"Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going on?

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MarcosSantiago

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"Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going on?

Somebody please explain?

When I do a search for dealer, the Honda.ca motorcycle website is telling me "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario". Closest one is either Mississauga or Markham.

Why!!!? And ... since when?
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

yep, Honda bikes are only for hicks in the sticks... or the 905.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Been under a rock or in a cave the last few years ... ? ? ?

Coles notes: Honda gets the brilliant idea that they want Honda products sold only in Honda dealers and nowhere else, and nothing non-Honda sold in any Honda dealership. Calls this "Powerhouse". Everyone outside of Honda tells them this is a bad idea, but there are no bad ideas emanating from the mother ship, the very concept that an idea that they themselves generated could be bad is inconceivable. A few dealers buy into the concept, Honda terminates the sales agreements of many previous multi-line dealers who won't agree to the terms. Many Honda car dealers didn't want to touch it and opted to stay just as car dealers.

Fast forward: The Honda Powerhouse dealers have higher costs and because they can't sell anything non-Honda, they have more limited revenue potential - it's just not a viable business model in this environment. Durham Honda Powerhouse closes with no replacement (one was rumoured, but never happened). Parkway Honda closes the Powerhouse division and replaces it with a used car showroom. There may have been others elsewhere in the province that closed also.

Then ... Classic Honda which is in the same ownership group with a large number of other dealers in the same auto mall, including Suzuki of Brampton, opts to merge the two motorcycle dealers and take on Yamaha as well, and move the whole shebang out into its own facility. Unlike the other Powerhouse dealers, this one had a strong enough ownership group that they were presumably able to tell Honda that they had a choice: either allow them to be part of this new multi-line dealer, or not have a dealer in Brampton at all. One way or another, the Classic Powerhouse was going away. No one outside of the various company representatives is privy to those conversations but the result is apparent ... Honda is now sold in a more traditional multi-line dealership in place of a Powerhouse.

And then Ready Honda Powerhouse took on other manufacturers.

Honda will, of course, never admit that the Powerhouse concept was flawed from the outset. But the outcome is plainly obvious ... Honda now has very few motorcycle dealers at all, nevermind just in Toronto.

Milton and Clarington are the only two remaining Honda-only Powerhouses that I can think of off-hand.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

eljay said:
yep, Honda bikes are only for hicks in the sticks... or the 905.
Click to expand...

Still, I would think it would be profitable to sell motorcycles in Canada's biggest city
Especially for a brand as powerful as Honda
I have been under a rock lately, but last time I checked we had a few dealers in toronto

EDIT: Thank you Brian, your post was there a few seconds before mine, didn't see it
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Put it this way. If I draw a circle around what I personally think of as "Toronto", I can't find anyone that sells a motorcycle. Maybe a Vespa, but no motorcycles. There's a few of us outsiders that get stuck living downtown and when we want to buy a motorcycle, options get tight.

MarcosSantiago said:
Still, I would think it would be profitable to sell motorcycles in Canada's biggest city
Especially for a brand as powerful as Honda
I have been under a rock lately, but last time I checked we had a few dealers in toronto

EDIT: Thank you Brian, your post was there a few seconds before mine, didn't see it
Click to expand...
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

I feel your frustration !! What happened was Honda got greedy and decided they wanted to sell their products themselves, instead of going through the multi line dealers( ie. snow city), they went out and built these huge dealerships specializing in power sports and other equipment, forgetting about that thing called winter. In all honesty, they had no idea what they were doing. Their prices were ridiculous and the service sucked, in my opinion! This resulted in the power sports section declaring bankruptcy and only two survived Markham and Brampton. I so wish they would get their act together!! I love my Honda but dam! I cant even order anything on line and then pick it up later. you would figure they might want to save a customer at least one trip:(
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Kahuna Powersports has a Toronto address, but they sell everything but Honda. BMW Toronto is within Toronto. Parker Brothers sells KTM and they're in Toronto, but they have a fair amount of non-new-bike-related business to keep them going.

Toronto is difficult to do business in - it isn't just motorcycle dealers that have trouble with this. High real estate cost is the first barrier to entry, and there are others. I have plenty of industrial customers in the 905 and exactly TWO customers in the 416 - one of whom is on a property that's slated to be sold out from underneath them and become yet another high-rise condo.

I am quite sure that the whole Powerhouse exercise has cost Honda significant market share.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

cbr-dee said:
Their prices were ridiculous and the service sucked, in my opinion!
Click to expand...

They were trying to imbue themselves with the aura of the European brands. Truth.

There was a public rant from (I think) a Honda Canada exec about not understanding how the Europeans can charge so much more when Honda products are as good or better. Which is a fair point, but the Jap brands built themselves up as a the low-price, high-quality product from the very start, so IMO they can't complain now after decades of good, sensible bikes that their brands lack character (and therefore cannot be premium priced).
 
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Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

fastar1 said:
They were trying to imbue themselves with the aura of the European brands. Truth.

There was a public rant from (I think) a Honda Canada exec about not understanding how the Europeans can charge so much more when Honda products are as good or better. Which is a fair point, but the Jap brands built themselves up as a the low-price, high-quality product from the very start, so IMO they can't complain now after decades of good, sensible bikes that their brands lack character (and therefore cannot be premium priced).
Click to expand...

