Dealer fees. Whats acceptable?

Earlier this year when I was looking at the mini bikes the dealers on cycle trader were adding 30+% in fees... advertised under $2500, OTD pushing $3800.... no thanks!

Got a used grom instead.

 

Agree but the part I hate is the waste of my time. F'ing around just trying to get a number. Went into a dealer once with $$ in my pocket and a truck to haul it. Asked for a price OTD not only did I not get it the moron sales person told me that was not even the bike I wanted. Walked out. Now there are dealers going under. By your thinking it is time for me to go in waste their time and cut throat the price

 

Talk about OTD price, one time we had a father negotiate with the salesman for the son to buy a dirt bike with the loose change the son had been saving. Price was agreed to, and the next day the son arrived with his father and $1900 in nickels, dimes, quarters, and pennies.

 

That’s a question for the manufacturers rather than the dealers. Dealers just have to accept whatever MSRP the manufacturer sets which determines the profit margin since the manufacturer also sets the wholesale dealer price dealers have to pay. Add on top of that bikes that sit on the floor start to accumulate interest with the bank so the dealer’s margin shrinks further.

 

I hear you guys moaning about how tight the margins are on new bikes but my old Husky dealer in NJ had no problem selling at MSRP + ship + tax. The difference between him and any other dealer I've encountered? He didn't have a million mouths to feed. It was him and a part time mechanic. Show up at my local multi-line dealer and there are 100 people crawling around that have to be paid. Buying a cheap motorcycle is like negotiating a multi-lateral trade agreement. F that. My local Ducati dealer burns you for TWELVE hundred to pull it out of the crate and run a warm up sequence. Yeah, no. That, and the two times I spoke to salesmen there resulted in 3 lies. Do they assume everyone is stupid? Perhaps they only want to sell to stupid people.

Motorcycle sales are nowhere near 2008 levels. I wonder how much the total-suck dealership experience has to do with it.

 

Motorcycle riders respond: "You rang"?

 

I read this week that they are relatively flat for the past 10-12 years and roughly 1/2 what they were at the peak in '07, '08 brought about the beginning of the end really... crazy to see it cut in half like that.

 

yes. They only want to sell to stupid people who have no cash and need to buy a bike or they lose a finger.

dealers love dipshits. They want to turn a 17k bike into a $30k sale with all the add ons. Paint pro, gap insurance, extended maintenance and warranty. I’ve heard quite a few times people spent as much as bike is new on all the add ons….wtf?

 

When we were shopping for my wife's Ninja 650 about 18 months ago I went to a local multi-brand dealer, they wanted like $11k OTD for the bike which included a $1500 markup. (The dealer was near a military base and said Soldiers will pay anything. He didn't know that I was the motorcycle mentor for the base, we issued a warning to everyone on the base about the shady tactics) Anyway I called a dealer an hour down the road and saved $2500. I had bought a GROM for $3800 during Covid at the same dealer.

 

For what it's worth, my comments are more a reflection of "dealers" and not "my job". It's just the owner, me, and a part time mechanic at the shop. We do tend to sell bikes at MSRP and MV Agusta offers better margins for dealers than most manufacturers, so that margin isn't our personal complaint, but one I've heard from other dealers. We get roped into this conversation mostly because some dealers carry brands like Kawasaki, Suzuki, as well as MV Agusta, and they practice the same policies of lower advertised prices and higher fees across all their inventory, so we mostly hear customers having a bad experience at a different dealer and happily switching to becoming a regular customer of our dealership.

I can see the pressure and difficulty those other dealerships face though. Especially the ones, like you said, have a million mouths to feed. There's also often a disconnect at "super store" dealers where the salesperson is just doing a job to make money to pay bills and may or may not care bout that customer a year from now. Smaller shops have more necessity to cultivate positive customer experiences because the people working there are usually more directly involved in the company and focused a bit more on longevity and building lasting relationships.

 

As the father of a soldier, thank you.
When we went to my son's graduation from boot camp the leadership did something similar by providing a list of establishments to avoid. I wasn't concerned that my son would blow all his money but it was reassuring to see that the Army was doing what they could to warn the young soldiers.

 

I'm pretty sure the MIC doesn't have a way to track UTV sales numbers and with them becoming FAR bigger sellers now vs back in 08 I'd have to say shops are selling more units overall now than they were then.

 

I wonder about those big stores too. I’ve had a good experience with my local dealer when I asked what some OTD prices were on a few bikes. I was up front that I was at least six months away from buying, too.

I will say, it’s pretty refreshing seeing Stark offer to ship a Varg direct to my house in a crate. Even better that they’ll take a credit card.

 

And this is what I was getting at. People in the industry love to compalin how it's not what it used to be and thinking of "new" ways to attract customers.

How many new riders have gotten absolutely raked over coals on a new bike purchase and it ends up putting them in a finacial bind? There is a million of these stories around, it has to impact future sales.

Yet the OEM's seem to do NOTHING to stop it, I'm not even mad at the dealers at this point. The OEM's know this is happening and do nothing about it, then whine about new bike sales. You're fucking over your future customer.

 

Reminds me of the old joke from the retail sales industry.
Salesman: "Here are the final figures for your new vehicle purchase. If you can just indicate your approval at the bottom of the page."
Customer: "That's ridiculous! Do you think I'm an idiot?!!!"
Salesman: "No........But just in case you were......."

 

That reminds me of the ads my local dealer (Jersey Shore Powersports at the time, recently purchased by Motorcycle Mall) used to run. They would offer massive discounts if you financed, even on cheap bikes. Like $1000 off a $4500 bike. Yes, sometimes the incentives a lender offers can move the needle on a deal. I've financed a car that I had cash for with a handshake agreement that I'd wait 4 months to pay it off so they got their end of the deal. But there is no world in which $1000 is available on a $4500 loan.

After some thought, I could only conclude that they were not interested in having any customers with a hint of financial literacy.

 

There's a massive, healthy industry of "buy here/pay here" lots that prove otherwise. You and I might be smart enough not to fall for it, but there's millions of idiots who spend their entire lives being late on every single high interest payment, and stack bad decision upon the next, accepting the fact that they will remain stuck.

 

I think I'm getting the new RE Himalayan 450 in the spring. It looks like a fun goof around bike. I emailed the dealer in Northern Kentucky yesterday and got this response. I haven't bought a brand new motorcycle since 2001, so I don't know if this is fair or not (or just typical)...

"Hi Kelly, thanks for reaching out. We're excited about the new 2025 Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 as well. If we do not have the one you want (tubeless), we can get it for you. Our freight cost is $450, prep/set-up cost is $205, and our administration/doc cost is $255, plus tax. I am here today until 6 pm if you are available to discuss this and your visit in more detail."

So the total to me on a bike that retails for $6099 is $7375, which also includes my 6% KY sales tax.

 

Indian Of NKY? They seemed cool when I bought my Xmax there several years ago. I just perused their new leftovers page...soo much temptation

 

Those dealer fees are reasonable IMO. If anything the admin/doc fee is kinda high, but even then, that's nitpicky.