Buying a brand new motorcycle & want to negotiate the price | GTAMotorcycle.com

Buying a brand new motorcycle & want to negotiate the price

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tdotmale

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Hi forum members,

Through personal experiences, I'm aware that when buying a brand new car the buyer should use tools and reports such as CCC and Unhaggle to negotiate the price. Those reports tell you the dealer's cost (invoice price), and as a buyer you would offer a few percent above the invoice price as a starting point. Starting negotiations at MSRP and trying to work downwards is a big no-no when buying a brand new car.

Is there such a thing or similar process for when buying a new motorcycle? A few of the dealers that I have emailed so far start the quote at MSRP and add on the license and fees plus HST. I would like to know if we can find out their invoice price on the motorcycle and work from there. I want to negotiate a better price.

Thanks for any help.
 
they make PROFIT at msrp

PDI and freight are bogus

Your now in the offseason and therefore have more bargaining power

Bring cash and dont be afraid to walk away
 
tdotmale said:
.............. A few of the dealers that I have emailed so far start the quote at MSRP and add on the license and fees plus HST.
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The car/truck market is different. I think you're wasting your time e-mailing a bike dealer and expecting some worthwhile type of negotiation process. Do your price research and make a ranked list of dealers you can buy from and go in person starting with the lowest ranked. After some discussion with a couple of sales people you should have some idea as to negotiating room and then you can hone in on a preferred dealer.
 
Take into consideration if they can not move on the price. Ask for bolt on goodies be included in the price, or clothes.

Just remembered the time I was negotiating a price at Suzuki of Newmarket.
Gave me a price then two days later changed it by adding an extra $500.
Did a deal in the end. It was like dealing with Bhell Hell.
Now called "Sharks of Newmarket"
Never again.
 
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What bike are you looking at? The smaller bikes have smaller margins. You should be able to beat MSRP at most dealers if you are buying at this time of year, but don't expect thousands off.
 
I've purchased two new bikes. Dealerships are willing to lower prices, but it's on their terms. I paid well below MSRP for both bikes, but I had to wait until winter, then the dealerships lowered their advertised prices to be in align with what I was negotiating.

The downfall is you only get to pick from left-overs. So it's supply and demand. Massively made bikes that flood the market (Vstrom, Ninja 300) are easy to find at great deals during winter. Some manufacturers seem to never have bikes below MSRP (BMW, Harley).

That's my observation and experience - yours and others may differ.

Edit: Cycling's suggestion seems to be the most viable. Accessories and clothing can usually be negotiated. First service can usually be thrown in as well without much hassle.

Edit: No one gives a discount for cash. They'd actually rather finance you.
 
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cycling said:
Take into consideration if they can not move on the price. Ask for bolt on goodies be included in the price, or clothes.

Just remembered the time I was negotiating a price at Suzuki of Newmarket.
Gave me a price then two days later changed it by adding an extra $500.
Did a deal in the end. It was like dealing with Bhell Hell.
Now called "Sharks of Newmarket"
Never again.
Click to expand...

Thought I was getting a good end of season sale from SON on a V-strom, but after signing & before taking possession, they dropped the advertised price even further. They would not honour the lower price, but fortunately I had an out condition, so I threatened to use it then start from scratch on their new sale price. They finally agreed to lower it, but not without some really bad attitude. Found a few loose bolts after their set-up. Agreed, never again!
 
bigpoppa said:
they make PROFIT at msrp

PDI and freight are bogus

Your now in the offseason and therefore have more bargaining power

Bring cash and dont be afraid to walk away
Click to expand...

You capitalise "profit" like the markup is 100% on bikes. How is PDI and freight bogus? The bikes aren't assembled and require a mechanic to spend time assembling and making sure it's safe and the bikes aren't manufactured at the dealership.

Dealers actually don't make much off of units, it's the service and parts where they make a profit. MSRP is too much depending on what bike we're talking about but you should generally pay less than that.

I'm buying my kid a PW50, price is msrp because there is almost no markup.
 
Like others have said, at MSRP they do make a small profit, but the wiggle room is a lot less than a $30-100K car/truck for obvious reasons. I also don't think there is a published 'book' value for bikes like there is for cars, but it is probably safe to assume most bikes have at least a 10% mark-up, and if you end up between the 5-10% range you likely got a pretty decent deal.

Both my CBR250RA and CBR650F were new off the lot bikes, and I paid slightly under MSRP for both of them. For the 250, there were a number of factory incentives (totalling about $500), plus I had them take around another $100 off, plus throw in the first service (which was around $500 on that bike). For the 650, I had them drop freight & PDI charges ($500), plus take around another $100-150 or so off (didn't have much room, as the bikes had only made it to Canada 2 weeks before, and it was the middle of June).

