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I believe that eventually OEMs will move to direct sales models and dealerships will turn into service centers. The time it takes to get there will depend on how long dealers can lobby their legislators to keep protections in place.
Nobody likes going into a dealer to buy a car or a bike. Right now it's just a necessary evil.
While we’re taking about Tesla...where’s that damn truck that I put $100 down payment on?
The Shop
Tesla has total ownership of what goes on in their service centers and can control how, when and for how much. They can also control their level of customer service.
The last time that I used someone local, they probably spent a grand total of less than 8-10 hours on my file (probably a LOT less than that, truthfully) and they got paid several thousand dollars for their efforts. I don’t think that the comparison of properly assembling a bike for 2-3 hours for $300 is all that far off.
I’m not saying that to try to demean anything about what you do, of course, just pointing out that what people pay for your services aren’t based on true “direct” costs either, but it doesn’t make what you charge any less “legit”.
Personally I don’t really want that industry to go to a model of “cutting out the middleman” either, even if most of the time that COULD probably be done. The times that a local person provides a service that wasn’t expected to be needed makes me glad that we haven’t fully moved to a system where all the lenders strictly have call centers staffed by $10/HR operators simply taking our info and slotting us into the proper product.
And no worries about the earlier thing. We can disagree about the topic at hand completely without being disrespectful, and I do respect you and your opinions.
But direct so consumer solves the issue of me having to drive to a dealer, and worry if they are inflating their price, etc etc.
I’d, personally, would much rather hop online...see VERY CLEARLY what Honda is charging for their 450...compare that to Yamaha and Kawasaki are VERY CLEARLY charging, click a few buttons, purchase the one I want, and have delivered to my door in a week.
We have tech now that almost doesn’t require me to have any communication with a borrower...almost...because borrowers still need someone to explain the differences between loan programs and answer their questions...truth be told, right now, I don’t ever meet face to face with 99% of my clients...everything is done online via emails and the website.
I see similar tech coming in virtually every industry...cashiers and grocery stores...in fact almost all retail...car salesman...insurance agents...brick and mortar stores will eventually become warehouse space to ship product out of that was purchased online...we won’t be driving to the grocery store (any store, really) in the future, you’re “smart fridge” will know when you are out of milk and eggs and automatically order them for you and they’ll be delivered to your door before you even knew you needed them.
Like it or hate it, it it’s coming...it will put a lot of people out of work...and that’s sad...but it’s the price of progress (it was sad when the furnace put all the chimney sweeps out of business...but I don’t think any of us would go back).
Who here has sold a company they run to another company they run? For cash........
SolarCity Corporation is a subsidiary of Tesla, Inc. that develops and sells solar panels and solar roof tiles. It is headquartered in Fremont, California. After its acquisition in 2016, effectively all products and services are sold through Tesla's website. Wikipedia
And yes at titan, the dude that works there literally bought his son a 250sxf at dealer cost, cause he is the salesman, he paid 6k cash! Bike was new in crate!
The dealers make money elsewhere. Those customers come in and shop. Many don't know exactly what they want and are seeking info and advice. The vast majority will not or can't do their own service. So they go to the dealer for service, parts, and accessories, unlike motocross riders who buy a bike then order everything online.
I ride and love mx but when I go buy a new Kawi from my brother, I realize in the grand scheme that sale is really no big deal to him. Some on here seem to think we're way more important than we really are to a dealer.
All that said, there are some riders that do support good dealers. And not all dealers tack on bullshit fees, shop around.
So in the future we are going to be expected to buy a $10k bike without even seeing or sitting on it .... yeah that will work just fine.
And what happens to the used bike market... who has those and where do they all go.
Dealer Buy in price , and dealer trade in price are nothing like the same, and dealers arent going to buy in a bike , just so you can go get a new one direct . and OEM's arent going to touch them.
So used bikes will be worth nothing , and it will cost more money to race because you are losing more every time you buy.
Great idea, where do we all sign up.
Pit Row
All joking aside, as mentioned in his post, my bike...too...had an extra $1000 "rebate" on it and that made the bike a solid deal in a market where the dealer DID NOT NEED to give the the discount (I couldn't find an X out here for less than $10-11K...all '21s and all fetching top dollar...poor, poor me!).
So, here's my point: there are SOME excellent dealers out there that we just might want to give our business to.
Some of these dealers sponsor A LOT of riders. Some of these dealers even go as far as to buy a local track to help promote the sport...for everyone...no matter where they bought there bike. Some of these dealers will help a brother out when he's trying to find some un-obtainable part that most of the industry is treating like "gold".
