Things Dealers tell Customers

hahah them's fighting words, I'll grab some boxing gloves.
But I completely agree, I wish they would have kept the FZ6, instead of cutting costs (Fz6r), but hey, to each their own. Personally, I picked the fz6 because it suits my needs (commuting with occasional canyon and spirited riding), has a much better power band than the R6 (and I don't see as many squids riding them), and they just look damn sexy .
IMHO, I kind of like the look of the new Vstroms *slaps on wrist* , but the versys is kind of like an ugly duckling in my eyes

It's experiences like these that make me uncomfortable at dealerships. I understand that they need to get paid, but I'm not looking to get robbed.

btw if you're ever in Azusa canyons, look around for a blue fz6 . I'm assuming you must ride there if you've been to Berts.

Yes I do (actually all over so cal and sometimes beyond for that matter), I'll keep an eye out for you & your bike. I also ride a blue FZ6 but hopefully sooner rather than later it'll have the naked conversion. See ya around

My wife was looking at buying a Honda Rebel. Not that the Rebel has ever changed from model year to model year, but this was a previous MY still sitting on the floor. He was trying to bust my wife's chops on the price and financing. I step in and make a comment about being a repeat customer. The salesman says "Who is buying this bike? You or her?" Turns out neither of us bought the bike...

A ploy that I see dealers doing is misleading customers about availability of products. Either color, or options, everything the customer wants that isn't at the dealership is rare ("there aren't many of XXX in the country, they just didn't make that many") - so they shouldn't expect it, or should pay more for it. It's a line most dealers use, usually coupled with an exaggerated description of the dealer network they work with ("we can get any XXX in the country/state") when the reality is that the next closest dealership would really like to see them out of business, so even if there are five XXX's close by, those five XXX's might as well not exist if you believe the dealership's word. But spend the time to travel and you'd find them, choose the one you want, and go home happy. I'm saying this from the experience of working at two different dealerships.

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While I like the bike, I highly suspect that the guys trying to boost demand for the CB1100F over in that thread - by trying to get people worried to buy them now before 'prices will go up as the 2013's sell out' and shit like that - are salesmen at various dealerships.

Im another Berts mega mall hater. Ill never go back to them. Only bought one bike from them, in 07, but Ive been their a few times for parts and service. The parts guys are rude and act like youre wasting their time. Service are the same way, plus theyre not interested in keeping to any kind of a time table unless youre bring some squid bike. Bought my KLR used, dropped it off their for a major service and just a checking over, when I got it back I found so much shit that needed to be fixed on it that basically I paid $400 for an oil change, instead of a 36000 mile service.

Temple City Powersports on the other hand, is an awesome place! Great techs back there. Ive gone their for tires and a couple of small repairs. Have brought my own tires in there on several occasions and they had no problems mounting them for me. For small things, theyre also real good about just getting it done. Had a grip that twisted on my way home from work. It was starting to irritate me so I stopped in, told them what was up, they had one of their techs come out real quick put some glue on it and sent me on my way. No charge. I highly recommend them. Not a huge dealer or shop, but a damn good one.

06 and Kawasaki is having their no interest sale on new bikes. Never had a new vehicle and decided I was ready for a new KLR 650. Got approved for financing and it was simply a matter of going into the dealership and walking out with the bike. I spent a lot of time researching costs and what not. Spent a lot of time looking at the local dealer and sitting on the bike and talking about farkles and what not. Thought I developed some kind of relationship with the dealer. Finally sat down to talk price; MSRP at that time was $5199 and they were asking $5399 I offered $5K and they countered with $5399 + tax, title and licsence, I mentioned that that was over the MSRP, "Yep and we will get that from someone else" got up and walked away. Called down to a dealer in Ronan - 75 miles from home , asked if they had any KLR's, "Yep, just took one out of the box and put it together" I offer $5k, He counters with $5050 for paperwork. And down the road I go to get my new bike.

Every once in a while I give the shop the opportunity to offer a reasonable deal on parts, but they continue to not care, and I generally get better deals on Kawasaki parts from the local Yamaha dealer.

[Thought I developed some kind of relationship with the dealer. Finally sat down to talk price; MSRP at that time was $5199 and they were asking $5399 I offered $5K and they countered with $5399 + tax, title and licsence, I mentioned that that was over the MSRP, "Yep and we will get that from someone else" got up and walked away.]


Getting up and walking away and finding it cheaper elsewhere was your right to do. However, if you were selling something and felt that you would be able to sell it for what you were asking, would you sell it for less than you wanted to somone who offered a lower price? I wouldn't.

I applaud you for trying to talk some sense in the midst of this self righteous circle jerk thread populated by the easily ruffled and inexperienced wheeler dealer wannabes.

You're crazy. But I respect this kind of crazy.

What...What...What are you talking about???
The (customer) is always right, whether he is a buying or not.

No. The "customer" is NOT always right, in fact - they aren't even always the customer.

Some customers need to be 'fired' - the point is often lost on some that IF the dealership is to see a profit from sales, then they need to make X margain on all units moved. Just because someone makes an offer does NOT mean that the dealer cannot get their price from another shopper.

I have bought a lot of bikes in my day, but have never bought one from our "local" shop as it is quite evident the sales people know nothing about bikes. I have gone as far as to say this to the owner of the shop and it fell on deaf ears.
I try very hard to use the local shop whenever I can for parts and repairs I cannot handle. I want them to succeed, just as I want my business to succeed. But they sure make it hard.
I had a leak on the primary gear/seal and took it to them. When I got the bike back it was making a racket, I took the front sprocket cover off and they had forgotten to bolt the sprocket down. The owner was not happy to see me that day. He made it right, but wow.

If I had a one-of-a-kind item, I guess not.

If I had KLR's to sell, and had a customer walk outside the store for $200 ... yeah, I just might sell it to him if I could make money. I might offer a package deal for it and accessories or something. But I wouldn't go demanding over MSRP for a KLR650 like I would a McLaren automobile.

Goddamn decorative iron fence guy did a shitty job at my elderly mother's house a few years ago, and I was there for the final walk-through.

I called him on it and asked him to fix the issues if he wanted his final payment.

He responded with that, "who am I trying to please? Her or you?" Bullshit...

I about blew a gasket. Yes, he fixed the issues. Fucker.

It wasn't that the dealer was unwilling to drop their asking price, it was the attitude of the salesman. A good salesman would have got the sale and had the customer happy to pay the full asking price. Of course, there are SOME people who are never happy unless they've haggled the price down some. Again, a good salesman will still have the customer leave understanding the situation and reasonably happy even if the two could not agree on a price to make the sale.

Still, MSRP already has a good profit margin built in. Refusing to sell a commonly available bike, that they could probably have replaced on the showroom floor in short order, for the sake of a couple of hundred bucks seems greedy to me.

I completely agree. The techs there are great and won't give you crap if you only need a tire mounted or something, and the sales people there don't hawk over you like they do at Berts. While waiting for my tire to be done. I was looking at some of the new Wee Stroms and literally within 10 seconds a dealer walks over to me and starts talking about their easy financing. I didn't sit my ass down on it yet, and their trying to rape me with one of their deals

On a side note, have you ever been to the TCPS bike nights. Every month they have free food, soda, raffle giveaways (nothing fancy, mind you) and really relaxed, non-branded atmosphere. I have never been to any dealership, big or small, that has that.

It's not that I don't get what you mean. It's that I don't agree with you.

Yep. ^ This right here.

So we should just take whatever the dealer offers and be grateful they are willing to take our money?

No, but he is not on here crying about being butt hurt.

some people take the buying process way to personal.