The car in contrast I think I got about $2500-5000 off all said and done, but it was a much much bigger sale, with a much larger margin.

All numbers are pre-tax of course, and in all cases the vehicles were bought outright. Also depends on brand...from what I've heard Suzuki is much more likely to talk numbers than Honda is on bikes.
 
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I got them to toss frieght/pdi at Snowcity. just msrp + tax. You aren't getting much better than that.
 
cycling said:
Take into consideration if they can not move on the price. Ask for bolt on goodies be included in the price, or clothes.

Just remembered the time I was negotiating a price at Suzuki of Newmarket.
Gave me a price then two days later changed it by adding an extra $500.
Did a deal in the end. It was like dealing with Bhell Hell.
Now called "Sharks of Newmarket"
Never again.
Click to expand...

Is Suzuki of Newmarket still operating? I thought they went under...

Had a friend get a great deal on a 600 from them during the bike show. Later that year, they slammed into a car when their front brakes failed completely (police noted it at the scene as well). If memory serves, they never did the recall on the front brake before they sold the bike to her...
 
So many riders have complained about SON. They went to Suzuki. They said there was nothing they can do. It is up to the dealer.
However, a little known fact is not the price on sale for the Dealer but how many they sell. they get a bonus on number of units sold from the manufacturer.
Hence, SON being the worst dealer because they only care about money. Customer consideration is not in there books.
Search on this site for the number of unhappy customers outweighs the happy customers.
 
dricked said:
You capitalise "profit" like the markup is 100% on bikes. How is PDI and freight bogus? The bikes aren't assembled and require a mechanic to spend time assembling and making sure it's safe and the bikes aren't manufactured at the dealership.

Dealers actually don't make much off of units, it's the service and parts where they make a profit. MSRP is too much depending on what bike we're talking about but you should generally pay less than that.

I'm buying my kid a PW50, price is msrp because there is almost no markup.
Click to expand...

PDI and freight are bogus because a) the quality of inspection actually performed during PDI varies tremendously and b) those costs apply to 99.99% of bikes the dealer sells. By not just building the costs into the sale price of the bike, it is a tactic for manipulating the negotiated price
 
Seems some people don't know how to negotiate well imo. It is a skill. I've gotten $2k off a bike at under $15k retail in fall (with minimal freight/pdi) and they still made some money on it. Pd cash. Freight/pdi is similarly negotiable. Dealers don't get rich on new bike sales, but it is more than a 10% markup. End of season and motivated sellers make a big difference. I've been able to negotiate $1k off of bikes not much over $10k msrp during high season. OTOH, I remember the gong show that buying a 2000 RC51 was back in the day. I did well by getting it for msrp and and a small deposit at a dealer outside of Toronto being first in line. Cycle World West literally took somewhere around 21 deposits in line and what a shady move as they flat out knew they weren't going to get anywhere near that many (they got seven from what I remember). Point is that high demand bikes with low supply are definitely harder to get a better price negotiated.

One read. https://rideapart.com/articles/how-to-buy-a-new-motorcycle-insider-tips
 
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bigpoppa said:
PDI and freight are bogus
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Freight is not bogus. The dealers stock does not magically fall out of the ceiling, they have to go on a truck like mine and actually get delivered there from the factory.

For example, I delivered these to Mackie HD in Whitby this past summer.... and yeah, I don't work for free, nor does my company move freight for free.

PDI? Well, someone needs to take them out of those boxes and put them together since bikes are seldom "Ready to ride" inside those crates.

-55WpJhyuD3Y08MYIUVa2hPsNbSiWEpZWUrs6kk1o1rdIDGbxkCKhdzQ0hrb4P6ssCRygRBw1xNtMWMTpNf43IASnAS749YucFnJJtNzvE_Aq_Qh1NFN014Mx5uYRt8Z98rX8IPVkk_tIiJyrNi3HVxF8q7LVdtm85l9Nl974CW2YDYEwD5N5VGWvcOlBGaRrbGQQdrvdWrBglhZSpXDolQTCZcu11-TCVU5_j06wfGLMh6YnajT3Dymaxg_ZrQLuAIID4p8GbFtWQd9MSq27LvIunTx6NEw6In0U5tuyirjmvmWlhtU4EICauHrMtD-oXFNZTsOBlBLsI79d2ttI1mej6Qvl48NU08P0U4IPpeuYTmlgPngI9ZbyhA8mqDGyqH83jn0FiAtPTxHjdI7NqSJtyC89lJoHW_oSuizUCpqrd6C96yV6YuxPJ5hnHdpd2BI7-ePmcY8gZo80s9aPwbyXb87cUF5wx_vt0USTQfEDTdhJe2THY53e-5gTN_xz2NHov-KHH-_4yM4Lv2byHljktBOrIhJZTS762CgWWDFUZExi6J7Ru7LkBgLUhIwsn9oSHUL-HxyMdYEiCOpjTOUkoTUveO8yFfw2i-4oA3oPslm-Q=w1222-h916-no
 
PrivatePilot said:
Freight is not bogus. The dealers stock does not magically fall out of the ceiling, they have to go on a truck like mine and actually get delivered there from the factory.

