[Anonymous]

I went to a dealer the other day for a new Ninja 250R, and the guy there told me it would run me about 4250 after all was done. Does that sound right? I tried Crazy Freddy’s but those bastards tried to make me pay 5000 for it. I knew that wasn’t right. But the new dealer I’m at… is 4250 a good price? Can I make them go lower? I’m buying my first bike to commute with, and I don’t know how to negotiate very much
Any tips would be appreciated

Thanks,
Bob

[Bob]

Oh yea, one more thing…
If I wait, will the price raise/lower due to the demand of this bike? If they are out of stock, could I pay them to order direct for me?

[WeaponZero]

4250 is insanely low for the demand. if you can get it for that price, pay it with no questions asked. Price will probably go UP due to the demand. Never before has a 250 sold like the newly redesigned 250R.

[Bob]

SO how much should I pay at the maximum for the bike?

[Andrew]

The 08 had an MSRP of 3500 and the 09 has one of 4000 if that helps. My local dealer was adding on $700 for tags, title, license, shipping and setup which seems a lot but it wasn’t compared to some other places. So 4200 is a decent price for an 08. If he’s selling your a 09 for that then its a great price as long as thats the OTD price and it isn’t excluding stuff you need like TTL.

[Anonymous]

4832 otd for a 09 ninja. Is that too much? he did say 4300 then when i asked for a otd price he said the total is 4800. I’m going to ask him for a break down of the charges. What charges should I question him about?

[Andrew]

So he’s adding $832. You need to know what are the mandatory costs like TTL and what is he adding to pad his profit like shipping and setup. The price is often negotiable but with demand so high on the Ninja dealers have been refusing to budge on the OTD prices.

[ilnam]

3 dealers in the Chicago area were selling 08! Ninjas for $5200. It would then make sense for the 09s to be going for $5700 here.

[MattN]

You should be able to get it under $4k. MSRP is ~3500. they pay even less than that ( invoice ).

Negotiation Tips. Go in more than once… talk to the same guy so he remembers you. The more you talk the more likely the price will come down in your favor. Think about things you need like riding gear. 4250 isn’t bad if you can get a helmet and jacket with it. Ask about things like that.

Don’t commit on the first day. For example go in on a saturday, talk with a salesguy about the bike. Get his card. get a rough starting number and leave on a positive note. Email him mid week saying you were in and got his card. Ask him about their website’s price of a 250R listed as 3500 and ask why he quoted you 4250. Just ask to get clarification of the price descrepancy. He’ll likely email you back saying they don’t talk money via email but if you’d like to come in they can work with you on the price…I wouldn’t be surprised if he hints they can get you a better price than 4250. Go in the next saturday and talk with the same guy. The more you talk, the more likely you’ll get a good deal. YOu may still end up paying 4250, but I bet you can get a few goodies on the side as well.

[briderdt]

Last Friday I was visiting a local dealer. Second time I’d been in, and talked to the same guy (good tip there — deal with one guy. Even if they’re NOT on commission, building that one-on-one is always a good idea). Anyway, this particular dealer has the book out on the floor that lists every additional item over the MSRP. Then he hinted that there are times when they have deals that waive these costs (or most of them)… So it’s always good to get in the floor guy’s back pocket (figuratively).

[Loki]

Whats otd and ttd?

[Jiriki]

otd = out the door

(this means the bottom line charge to you to ride the bike out of the shop, taxes, registration, crate, build, etc all included)

not sure about ttd… but maybe ‘through the door?’

[Rupmisc]

Problem with motorcycles is that the market is small, compared to cars, and the opportunity for dealer bullshit is higher. The manufacturers don’t seem to be in any hurry to help, and don’t believe that they have any incentive to do so. If buyers in groups, started favoring manufacturers that set dealer standards for sales and service, it is possible that the situation would improve.

In a perfect world, freight and assembly would be standardized and on the invoice. The idea that you should pay a dealer to do normal administrative paper work is ludicrous. License fees are fine (waiting in line to get the plates), if you have the option to get your own license instead.

No one in their right mind would pay anything over sticker for a car. There just isn’t the same amount of shared information on motorcycles. Also, the manufacturers aren’t doing enough to ensure that any dealer, will service the manufacturer’s bikes, regardless of where they were purchased.

Not only is it now fall, but cash is scarce. Car dealers are doing almost anything to sell their inventory. Gotta wonder why we aren’t seeing deep discounts on bikes. When I go to some local dealers, I see two and three year old (new) bikes, for sale at maybe 10% below their original prices. Hard to see how anyone can afford to carry inventory that long. Pardon the rant, but it is clear that there are a lot of inefficiencies in this particular market.

[dcJohn]

“…it is clear that there are a lot of inefficiencies in this particular market.”

Boy, isn’t that the truth! I hope the growing market for bikes eventually leads to enough competition between dealers to correct the problem. Strangely, there’s at least a niche competitive market between all the Harley dealers in my area (there’s a slew of Harley shops in the MD/DC/NoVA area). As a result, I’ve yet to walk into a Harley dealership that didn’t have wildly helpful sales folks ready to make deals to move inventory. Sadly, I just don’t happen to like their bikes.

[nau_lax21]

i was originally looking for an 08 250r and couldnt find one anywhere <$5000. they all ended up being 5500ish, i ended up getting a new (07) gs500f instead. now the msrp is $500 higher than last year, if you can grab one for under 5k id take it in a heartbeat

[Author]

Posts