RMGSXR is one of these dealers. He's sold bikes to plenty of my friends all over the country. Every damn one of them seems to find the need to say."Thanks!".
Y'all need to go find your RMGSXR.
Why try to bead down the very people who live and die by this sport the same as we all do ?
Without the local shops where do you even go to buy a bike and get it fixed if its something you cant figure out how to fix yourself ?
So I was in a little bit of a pissy mood when a truck line called to schedule a drop off of some bikes. I unloaded on the guy about his raise that he just got with the new raised rates. He turned around and unloaded on me cussing about how he just renegotiated his contract with the manufacture and if he wanted to keep his contract with them he had to lower his rates. So this one manufacture raised the shipping rate to the dealers yet made the trucking company lower his prices. The manufactures are making money on dealers with the prices that they charge us for shipping.
Yeah I know, boo hoo.
Based on your posts in this thread so far, I doubt that you would so I will.
1-As I just said, this 2019 was about to get “lapped” on the sales floor, again. I think that the 21s hit the floor in September or so. The dealer knows that this bike wasn’t appreciating by going another model year down, and holding on to it for just a few more months could have netted him even less than he was able to get a year and a half after this model came out.
2-This is the real kicker, and not disclosing this is borderline falsification in my book. KTM was very active in large rebates to clear out the non-current inventories of their dealers after January of 2020. I may be slightly off a little bit, but I think that this particular model had total rebates of $1,750 on it during the time listed on this sales quote. That’s huge, obviously. The rebates are not listed on the sales quote, and that occurs when the dealer intends to keep the rebates for themselves so that they can list a low sales price. In some states or jurisdictions this may be done to reduce sales tax, but that’s not usually the primary reason.
So this dealer gave you an EFFECTIVE (financially to them) quote of $8,849. That is probably almost even with what their cost (invoice price & freight) would have been, and they were able to finally get their money freed up from a quickly devaluing piece of inventory.
It’s a “good deal”, but it definitely isn’t a case of you getting the dealer to take a substantial loss on a piece of “hot” inventory nor is it a reflection that dealer cost is usually that low on an ordinary, current model year unit.
If KTM hadn’t decided to subsidize that sale to clear up floor space for dealers to buy MY21 units, you would not have received that quote.
I was quoted OTD prices anywhere from $10,900 to $11,600.
The $10,900 didn't have one...The one I ended up going with was the $11,100 OTD.
The $11,600 dealer was the closest to my house...I asked them if they'd match the $11,100...they wouldn't. So I walked. (Otherwise I didn't haggle over price with the dealers.. I just hoped the one closest to my house would come down so I couldn't have to drive an extra 20 minutes further...but I get why they didn't).
Then I traded in my 19 YZ450FX...I got trade in quotes anywhere from $5800 to $6600.
The dealer I picked was $11,100 OTD...and gave me $6500 on trade.
After the trade my OTD cost was $10,600. (Since the trade reduced the sales tax).
I ended up paying a bunch of fees over invoice...not thrilled about it...but its a sellers market right now...
At the end of the day...I'm excited to get my new bike next week (once they get it out of the warehouse, and put it together)...now if only it would stop snowing.
The trade in sounds excellent, though. Not sure if you had a lot of add-ons that went in with it but that sounds like a very fair trade-in, and one that they probably are not going to "get rich" selling to the next owner on.
Any deal where you are reasonably happy and you feel good about the amount of dollars you are going to part with is probably a good deal.
Enjoy!
Once I got their out the door number...then I started talking trade (I was still considering selling it myself dpending on what a dealer would offer. I didn't haggle on the trade, I just let each dealer give me their number)...I like to trade bikes in because I don't have to deal with selling them, and, I only have to pay sales tax on the difference between the trade value and the purchase price of the new bike...so it reduces the OTD price of the bike a bit.
I figure I could have sold my bike for about $7K - $7500...the dealer gave me $6500...so that saved me $480 in sales tax (I only had to pay 7.3% on $3600, rather than 7.3% on $10,150)...so its the same as selling the bike myself for $6980. So it may have cost me a few hundred bucks...but the time and hassle saved in not having to sell it, made it well worth it to me.
Would I have rather avoided those extra fees and paid $9867.85 OTD, rather than $10,600 out the door...YES! BUT, its a seller market...the dealers know they will sell every single one of them they can get in their door...so they know they don't have to negotiate...I know that, and they know that I know that...I'm the one that chose to buy right now...so it is what it is.
I'm excited...new bike day next week! And new bike days are some of the best days...
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