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The Shop
after three of them and 4k later we decided ktm was our best route, you never know whats going to come out of a kid, but if your motoing, i would suggest new, op can do whatever they may please, but at the end of the day just like everyone else has said buy new ride it, resell is better when you do and no hassle when you get it home, start and start making progress. not , well son you cant ride it yet cause i bought you a pile of junk and when your son/daughter sees what you got him/her and yet he/she cant ride it cause it takes work when he/she sees other kids shredding theres he/she will know what they are worth to you when new was an option, and the kids are riding there new ones around you all in circles with the used one.
i know the difference and have been down the path both ways, the chinese 100$ clutches do not perform any where near the oem and the oem clutch with gaskets and new stuff surrounding the clutches is almost 450$ everytime. good luck, your money ahead to buy new.
It's incredibly easy to inquire about becoming a dealer. So instead of posting an opinion about what you THINK you know based off zero facts - why not do some research
Powersports industry is dead for a host of reasons. Dirtbikes have about 10-15 percent margin on a unit from msrp to purchase price. OEMS have internal methods to try to boost sales - one such method is if you are a yamaha dealer for example - and sell 5 bikes of one unit - next year yamaha crams down you throat 5 units (even if the 5 were total fluke for the year and say 1 customer bought them all)
this means there are too many bikes to be sold each year across the country - keeping demand low and for smaller dealers - sitting on this cash kills them. They dump bikes a loss all the time to just get out from under it
Now - the big 6 have back end incentives based on nationwide sales numbers. SO - for example - if bikes arent selling well across the country, yamaha will give a rebate to the dealer to push the sales. It generally applies to every sale - aka if a dealer does well and sells them at or close to retail - then later on a rebate comes out - they pocket this. But it's small. Less than 10 percent, making total margin possible if they charge shipping, fees, assembly, etc to about 20 percent if sold at retail.
Since modern consumer think dirtbikes should be free - dealers have had to compete for a long time and have ruined margins. 2-5 percent TOPS on average for the industry.
On a PW - the shipping price, if not charged, is the margin on that bike.
Then there are statewide dealer license fees - state taxes, property taxes, overhead of the shop, salesman commission - he should just sell that for free right?
It USED to be the parts sales and gear, accessories etc would make the dealer money - this is where the no margin bikes started. Give the bike away - but get them on parts which have 40 percent margin at msrp.
With the internet - this died - as people felt 10-15 percent off was reason enough to shop online - and local dealer became turned off by the thought of stocking parts that made them 20 percent rather than 40 - because of online shopping competition - so parts stock status/risk taking dropped off.
Now you cant get seat bolts at most dealers.
If side by sides hadn't come about - the modern powersports dealer would be totally gone. In 08-12 a ton of them DID close...
I currently sell tms and the deal is about 10-12 percent plus shipping I pay to the shop.
They have NO incentives at the end of the year as far as rebates go - and I pay up front for the bikes with no internal financing from TM
I do it because they are cool - no other reason. Even if I get retail - on a 6500 dollar bike you are looking at 800 bucks...and I have to build the bike - about 1.5 hours, put fluids (thats money), store it (money), lug it around to showcase it (money), and I haven't had a deal to date that hasn't required multiple phone calls, tons of effort on my part - and time. Call it 2-3 hours best case towards one sale - usually more. People like to talk and bullshit - myself included.
I can knock out a 5 sets of fork seals in that time - and make way better money
Or a port job
Or dyno testing
etc etc etc.
We looked into a yamaha franchise that's available in this area - same basic terms and margins, if you opt in to their floorplan program, the interest kicks in and wipes out your profit quickly too.
Couple with the fact that yamaha and others now all want about 1 million up front investment to start off - in inventory, a building requirement that will set most people back 1 million, and the property taxes that go along with that.
It's brutal.
If a dealer is successful - it's all on getting close to retail on parts, accessories, gear, etc. Customer loyalty is dying off, making this hard
My local powersports dealer - multi line - wont touch dirtbikes. They have their min requirements - and the salescrew will practically run away when you come in asking for a bike. At retail I think the salesman makes under 50 bucks commission - not great!
