[ustfu]

I just got a quote from a dealer. It kinda shocked me when I saw the OTD price. Can someone break down the fees for me? I know sales tax will be about $400.

Here’s the email:

Hello xxxxx,

Thank you for contacting xxxxxx.

We do have in stock the 2009 Kawasaki Ninja 250R which is MSRP at $3999+fees. OTD price will be $5200.

We can deliver the Ninja250R to your home free of charge within the Bay Area.

If you have any questions, please give us a call at xxx-xxx-xxxx .

Thanks

xxxx

[WeaponZero]

simple economics.

supply < demand, and thats all there is to it.

[Candice]

There are more fees than just sales tax. They charge for your delivery of the bike to their facility even though it’s already sitting there, I was quite shocked as well and it’s like $1000.00 or something ridiculous. Then there is some other stuff, I forget now what they are exactly. Some places even charged these fees for used bikes, yikes. Just tell them you give them $4500 out the door.

[ronkore]

Like me you live in CA, where things are more expensive, add to that the insane demand for the 250 here. 5200 is highway robbery though. The dealer should be fine with MSRP + sales tax, dmv reg fee, and documentation (title) fee. I’ve read elsewhere that charges like setup and delivery are BS as those are already built into what they pay kawisaki. The dealer invoice tells the story.

If you do the math, the 3999 + sales tax + doc/dmv comes out to

3999 * 1.0925 + 150 = ~4519. I got my ’09 250 for 4600 OTD, and it likely wasn’t the best deal I could have gotten, but far better than the initial quotes of 4999 OTD I was getting. And one infamous place here was even sellin it for 6800 OTD.

I’d say offer em MSRP and see where it goes from there. It’s really too bad both the dealers and kawisaki (+$500 price jump for ’09 MSRP) are playing this price gouging game with the 250, as I’m sure it contributes to beginners saying “screw that, I can get a used ZX6/R6/GSXR for that price!” and they end up with more bike than they can handle.

[bigguybbr]

The conveyance fees cover things like the prep work to get the bike ready for sale. For instance, a new bike does not arrive fully assembled, and has to be put togeather before it can be sold. Also many dealer go over used bike and make sure they are in good working order before they are sold. The fee’s are also a dealers way of making up for the cost of the insurance for while the bike has been on the showroom floor.

Delivery fees aren’t negotiable. It’s a flat rate fee to get the bike delivered to the dealer from the factory. You may also run into document fees that you can sometimes negotiate your way out of aslong as it’s not just what they are calling the registration fee.

If you can find the list price of the bike (what the dealer pays, msrp is generally a 15-20% profit margin over list) and offer them list price plus a 5% percent profit (along with their fees, but don’t include the fees when you calculate the 5%) , no dealer will turn their nose up at you and you should be getting a very good deal. The only down side is it seems to be a whole lot more difficult to determine the list price on motorcycles, as they aren’t as widely published as that of cars.

[DK]

To blame the other major manufacturers. Debatable whether or not they are losing money by not offering better or more options in the 250 cc range. But, Kawasaki has a nice corner of the market with the 250 Ninja. Hyosung/UM see the potential, but need to work on their image if they are going to prove themselves comparable the big 4.

[WeaponZero]

they also need to work on their build quality.

[DK]

None of the negativity I have seen actually stems from verifiable sources.

[Clay Dowling]

First, everything is negotiable when buying a vehicle. Unless it’s something special where the dealer can’t keep them on the lot, they’ll probably dicker.

Don’t discount the expense of having something delivered though. Last summer I had to calculate the cost of having a table shipped, and I found that shipping would cost as much as the table. That’s when I decided not to try to sell it nation wide, and limited it to places I could drive to.

[WeaponZero]

Aside from web based video reviews, magazine reviews, etc?

I have a friend who’s one of the admins of #motorcycles on EFnet.com. he’s a motorcycle technician who’s been working on bikes for 20 years now. the dealership he works at used to sell UM/hyosung bikes, and stopped selling them because they couldn’t obtain the parts needed to fix things when they broke, so they were forced to essentially “bandage” fixes and give them back to the customer like that.

[WeaponZero]

ah yes but the problem with 250Rs is that theyre selling faster than dealerships can stock them. they dont need to negotiate because if you dont buy it for the price theyre bending you over a table for, the very next guy who walks thru the door will. such is the problem with buying a high demand piece of merchandise.

[briderdt]

Why, with the CBR250 Hornet, do they not import them to the US? They just HAND that whole market segment to Kawasaki on a platter…

[WeaponZero]

i dont know but until kawasaki gets some competition in that market segment from a major, established brand you can expect to be gouged on ninja 250s because theres more people out there who are willing to pay whatever the dealers ask for them than there are bikes

[ustfu]

Follow up email from the dealer. Does it look normal to you?

Hello again xxxxx,

Here’s the breakdown as you requested:

$3999
$622 Freight & Set Up
$158 Lic & Registration
$432 Sales Tax (may vary depending on county)
$4 Tire Disposal Fee

$5200 OTD

Let me know if you have any questions

Thanks

xxxx

[Author]

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