Bargaining a New Motorcycle? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Bargaining a New Motorcycle?

48Connor

48Connor

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Tonight is the night, boys!

I'm planning on purchasing a new DRZ400SM tonight, and want to know if any of you, when purchasing a new bike, bargain with the sales person? The retail on it is $7700, and Suzuki is already throwing in a 5 year "warranty" over the standard 1 year.

I've never bought a new bike/vehicle before, so I'm a little new to this.

Thanks!
 
Always try, sometimes have success, sometimes fail. Worst case, try for some gear/accessories, margin on them is high so they have more room to work with you.
 
As long as the money is in your pocket, you're "in charge".

You can't walk in there and say "Here's $3000" but you can knock off several %% with some back and forth questioning and "I'm serious to buy today, what's the best price you're willing to offer". Compare that to your budget and supplement with added accessories for you to get your money's worth. No you won't get a 2 piece suit and 13 pairs of gloves, but if within reason, MOST dealers will work with you to make sure you ride away happy.

Also, you don't HAVE to buy anything today, so take your time, come back tomorrow it you need to, sometimes better to sleep on it. Good luck (and have fun!)
 
Margins on bikes are generally pretty thin, (compared to what most think they are). So the dealership will have little wriggle room as suggested try to get a deal on gear you may need. Look online at many dealers, get their best price then at the very least look for a "price match". The downside to that is if the other dealer doesn't have the machine and says it will take weeks to get one in.

As suggested you don't NEED to buy it tonight, see if they are willing to deal if you don't think it is best for you, then you can always walk out the door, not like your walking out tonight with the bike anyways, they will need to give the bike a final once over and then do paperwork at MTO, so likely won't see the bike till Tuesday.
 
I never buy the first day I walk in. Don't put down a deposit or give a credit card "to show you're serious" either. You hold the cards/money. They hold the debt of having/buying the bike from the manufacturer and need to sell it. If one sales guy is being a d1ck, another will be more than glad to take the commission.
 
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on that bike... the salesperson is making about $200 plus $100 from Suzuki (if Suzuki still does rebates)
 
If a bike's been on the floor for ages and has become what car salesmen come to call a "planter" in the store, you might find a sales guy willing to deal. But for popular models I'd think the chances are slim they're going to take much less than asking. They might be willing to "throw in" a set of cheap gloves or the license fee or something...
 
Thanks for the advice guys, ended up purchase it and am picking it up next week! Super pumped!

Got a couple hundred off, but was charged for freight/pdi, so in reality I got $70 off MSRP. I was a little annoyed at paying for freight, but the thing is still in a crate, so I get where they are coming from.
 
Blackfin said:
If a bike's been on the floor for ages and has become what car salesmen come to call a "planter" in the store, you might find a sales guy willing to deal. But for popular models I'd think the chances are slim they're going to take much less than asking. They might be willing to "throw in" a set of cheap gloves or the license fee or something...
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Thats what I was hoping for. About 3 weeks ago I went into to Snow City to sit on it and see how I liked it. Talked to the guy, and he said they don't sell many and had two in stock. Perfect right? Nope, went back tonight and both were gone. Ended up at ATC Coral who had one in a crate.
 
You really get one chance to barter a new purchase. Unless the manuf has a rebated deal in place or the bike has been on the floor a while there probably isn't a huge amount of room in the sticker price. Everybody has to make a living.
As a longtime sales weasel, I can guarantee the salesguy will be a lot more helpful if you follow a tack of "is there any room in this price tag?" rather than "I will give you X" the low ball. He gets beat up all week, a customer that has a clue about the cost of keeping a 20,ooo sg ft showroom open, a parts dept and all is a refreshing change.
They may be able to offer a discount on gear or throw in a helmet, and it depends on what your buying. A 7,990.00 bike doesn't leave much margin.

If your polite and clear about your intentions I can promise you'll have a better experience than being a dick. If the salesguy turns out to be a dick (it happens) then game on.
 
crankcall said:
You really get one chance to barter a new purchase. Unless the manuf has a rebated deal in place or the bike has been on the floor a while there probably isn't a huge amount of room in the sticker price. Everybody has to make a living.
As a longtime sales weasel, I can guarantee the salesguy will be a lot more helpful if you follow a tack of "is there any room in this price tag?" rather than "I will give you X" the low ball. He gets beat up all week, a customer that has a clue about the cost of keeping a 20,ooo sg ft showroom open, a parts dept and all is a refreshing change.
They may be able to offer a discount on gear or throw in a helmet, and it depends on what your buying. A 7,990.00 bike doesn't leave much margin.

If your polite and clear about your intentions I can promise you'll have a better experience than being a dick. If the salesguy turns out to be a dick (it happens) then game on.
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This. Tally the numbers for an out the door price from various dealerships. Then you can compare apples to apples and know if the dealership you're buying from is in the ball park. And paying a little extra at your local dealer of choice isn't necessarily a "rip off" especially if you want to build a long term relationship. I'm no expert, only bought one bike off a dealer, but was able to easily negotiate a commitment for 20% off all accessory purchases for one year. It was a good year.
 
