I do not wish to offend anyone but there seems to be a major problem among the motorcycle dealerships across America. Price gouging. Dealers invent fees that are completely rediculous. When Honda, Suzuki, Yamaha and Kawasaki make an MSRP, this means suggested retail price + tax and liscensing.

Far too many riders have little or no education. Because of this phenomenon, bike shops take advantage of the uneducated customer. This usually includes dealer prep fees, and outrageous interest rates above 15%.

I may never end up getting my own CBR600RR. The last time I had to dealer with shady dealers was in 1991 when I bought my Jet Ski. Nothing has changed in `5 years.

For my Karma, I will give everyone a tip. www.southernhonda.com advertises out the door pricing way below MSRP. I don't know if it true and you have to have it delivered or ride it home from Tennesee.

Some of the best riders I've ever seen in my life were the dumbest people that I have ever met. My above statements certainly do not apply to the riding safety, skills or ability of said meatheads.

 

yup too many crappy additional fees make the bike got from 9K to 11K
If you are good at getting the price down you can get it lower than the MSRP OTD
Anything near the MSRP OTD, you did a good job bargaining.

Always becareful financing, it is where they can jack you up

 

a while backed I looked into the costs of starting a motorcycle dealership
to meet the requirements of the manufacturers as far as showroom floorspace, service departement, etc and just to make a decent looking bike shop the cost can easily run into near or above a million bucks depending on area

dealerships also have to deal with online parts stores that deal in much larger volumes than most bike shops could ever hope to reach, therefore the online stores can sell parts cheaper than any dealer could. Because of that dealerships have been losing a ton of business in parts, hardly anybody buys exhausts, oem fairings, etc from their local dealerships because the dealers just don't handle the volume of sales needed to match prices with online stores so they lose sales making it worse.

and then you've got to consider that smaller dealerships that don't sell as many bikes have to pay more for the bikes they do sale, alternatively large volume dealers can sell bikes at MUCH cheaper prices than the smaller shops and make the same profit. this is why you see larger dealerships advertise their OTD price heavily and really push that they don't add on those "ridiculous" fees, THEY DON'T NEED TO. The smaller shops aren't gonna make jack crap on bikes unless they add on some fees and we've already discussed that they are constantly losing parts sales, so lets review, you have a business with a HIGH startup cost a low profit on their primary product and a constantly shrinking sales volume on their secondary products (parts/accessories). Add to that the fact that a service department is required which means you've got to pay MECHANICS. A good mechanic isn't cheap and a bad one will get you lawsuits when they damage a customers bike. Also when a new bike is uncrated it does have to be prepared which includes adding fluids, checking parts, cleaning a little bit, etc which requires a mechanic that has to be paid for his time

knowing these things its not really hard to figure out why dealers try to make as much as they can off of the bikes themselves

now of course there are some shops that add on fees just because they may be the only shop around and can get away with it but most do it to stay in business

 

That dealership in Tennessee is owned by a group of business owners that own other businesses around the country and buy so many vehicles that they can sell them cheaper than any other dealer in the country. I had it explained to me once, but I can't remember the details (I work for a dealer that has a sister store in Tennessee) and that one dealer is putting a lot of other dealers out of business and they don't mind losing money on the main product because they have income elsewhere. I personally think its unfair. I believe they do not have a service department or parts. They just sell the bikes/ATVs and that's it.

 

Best time to buy bikes is between November and February. I got mine in January and got a good deal + a free slip on and no prep fees.

 

Have you looked at your cell phone bill? how about your internet bill?

Surcharge this
Recoup fee that
Pooling free here
911 service fee there

dealerships aren't the only ones making this **** up. though, they do have to get it shipped and prepped, which DO cost money to do, unless you feel you have the skills to do it yourself.

as for interest... most people finance the ENTIRE purchace. do you realize how much LOWER your APR can be if YOU YOURSELF finance 10% of the purchace? Or 20%? you know what i got? 5 year loan, about 10,000 USD 7.49% total finance. had i financed 20% of that, it would have been 4.24%

 

Wrong..... they have a huge service and parts dept. My friend is the parts guy there. Their OTD pricing is their pricing, no B.S. add-ons. They are the largest Honda dealer in the world with a 50,000 sq ft. warehouse. When i bought mine, i was afraid they were out of the black b/c i saw 2 sold, but they had 30 more in stock. Very nice place, but they make their money on parts and service. I saw people from all over the country buying there! I am lucky i live 20 mintues away! What's funny is I had never heard of the place until i surfed the net and I live here. My salesguy said he only gets 2-3 locals a month. I'm glad I was one, b/c i saved over 1500 vs. the other dealer in town. Get a quote online and that's what you pay, period. My CBR600RR was 7583 OTD.

 

There is one other dealer in Tenn. that has even lower prices than Southern Honda sometimes. I will have to find the link again. So the theory on parts and service is incorrect. I have personally spoken with the dealership, they told me to fly out and pick up a bike. In Seattle we have no less than 10 Honda dealerships. Most have been in business for well over 10 years each.

Honda gives dealerships money for assembly the bike and shipping. The total price is factored into the MSRP of each bike. The dealership that say otherwise are liars and thieves. Southern Honda is still making a profit on each bike they sell. The only reason Southern Honda will not ship your bike directly to you, Honda will not allow it. Honda does not allow other dealerships to steal customers from other regions. Honda and every other bike manufacturer should seriously reconsider the ethics of most if not all bike shops.

 

Hmmmm I guess I should have done some serious shopping before I bought my bike. I paid like $8250 OTD and my parents gave me $1000 so my payments would be lower. I financed the rest. I'm almost wishing I would have bought a 600rr instead of my F4i. I should have done more research. But my bike is still fun.

Mike

 

You've got to be kidding me... Have you ever ordered a motorcycle as a dealer? have you ANY idea how it gets to the dealership? HONDA sure as hell doesn't deliver it. It's done by private courier. a 500lbs package costs over $200. Honda doesn't pay the dealerships to ship it to them. that's ridiculous. Calling them liars and thieves is being just a TAD hypocritical isn't it? Of COURSE they will still make money on the bikes, that's the business they are in! MAKING MONEY! wouldn't you? Honda could care less where the money is coming from. The dealership pays them for the bike and that's the end of it. There's more stuff the dealer pays for such as branding and what not, but that's usually yearly expenses. the reason they wont ship it to you is because they would have to charge you for the shipping and you would instantly back out. they'd rather you come pick it up. that way they can shake your hand, tell you what a great guy you are, what a nice machine you bought, and if there's anything they can do for you and the bike to just holler. Honda has no say in how a business operates. that's called micromanagement. they are in the business of selling bikes, not running service departments. If i were to open a shop, there would be a high chance that i would want to be competitive with the other dealerships and service centers around me. if they charge $60/hr, i'd charge $50/hr. anyone would. it's common business practice. it's not unethical, it's staying above water and eventually making it into the boat.

I really don't think you know what you're talking about here. I think you're just pissed that dealers charge a lot for motorcycles and trying to find holes in their business plans. I suggest you to find a USED bike of late year build and from a private seller. then you'd only have to bitch about the person.