns about the value and Seaworthiness of the WaveRunner. I replied once more to Danny, this time adding Yamaha as CC and suggesting that Broward Motorsports purchase the units for a value that would be sufficient to settle all of my concerns.
Danny replied with what he called a “Preliminary Quote” for less than 35% of the initial purchase and Yamaha has not replied or communicated whatsoever.
My Final Statement
I don't feel comfortable with Broward Motorsports at all, and Yamaha has made it clear that I'm on my own. I feel everyone should know about this story when considering a purchasing a Yamaha Product or dealing with Broward Motorsports of Fort Lauderdale.
What Went Wrong
- Spark plug broken during routine maintenance
- Fire damage discovered with electrical tape cover-up
- Suspicious email communications
- Lowball buyback offer at <35% of purchase price
No Accountability
- Yamaha refuses to intervene with dealers
- District Manager contact withheld
- Dealer management slow to respond
- Claims of “email problems” after complaints