The European brands have a way of coming up with interesting non-mainstream designs that work.

When Honda tries to do it ... they get a DN-01. Or to a lesser extreme, they provide an answer to a question that nobody is asking (dual-clutch automatic transmission ...) or the styling misses the mark (VFR1200) while coming uncomfortably close to another existing model in the lineup (ST1300) even though if they'd kept the displacement the same (800) they would have remained almost unique in that segment.

Having said that, the 2011-on cbr250 and cbr125 are excellent products that look good and work well in their respective market segments - and there aren't many competitors. BUT ... Would I have paid more to get a KTM Duke 125 instead of the cbr if it were possible ... Probably. Would I have paid the same for the cbr as KTM would be asking if that model were sold here (i.e. more) ... absolutely not! Why didn't Honda choose to bring the (4-valve twin-cam) cbr150 now that the 150 has fuel injection and 3-way catalyst and the same lighting etc to meet "new world" standards ... beats me.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

honda dealer at bermondsey and eglington in toronto sells brand new honda motorycles ,there right in the front window.
I believe its Parkway honda
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Brian P said:
Been under a rock or in a cave the last few years ... ? ? ?

Coles notes: Honda gets the brilliant idea that they want Honda products sold only in Honda dealers and nowhere else,
Click to expand...

whoever came up with that business idea, he better be fired and homeless and should never work in the business field ever again.

lol
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

wild2crazy said:
honda dealer at bermondsey and eglington in toronto sells brand new honda motorycles ,there right in the front window.
I believe its Parkway honda
Click to expand...

You are way behind. Parkway Powerhouse closed a couple of years ago. It's now a used car dealer.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

SkyRider said:
whoever came up with that business idea, he better be fired and homeless and should never work in the business field ever again.

lol
Click to expand...

But they work at Honda, and it was the most fantastic business decision ever. We, the customers, are just not understanding them!

:D
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

for honda dealers
Kennedy Road - Snow City Cycle
Markham rd north of hwy 16 - markham outdoor power
Clarington cycle in bowmanville, right off the 401

THese are probably your closest honda dealers in gta...


In my opinion it isn't really a powerhouse problem, but a consumer problem. Canadians are just cheap and don't have disposable income to spend on motorcycles. its unfortunate but its true. The used bike market is great around here, thats why GP bikes has done so well over the years with used bikes and accessories. Now they have expanded to ducati, triumph, ktm, vespa, and doing great...
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Give your head a shake.

Honda sold 18 million bikes world wide last year.

Canada in general, and esp, esp, Toronto is a tiny market for Honda.

Do you really think they care that they lost a sale or 3 to Toronto customers?
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Brian P said:
You are way behind. Parkway Powerhouse closed a couple of years ago. It's now a used car dealer.
Click to expand...

Very true.
Well, actually this started today when I called Parkway Honda on Eglinton to ask a question to the motorcycle salespeople, and the lady who answered the phone told me "Sorry! No bikes here... but we have great deals on Civics"
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Honda as a corporation might not, but you betcha that Honda Canada cares. But they're in the awkward position of being either unwilling or unable to admit their error and do something about it. If they admit it then here come the lawyers for all the dealers that they shut down and all the lawyers for the Powerhouse dealers that they forced to spend a whole bunch of money.

By the way, Snow City Cycle doesn't sell Honda any more.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

SunnY S said:
Give your head a shake.

Honda sold 18 million bikes world wide last year.

Canada in general, and esp, esp, Toronto is a tiny market for Honda.

Do you really think they care that they lost a sale or 3 to Toronto customers?
Click to expand...

^ This guy gets it.
 
Re: "Sorry, there are no Honda Motorcycle Dealers in Toronto, Ontario." What is going

Brian P said:
The European brands have a way of coming up with interesting non-mainstream designs that work.

When Honda tries to do it ... they get a DN-01. Or to a lesser extreme, they provide an answer to a question that nobody is asking (dual-clutch automatic transmission ...) or the styling misses the mark (VFR1200) while coming uncomfortably close to another existing model in the lineup (ST1300) even though if they'd kept the displacement the same (800) they would have remained almost unique in that segment.

Having said that, the 2011-on cbr250 and cbr125 are excellent products that look good and work well in their respective market segments - and there aren't many competitors. BUT ... Would I have paid more to get a KTM Duke 125 instead of the cbr if it were possible ... Probably. Would I have paid the same for the cbr as KTM would be asking if that model were sold here (i.e. more) ... absolutely not! Why didn't Honda choose to bring the (4-valve twin-cam) cbr150 now that the 150 has fuel injection and 3-way catalyst and the same lighting etc to meet "new world" standards ... beats me.
Click to expand...

Man, that 125 Duke is just amazing. One for my dream garage.

I gotta respect Honda for exploring different niches though. If they're gonna break out of the Jap bike mold then that's something they have to do. The NC700 for example could find a good market for itself. But even if it doesn't, it helps create a brand image for Honda that distinguishes them from the plain jane bike manufacturers. Like the DN-01, the Rune... They've made game changers before, like the CB750 and Goldwing (like it or not).

The thing they'd have to do if they really wanted to distinguish themselves though, is cut out all the copycat models they make (SS, cruisers) or make them outstanding in some significant way, at a premium price. But those are the company's bread and butter so the risk in that strategy is immense.
 
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