AtWhatMileage
Body · 12 owner reports

Other body or interior problem on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14

Reports of this failure 12
With an odometer reading 10
Reports per 1,000 built 4.5 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $200–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 1st

When other body or interior problem gets reported

Owners of the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14 report other body or interior problem at a median of 10,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 20,000 miles, from 10 reports that carried an odometer reading.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.

The mileage distribution

The reported range runs from 500 miles at the tenth percentile to 35,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 33,743 miles across the middle 80% of reports.

A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.

100% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 10 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
457 miles 3,449 miles 9,998 miles 21,000 miles 34,200 miles

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $200–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure, every year of the Kawasaki Concours 14

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2008 (this one) 10k
  2. 2016 Kawasaki Concours 14 other body or interior problem 3k
  3. 2017 Kawasaki Concours 14 other body or interior problem 20

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

I have a 2008 kawasaki concours14, and the locking mechanisms on one of my hard bags has failed. The motorcycle only has 2,100 miles and there are many reports on the internet of individuals having the same problem and the bags falling off as they go down the highway. *tr

2,100 miles NHTSA complaint 645061 filed 2007-11-06

Hard saddle bags loose on motorcycle. Latch mechanism binds when retracting saddlebag securing hook. Upon inspection of latch, one of the pins within the latch was found to be sheared off. *tr

7,496 miles NHTSA complaint 645085 filed 2007-11-06

Hard saddle bags loose on motorcycle. Latch mechanism binds when retracting saddlebag securing hook. Upon inspection of latch, one of the pins within the latch was found to be sheared off. *tr

7,496 miles NHTSA complaint 645086 filed 2007-11-06

Also reported on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14

Other brake problem

6 reports median 12k

Fuel pump failure

3 reports median 1k

Loss of braking

2 reports median 24k

Premature brake pad or rotor wear

2 reports median 7k

Headlight failure or clouding

2 reports median 5

Other engine problem

2 reports median 4k

How far this goes

Complaints are voluntary, so 12 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other body or interior problem happen on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?

Across 10 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 10,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 5,000 miles and a quarter after 20,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other body or interior problem on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?

12 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 4.5 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed