How much discount on a new bike?

Dreamdemon

Dreamdemon

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Hi all,

well I might be in for shopping for a new sports bike and was wondering about the prices. I went to a BMW dealer and asked for the best otd price for a S1000RR and even with the current 750$ off offer from BMW they just do not want to go down more than 1000$. Back in Germany 10% were usually always in, and we all know that the next models are almost out, you can already preorder the 2015 BMW in Germany and the new R1 and RSV4 R will come out too. Usually Sport bikes loose almost 2k in value when a new just slightly updated model comes out but this year almost all plan major upgrades.

I negotiated hard and explained all that but the dealer could not go lower, I mean he had 5 BMW S1000RR there all with some few miles so not even brand new and all 2014 and all were slightly dusty and in the other place they have four more! Well I live in the SF Bay Area and check the online inventories by almost all dealers and there are plenty of S1000RR so no chance that they will sell only half of these before the new one comes out. On top of this the main riding season ends in end of October. Of course you can ride all year in California but most people here ride only until end of October.

Well long story short what can you expect to get as an discount on the manufacturer suggested out of the door price. Do not get me wrong but the dealer seemed to realize that he tried to sell me something I do not really need but would be nice as a fun bike so I had no problems telling him that the price was not low enough so I would buy. Is this really normal here that people pay almost full price and are happy to get 300$ discount?

The BMW is only an expample I plan to try the Aprillia RSV4 ARCP ABS or too and if the new R1 is an up to date bike that will be definetly checked out too. Just want to get some suggestions what to expect. BTW the negotiations was about cash payed so no loan.
 
Depends on the dealer. You probably went to a crap dealer by the sounds of it.
Some places are just like that, and they don't sell a lot. We have a couple of dealers like that here
and nobody is sure how the one place even stays in business. (The other is owned by a family that owns half the town)
If he won't negotiate go elsewhere.
The one here wouldn't even let me test ride a Triumph even if paying cash because if I didn't buy it then he had to mark the price down.
Needless to say he lost about 20,000 because of it. I had been thinking of buying green till then.
 
Here at my local Yamaha dealer I got 1000 off the OTD price plus 2000 worth of extras thrown in (exhaust, levers, tail tidy, and more) on a 2010 model when I bought in 2011. The bike had zero miles and they added all the fluids after I paid the deposit so the bike was brand new. You just need to find the right dealer. They have looked after me well since with a lot of the mods I've added on too.
 
I had to go 200+ miles away to get the best discount as no one within that radius would deal even after I showed them the deal. 2013 holdover, new, $7,990.00 OTD. Another rider her just did the same and got it for $240 less than I did. The local dealers wouldn't go under $9k.
 
Thanks for the input. It seems that here in the SF Bay area all dealers do not have to sell. Of course the Fz1 is special since it sells really bad but even so I look at sports bike, the inventory tells me that they will never sell these bike before the new riding season and than there are all the new models out.

In CA it is unfortunately not possible to get a new out of state bike. This regulation gives the dealers quite a good handle on the price. On the other hand 10% off must be at least in or I just will not buy. After all the sports bike is just for fun and not an everyday beast like my Fz1. I will wait until the new models come out and probably would go for the new R1 if Yamaha updated it properly.

However it would be nice to get some more input on the discount especially of non Fz1 because they just gather dust at most dealers ;). Well good for us if a great bike is under valued ;).
 
I've heard it's almost impossible to import a new bike in California from out of state but what about a used bike? Wouldn't it be reasonable to buy a hardly used model of your choice from a 'cheap state' and just import it?
 
Hi Dustin,

well I am not sure about buying a used sport bike with more than 7k miles (that's the requirement to get it into CA). No problem for sport touring bikes like the Fz1 but you can cause a lot of damage to a bike in 7k miles if you go a lot to the track or just abuse it. Usually it is easy to polish a bike from the outside so you do not recognize the problems immediately. When shopping out of state there are other obstacles like flying there, finding a problem or something not noticeable on the photos or the guy just asks more money than agreed on. All these points leave you in a weak negotiation position because you made already the travel and have lost precious free time and money in any case. These troubles would usually outweigh price advantages especially if there is no warranty on the bike or it is not transferable. In general, sports bike are in my experience either almost new or brand new or ready for a rebuild and track only use, all other type of offers are not good deals. I shopped already a lot for bikes and know how often I had to walk away that is no problem locally or let's say up to 150 miles around but not when flights are involved.
Another important point that I should mention is that I would like to bring the bike back to Germany in 1-2 years and this implies that it is stock otherwise I get problems in Germany (much more restrictive than in the US).

Buying new makes sense to me but in case I do not get a proper deal I just won't do it because this bike would be purely for fun and I can live without it. Maybe someone has shopped in CA and can give me his/her experiences. I know that we pay here more than in other states so tell me if my expectations are to much.
 
If you are planning to bring the bike back to Germany, you are probably right in buying new. My girlfriend has explained the almighty TÜV to me. As a person who prefers basically stock bikes, I like the idea of such stringent standards.

You're probably saving money buying new in CA vs buying anywhere in Europe, anyway.
 
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