Guys from ATC Corral are great guys met the owner at Sportsman show, while working booth for my ATV club super nice and committed, you'll be happy to deal with them.
 
The only place I found willing to bargain is snowcity. Every other place is pretty much told me to get ****ed. That was for new bikes. On used bikes theres more leeway since theyre making a few thousand off the sale anyway, but a new bike the margins are pretty much razor thin if theyre selling at MSRP. If they arent selling at MSRP, find someone who is and try and get taxes or Freight/PDI knocked off.

I would also seriously recommend avoiding Ready Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha, those guys are ********. I bought a bike from them 2 years ago, went back last year looking for a new bike and the guy literally told me to **** off when I asked if they were willing to bargain because they were selling for 1400 over MSRP. No loyalty, **** em.
 
I got a bit off my new/last years model CBR250RA from Clarington Honda back when I bought it (few hundred) and about $500-700 off my new CBR650FA from Brampton Powersports (essentially they waived Freight & PDI, plus a little more). The 650 was literally right when they arrived in Canada (they said mine might have been the 2nd or 3rd one sold in Southern Ontario), so wiggle room was minimal.

Found most were willing to talk numbers except for Markham Outdoor Power -- They actually wanted MORE than MSRP, saying that any dealer who sells for less is hiding something (which is pure BS). Had good luck with MOP for service, but not a fan of their sales.
 
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hedo2002 said:
Guys from ATC Corral are great guys met the owner at Sportsman show, while working booth for my ATV club super nice and committed, you'll be happy to deal with them.
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Awesome! Glad to hear that. I've also got a Sportsman 500, but Spoiled Sports is a little closer for service haha.

bobjohnson said:
The only place I found willing to bargain is snowcity. Every other place is pretty much told me to get ****ed. That was for new bikes. On used bikes theres more leeway since theyre making a few thousand off the sale anyway, but a new bike the margins are pretty much razor thin if theyre selling at MSRP. If they arent selling at MSRP, find someone who is and try and get taxes or Freight/PDI knocked off.

I would also seriously recommend avoiding Ready Honda/Suzuki/Yamaha, those guys are ********. I bought a bike from them 2 years ago, went back last year looking for a new bike and the guy literally told me to **** off when I asked if they were willing to bargain because they were selling for 1400 over MSRP. No loyalty, **** em.
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Sounds sketchy. I wanted to go to Two Wheeled Motorsports, that place seems like a playground of bikes, but everything there seems over MSRP. I guess some of those big places count on people bargaining, so they jack the prices up.

conundrum said:
I got a bit off my new/last years model CBR250RA from Clarington Honda back when I bought it (few hundred) and about $500-700 off my new CBR650FA from Brampton Powersports (essentially they waived Freight & PDI, plus a little more). The 650 was literally right when they arrived in Canada (they said mine might have been the 2nd or 3rd one sold in Southern Ontario), so wiggle room was minimal.
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You got a bike from Clarington Honda for less then MSRP? Sounds like you got a steal from them. I keep looking at Grom's there, and they want like $500 more than anyone else. and $500 more on a bike that costs $3000 is a fair bit.
 
I got a couple hundred off on my Vulcan S at Snowcity. Dealt with Norm, he used to work at Kahuna if anyone remembers that.
 
I just bought a brand new back in Feb and picked it up two weeks ago. I am not a hard bargainer, I usually do my research before I go to any stores. I got around $3000 off the MSRP price with another $800 rebate from the manufacturer on a 2015 Demo model with 280 km on it. You can save a lot if you do your research ahead of the time. As matter of fact, I didn't even bargain on this purchase because I know it was a great deal.
 
48Connor said:
You got a bike from Clarington Honda for less then MSRP? Sounds like you got a steal from them. I keep looking at Grom's there, and they want like $500 more than anyone else. and $500 more on a bike that costs $3000 is a fair bit.
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Mine was a 2011 CBR250RA when the 2012s had just come out. Got off about $1000 on Honda factory rebates, plus managed to get them to take off about $200 more. Might have been due to a math error as they did catch it but I forced them to still include part of it or else I was going to walk.

For the 650 I didn't want to deal with any BS so I contacted a few places and Brampton was the easiest to talk numbers with. The funny thing is Clarington almost seemed like they didn't want to sell me the 650...was like pulling teeth to try to get info and pricing from them, or a call when the bikes came in. I think they contacted me about 2 weeks after I had already closed the deal and picked up the bike from Brampton. lol
 
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Getting a price from a dealership far away with a somewhat small population (but still within the province) will usually get you a relatively low price and can use that quote to cut the price down a bit.
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