My 2018 V7III Special hasn't been perfect from a reliability standpoint, but it could be worse, and it has never left me stranded. I bought it in November 2018, and am approaching 21,000 miles.
Things replaced under warranty are both the speedometer and tachometer, which broke loose. The tach needle swung erratically a few times before the entire tach broke loose, which was about two weeks after I brought it home. It took six months to replace, so I rode around with a rubber band holding it in place. When the speedometer broke loose at around 8,000 miles, it only took two weeks to arrive, but the mileage was zeroized... KTM was able to program my 2008 Super Duke R's odometer when it was replaced under warranty, and I wish Moto Guzzi did the same. Maybe Guzzi's valid argument was that I won't know how many miles it'll have in six months, since that's how long the tach took to arrive. KTM only took two weeks the first and only time the dash needed fixed, allowing more accurate mileage prediction (it was exact to the mile).
At around 19,000 miles, the final drive failed. The oil looked like silver paint, the pinion gear had chips missing from the teeth, and it appeared the debris had broken away parts of the housing internally. The dealer had replaced a final drive gasket to remedy a leak at 6,000 miles, which is when they did first final drive oil change. I changed the oil at the manual-specified 12,000 mile interval, and I could tell by the pieces falling out and the metallic silver oil that the drive was on the way out, but I tried changing the oil in 200 mile intervals hoping to flush the particles and extend the final drive service life. I replaced the final drive with a used one from a 16,000 mile theft recovery since I was beyond the two year warranty, and I'll be changing the oil at 6,000 miles, which has worked on my 98 EV for over 30,000 miles that I've ridden it.
A final minor issue was a leaky oil pan caused by loose bolts. That was an easy dealer warranty fix.
The V7 III is a wonderful motorcycle that is great for commuting and lane splitting in dense traffic, and also workable for 400+ mile interstate days with Givi cases, although I'm sure a California 1400 or Goldwing would be better for long distances. I love how the V7 III sounds, feels and performs. The issues I had are luck of the draw in my opinion and not typical of this model, and of the four motorcycles I own, this is the one I take most often, with the 98 EV a close second. I don't have enough personal experience to say how reliability compares to Guzzis other than my EV, which was already 19 years old and had 26,000 miles at the time I bought it, making it an unequal comparison. For me, it's reliable enough, with the most important aspect being the fact I that absolutely love riding it.
