- This topic has 13 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 8 months ago by Rupmisc.
Haggling a dealer
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July 13, 2008 at 10:21 pm #1715381724Participant
Dose trying to get a lower cost at a cycle dealer ever work for anyone here and best way to go about it. I mean the worst thing is say no right. There is 3 dealers around and I would go the way of saying I’ll try another place.
If the choice is make a sale and mess a few hundred less profit or none at all I think they would bite. When is the best time to buy if it makes the price change. I don’t have the credit needed to finance the bike and figure it would be 4-5 months to buy cash. Want a 08 or 09 250R
July 13, 2008 at 10:46 pm #8722CBennettParticipantyeah it works, maybe not like you want with TONS off but they will normaly try to “include” stuff or discount the bike a bit..My brother in law was looking at a bike a Suzuki 600 GSX-R he looked/pit 3 dealers against each other..one pretty much wanted to give him a whopping $250 off the bike price and then cried about how deals like that will break him and he has so little profit anyways..so that guy got knocked off the list pretty quick. The other guy went about $700 off the bike price which was decent but the local guy went $500 off the bike price plus he let him pick out any gear up to $400 worth on top of that(he had never ridden B4 and did not know of this site lol getting a GSX-R for a first bike ) but that was the best deal as he had no gear so he got the bike cheaper and the price of all his gear wrapped up in the deal..he got a jacket,helmet(fullface to match the bike colors same with jacket), some kind of what are almost “overpants” with kevlar or armor or both that he can put on over the top of jeans or what ever he is wearing,gloves, and a bike bag. So year they will deal and dicker but you gotta try pretty hard..none of them wanted to do much of anything till he brought up the competition and what they were offering.
oh and see if you can get them to give you credit at the dealer..he had /was going through a divorce and his credit was not that great but he got financing through the dealership or at least the company or what ever…
July 13, 2008 at 11:26 pm #8725zgotzillaParticipantMight want to get on the net and request offers from several dealers in the area. Within 100 miles of where I am dealer prices on new top end cycles have varied as much as three THOUSAND dollars. It will obviously be less for lower end cycles, but shop around. If someone is going to have your money, it should be you. If you can hold out, buy a 2008 shortly after the 2009 models come out. Be a miser in this economy.
July 14, 2008 at 12:36 am #8727TangoParticipantAs someone who is hopefully going to purchase a bike soon I am also interested in this topic. After looking at all the shops within roughly a 6 hour drive I’ve come up with one dealer that had $400 off the bike and another dealer that had $1200 off the bike (bike is an 08 Kawa 650r MSRP $8199). I have to call and get some more info as these prices are only listed on their websites. And regards to gear I was told to completely gear up for a new bike I was looking at between $700 and $1500.
Another thing I was contemplating was going across the border to purchase my bike. I live in Canada and was wondering if anyone has any experience buying a bike from the US?
July 14, 2008 at 4:43 am #8735MickeyParticipantYou could try the same thing that one of my wife’s teachers did. Go find the bike that you want and tell them that you really want to buy the bike but your wife won’t go for it until you get the right deal. Let them come up with a few numbers until your “wife ” agrees to the deal. It is kinda the same thing they try to do to us but in reverse! the biggest thing to remember is not to let any of the salesmen near your “wife” tell them that she is not comfortable with any type of negotiating. Your “wife” can be any female you know just don’t let any salesmen get near her!
“I thought I was indecisive but now I’m not sure”
July 14, 2008 at 5:00 am #8737ShannonGParticipantThere really isn’t a huge markup on bikes as a general rule. The shops make their money on service and accessories. I find not being obnoxious and just being upfront is the best approach. “What’s your best price?” And make it clear you’re willing to spend your accessory dollars there.
July 14, 2008 at 5:10 am #8740MickeyParticipantOne dealer tryed to tell me that a 650 cruiser was better than a 250 standard for a new motorcyclist. Wanna bet he was trying to make money off the bigger bike?
“I thought I was indecisive but now I’m not sure”
July 14, 2008 at 5:26 am #8741RabParticipantHere’s a typical scenario:
You give the dealer the price you want to pay, he says he thinks it’s too low but will “ask the manager” if he’ll accept it.
He then goes and has a smoke or something, then comes back with a serious face and says no. Then he gives you a price which is in between what they want and what you want. You make a counter-offer and he goes off “to see if the manager will agree” again. Then he goes off for a little while again and then comes back (with that serious face again) and says, well if you take our financing, I can get some commission on that so I can make your price if you do that.
That’s the way it tends to go (and no, the salesman never once in that whole exchange, really spoke to the manager).
July 14, 2008 at 6:04 am #8744MickeyParticipantThat is the same game that you play with your “wife”! The great thing about this game is that it can be played even if they are the only dealer in town with the bike you want!
“I thought I was indecisive but now I’m not sure”July 14, 2008 at 4:13 pm #8760ShannonGParticipantI got that too. I think they get blamed when someone outgrows a 250 and has to ‘buy up’ fairly soon.
July 15, 2008 at 5:03 pm #8808ScottyJParticipantShannonG said, “I think they get blamed when someone outgrows a 250 and has to ‘buy up’ fairly soon.”
Personally, I think they would love for that to happen because then you’d be buying another motorcycle. I have to side with Mickey on this one, they’re trying to get more of your money.
July 15, 2008 at 6:54 pm #8821ShannonGParticipantBut they probably don’t enjoy the disgruntled customer in there chewing them out that they didn’t sell them enough bike in the first place. Truly, more bike shops try to sell you big in the first place than get you into a sub 500 cc bike.
July 15, 2008 at 9:55 pm #8831RabParticipantRe. Selling you two bikes, a small (appropriate) starter bike and then later selling you a bigger bike when you’re capable of riding it, sure, they’d love to do that as they’d make money on the first sale, then they’d take some more of your cash with the trade-in offer, and then make the profit on the second bike (and a commission on financing too probably).
Problem is, they know that you might not come back to buy the second (bigger) bike from them, so while they’ve got your attention, they’d rather sell you the bigger bike from the get-go in case you don’t come back.
Bigger bikes have better profit margins than smaller ones.
July 16, 2008 at 2:17 am #8839RupmiscParticipantI’ve had a lot of experience with dealers lately. I think Rab has a good point. Most would rather get what they can-now. Add the fact that at many dealerships, salesperson turnover is high. Loyalty doesn’t matter to a salesperson who thinks they may well be gone in 6 months. I ended up at a small father/son run dealer. Hope they turn out to be a little better then average, but I’m not counting on it.
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