2024 Hvac Ridge Limited Regrets of buying

[Mark D]

The first problem I encountered was the tailgate not holding which resulted in It always remaining down. The second problem was the passenger side door coming unlatched. The third problem was with the clutch in that it took several seconds for it to engage then it would bolt in whatever direction I had moved the shifter. This made it extremely hard to load or unload onto my trailer without having my left foot riding the break while my right was on the accelerator loading it onto or off of the trailer. All of this happened within the first few days that I owned my Ridge. I was pretty upset about all these issues on a brand new unit that cost close to 30 grand. This is my first Kawasaki too and I immediately regretted buying it. My dealership, here in the Houston, Tx area, is doing an excellent job trying to fix everything that needs fixing. They immediately replaced the tailgate but asked me to take it easy with it……take it easy??? I use my ridge for hunting in the hill country of central Texas, there isn’t anything that is easy about that. The dealership managed to get the door to not come unlatched by filing down the frame latch where the door latches. It holds but when you open it from the inside the door drops down and the inside door handle is very hard to open. This makes me think the doors aren’t lined up properly. They adjusted the clutch and it ran better and I decided to just put the unit into low and 4 wheel drive when loading/unloading my unit. There was also a problem with the garmen speaker/entertainment system so that makes the 4th problem with this brand new Ridge. I called garmen and they sent me a part to give to the dealership to install. It took about 3 months for the dealership to work out all the problems and tear the whole dash out of the cab of my ridge to install the part that Kawasaki had forgot to install when they put it all together. Finally I got my Ridge back just in time for deer season. After 3 months in the hill country of central Texas it is back in the shop due to the clutch, passenger side door again , and a new problem of front suspension rattling when off-road. I can feel the rattling in the accelerator like something is loose in the whole front suspension. The dealership is telling me they are working with Kawasaki on the clutch. I read here on this forum, it doesn’t sound like their fix will work. I am really also concerned about the front suspension system too. I believe Kawasaki rushed this side by side to market without fully testing it out and I think they have put out a total Lemmon of a product. I wish I would have never bought this unit.