How many of you really like buying a new motorcycle? I don’t mean having a motorcycle or riding it, I mean the actual process of buying one. Some companies and dealerships are far better than others, just like it is with cars but many of us are not the best negotiators and it’s hard to know if you paid too much.
There are lots of tricks to buying right and the Internet is one of the best ways to get a lot of information before stepping inside the showroom but why aren’t there more buying groups? There are plenty of owners groups but that’s after the fact, why not get a group of riders together who have their mind set on a particular bike, have their money in hand so financing isn’t an issue later and instead of walking in to buy one bike, you all walk in and offer to buy 10 bikes or more. Which method gets the better price? You or a group of 10 or 20? Even if you offer to buy 5, you’ll beat the single purchase every time.
Everyone benefits here, buyers get a great price and dealers sell a lot of bikes. If the dealer makes less per bike, the volume often puts him in a better spot with the company and he can then buy for less or get more cash back or get more of whatever program the companies are running for dealers.
Sport bikes are the natural segment that would benefit most. Their depreciation is highest and most technology sensitive so why not take some of the sting out by paying less up front? Ebay makes it easier to sell on the back end so if you buy right, you could have the bike you want and not have a lot out of pocket over the life of the bike.
The Internet makes communication between potential buyers a lot easier and organizing a buyers group should not be too hard to do so why aren’t more buyers doing this, or is this going on everywhere already? Just curious.
Really curious: The more I think about this, the more curious I am. How many of you, or have any of you, organized any kind of group buy? If you did, how did it work, how many were involved, did you save a lot? Would any of you be interested in doing this?
Bill says
A bunch of us from work went in together when buying large screen TVs. We were able to get the sales managers attention quickly when we said we were ready to purchase $14k worth of product and had cash in hand and were making a decision within a week.
Got quotes from lots of places and saved approx 10% over buying individually.
–Bill
/ It’s a good idea.
// But it is more work to set up.
/// and you have to trust your co-buyers to not flake out somewhere in the process.
//// If it’s going to be strangers over the internet, why not let the dealer organize it? Check out dutch auctions. http://pages.ebay.com/help/buy/buyer-multiple.html
Sid says
I like the idea & would participate. For motorcycles, I would go up to 5 & see what the dealer was willing to offer. Maybe even negotiate major service discounts in addition to discounted sale prices.
Steve says
My family owns a motorcycle dealership, and I have a feeling that if some customers were to come in and do this, they would receive a good deal. But, from my many years in the business, I can honestly say that I have very rarely seen this take place. The only time it usually does happen is when a company is purchasing multiple ATV’s or utility vehicles. If more buyers did this, I’m sure they could save themselves a decent amount of money.
Erik says
I think this is a great idea and a shop would be stupid to let a 5 or 10 bike sale walk away, or worse, into your competitor’s shop.
The hardest part would be facilitating the connections, I’d think. But once that was put together, the additional buying power would give the buyers alot of leverage to get some excellent pricing.
Alvon says
My roommates and I bought 3 ZX6R’s at the same time and got 10% off…was def worth it
Jeff says
Would it necessarilly have to be the same bike for all buyers? What if, instead you got 10 people together that just wanted various Suzukis? It’d be like bulk buying a box of gum from Costco or Sam’s Club, but instead of getting all spearmint, you get the variety pack.
Anyone think this would work, or would everyone have to buy the same model?
Alex says
I do not know about the US and other places than Germany, but here it would mean that all people would have to be from the very same part of the city. That is, because dealers would dislike very much if the buyers will go elsewhere for maintenance.
Also workshops do not like customers very much who bought a brand-new bike elsewhere. Used ones, after e.g. having moved is a different topic, of course.
“Dislike / Not like” means bad service, takes long time, “special prices” for oil etc…
kneeslider says
Jeff – I would think any group of bikes would work, multiple sales are multiple sales. If a dealer sells a group 5 or 10 bikes, a mix and match selection would make him smile as much as 5 or 10 of any one model.
Alex – That’s surprising. In the U.S., selling more bikes means the company looks at the dealer as a higher volume or more successful dealer and it opens the door to better pricing and other benefits. Also, service work is profitable no matter where the customer bought the bike and if done well the customer keeps coming back and they make more overall. Everyone wins. If dealers think that way, they are hurting themselves and their customers.
As the other comments above suggest, group buys can work. The organization beforehand takes a little effort but the benefits can be worth it.
Alex says
One reason might be, that bargaining is very very uncommon here. You pay what is written on the price tag – discussion finished.
Sometimes you can discuss about free extras for a car (not bike), like floor mats for example.
In general I like your idea and would like to see it happening, too!
budlight says
What Alex is saying makes sense. If you take “dislike” out of the picture and simply think about which customers a dealership is likely to give preferential treatment to? It’s always going to be their loyal customers. Some dealerships may be “less friendly” to customers who bought a bike elsewhere, but it’s human nature to be “more friendly” to the one who bought it from your own dealership.
Also this depends on which bike it is. Not many dealerships sell bikes above suggested retail, and for some models such as the Ninja 250, the suggested retail is only $2,999. Now invoice amounts for this bike normally run around ~$2850-$2900. So there’s not that much direct profit involved. This bike is mainly to get people into the sport.