I've been trying to say the same thing all thru this thread but some just won't listen.
My brother only stocks mx bikes (Suzuki and Kawasaki) because he loves and rides mx.
No money in selling them. And you're spot on about parts and gear. That used to be where you actually made money in that market. Not now.
Side by side guys show up. Get a Yamaha card buy a $20,000 Yamaha sxs and put 5000 more in accessories in the card. No wheeling......no wonder dealerships don’t wanna sell dirtbikes!
TM 85cc or 100 around that price....
And no 6d for me
Off hand - from our experience - most aftermarket parts/gear have around 25-30 percent msrp margin - which no one pays, but some of the higher ticket items have hardly any.
Boots is brutally tough market.
And I never understood why online retailers or anyone sells tires at what they do. Might as well pay the customer for the tire...
My son lit up on the PW50. DRZ and CRF he didnt seem interested in. I know the PW is right for us but I am a diehard Honda guy.
Is it reasonable to ask the dealer to throw in pants and a jersey if I pay full retail on the bike?
Pit Row
$100-$500 in freight depending on model, OK.
"$40-$100 in PDI depending on model, OK.
This is assuming you feel it's OK to excuse the dealer for having normal business expenses that he should cover in his markup, and also pretending you don't know about holdback that the dealership earns. The dealer has the right to ask for whatever he wants, but I feel it's disingenuous to call it "freight and setup" or any other similar moniker.
A local dealer used to call it "Additional Dealer Markup," and kudos to them.
I am speaking mostly about larger motorcycles, BTW. PW50s have very little, even by way of percentage, which is BS that the OEM drops onto the dealers. In the case of the PW, dealers lose if they sell it for MSRP. It's probably true of most little bikes.
I also know a ton of people that own SxS's and almost all of them are nice people, and many are friends.
There are ass clowns everywhere, even in mx. You just proved it.
I'll never forget the sight of walking in and seeing all those brand new lime green race bikes just waiting to go home..... most every one of them had been pre spoken for and most all of them were gone in days..... You went to the parts desk and signed your name under the model you wanted, put 100 bucks down on each and waited for that phone call.
I believe a new 1984 kx 125 was around $1400....if I remember right..... I miss those days. I wish I would have thought to take a picture of all those bikes , but at that time no one had any reason to believe that wasn't going to go on forever. And it did for another 10 years or so.....
Here is how it works:
Dealer invoice= true cost+holdback (amount paid back to dealer at time of sale, in my opinion a garbage idea designed to steal income from commissioned salesman & also steal cashflow from the dealer.)
Freight is a separate charge paid by the dealer, sometimes discounted if it is during an order period. Some dealers choose to try to get it back on the back end of the deal, some don't. If you don't, you better do enough volume to make it worth while.
MSRP is generally about 10-15% over dealer invoice pricing.
Now you sell the unit, you've already paid your service dept. to set the unit up, & now to do a PDI required by the manufacturer. Most departments sell to each other so unless the dealership is small, this is an actual expense the sales dept. paid to the service dept.
So at the end of the day, if a PW50 MSRP is $1499, cost will be around $1300 doubtfully any holdback and freight will be around $150-$200. Service department bills their hourly rate for at least 1/2 hr of setup time so lets say around $45. If that bike was sold for MSRP cash deal it would be at a loss and that isn't even including the finance office which needs to get paid for their time, so they deserve a doc fee.
This is a rough example of how selling a bike works. Some you make a bit more, some you make a bit less. But if there is too many dealers in a small area in some states... every dealer loses on dirt bikes especially the major brands. Money is made by dealers with great service & parts deptartments, and sales on most everything other than dirt bikes (unless they sell a TON).
If I were you, I would pick the dealer who has the BEST parts & service department; and start building a relationship with them... because after all the bottom feeder dealerships are gone who sell for zero profit like the one who was willing to sell you that PW50 at a loss are gone, you won't have a choice where you're buying OR a relationship with them... my two cents
...And to be clear, I'm a moto guy
https://gadsden.craigslist.org/mcy/d/fort-payne-2016-yamaha-pw50s/67965…
$10 finder's fee please. :-)
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