For example, I delivered these to Mackie HD in Whitby this past summer.... and yeah, I don't work for free, nor does my company move freight for free.

PDI? Well, someone needs to take them out of those boxes and put them together since bikes are seldom "Ready to ride" inside those crates.

-55WpJhyuD3Y08MYIUVa2hPsNbSiWEpZWUrs6kk1o1rdIDGbxkCKhdzQ0hrb4P6ssCRygRBw1xNtMWMTpNf43IASnAS749YucFnJJtNzvE_Aq_Qh1NFN014Mx5uYRt8Z98rX8IPVkk_tIiJyrNi3HVxF8q7LVdtm85l9Nl974CW2YDYEwD5N5VGWvcOlBGaRrbGQQdrvdWrBglhZSpXDolQTCZcu11-TCVU5_j06wfGLMh6YnajT3Dymaxg_ZrQLuAIID4p8GbFtWQd9MSq27LvIunTx6NEw6In0U5tuyirjmvmWlhtU4EICauHrMtD-oXFNZTsOBlBLsI79d2ttI1mej6Qvl48NU08P0U4IPpeuYTmlgPngI9ZbyhA8mqDGyqH83jn0FiAtPTxHjdI7NqSJtyC89lJoHW_oSuizUCpqrd6C96yV6YuxPJ5hnHdpd2BI7-ePmcY8gZo80s9aPwbyXb87cUF5wx_vt0USTQfEDTdhJe2THY53e-5gTN_xz2NHov-KHH-_4yM4Lv2byHljktBOrIhJZTS762CgWWDFUZExi6J7Ru7LkBgLUhIwsn9oSHUL-HxyMdYEiCOpjTOUkoTUveO8yFfw2i-4oA3oPslm-Q=w1222-h916-no
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Well, we don't pay freight on a bag of milk or a couch or whatever. Freight is real but the charge is a little bogus.
 
kellen said:
Well, we don't pay freight on a bag of milk or a couch or whatever. Freight is real but the charge is a little bogus.
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Sorry, I beg to differ. It's the size of items. In a truck you can only load a certain number of bikes. On the same truck you can load a ton of bag of milk - in this case the freight costs are part of the pricing method. For a couch (e.g for Ikea), they request the buyer to pay around $140 (from what I last remember) to get the delivered to your house. Also, that's not a finished product.

As per my experience in supply chain, I can only say that just coz we can't see the freight costs out there explicitly, that doesn't mean it's bogus. Although, I do have to admit that the 2nd hand dealers can potentially play around with this value since this can be tackled/manipulated later during accounting (so that they can cover their *** during audits, if they ever get audited). The freight charge is a bit more genuine when you are dealing with OEMs dealers selling 1st hand bikes.
 
Goku said:
Sorry, I beg to differ. It's the size of items. In a truck you can only load a certain number of bikes. On the same truck you can load a ton of bag of milk - in this case the freight costs are part of the pricing method. For a couch (e.g for Ikea), they request the buyer to pay around $140 (from what I last remember) to get the delivered to your house. Also, that's not a finished product.

As per my experience in supply chain, I can only say that just coz we can't see the freight costs out there explicitly, that doesn't mean it's bogus. Although, I do have to admit that the 2nd hand dealers can potentially play around with this value since this can be tackled/manipulated later during accounting (so that they can cover their *** during audits, if they ever get audited). The freight charge is a bit more genuine when you are dealing with OEMs dealers selling 1st hand bikes.
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So freight costs are part of the pricing method for milk but not motorcycles. Ok.

So your only point is the size of the item? How many couches can be loaded on a 53' truck vs. Motorcylces?

Home delivery is different from frieght. Why don't I pay frieght when I walk into Leon's and buy a sectional?
 
kellen said:
So freight costs are part of the pricing method for milk but not motorcycles. Ok.

So your only point is the size of the item? How many couches can be loaded on a 53' truck vs. Motorcylces?

Home delivery is different from frieght. Why don't I pay frieght when I walk into Leon's and buy a sectional?
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That my friend is business strategy. Some businesses bring in the freight costs into the cost of goods sold and indirectly into the pricing. Others pass it onto the customer....
My point was not only about size. It was mainly about the reality of freight costs - if you don't see them that does not mean they are not real or do not exist
 
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Goku said:
That my friend is business strategy. Some businesses bring in the freight costs into the cost of goods sold and indirectly into the pricing. Others pass it onto the customer....
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