I hate most car dealerships and much as bike dealerships. Most are scum-bags and they give the very few good ones a bad name.

I lived near Daytona for a few years. I quickly discovered bikes there were generally 25% higher. I purchased a Big Dog in 03, did the deal over the phone for $6K less than the local Daytona dealer, however, that dealership is no longer in business.

I recently sold that bike and bought a 2011 Street Glide. It was new and the used prices were not less enough to buy used. The dealership was fair in price, but tried to stick it to me in service, labor for add-on's. Went to another dealer for some service work, better price, but when we disagreed over where or not the new bike had a Catalytic converter in the head pipe I lost confidence in them knowing what they were doing.

I'm going to have a 1K mile service coming up and I think I will just take my chances and do my own service because when it coming down to it....I only trust my own work.

 

just deal direct with the general manager and cut out the salesman commision.....do your homework msrp is giving the dealers usually about $4000 profit right off the bat

 

Shopping for a new SG in 09' the local dealer had one in my color they had installed spoke wheels on. I said I don't want the spokes and would want stock wheels instead, they said " no problem but we will have to charge you for the change" so you are going to charge me xtra for stock wheels?? Bullchit Cya, bought out of town

 

They wanted to charge me 400 bucks to add the mags instead of the spokes that were on my bike.

 

+1 Agreed !!

 

When i bought my bike i was actually going to buy a EG Standard...My saleman said ...look if you wait another week i will get you a better deal ok? I thought he was jerking me around but i waited...Went back the next Saturday and HD was starting the "Stick it to the man" program...interest rate went down to 3.9% and was able to upgrade to a EG Classic with $1000 worth of accesories for the same payment and gave me more for my sportster than i thought i was gonna get....He knew i wanted a Ultra you see... He knew this was a VERY big purchase for me and it was very close to my heart....
All 4 other dealers in the area only wanted to sell me a bike and the trades sucked....My salesman sold me what i wanted and made it feel like i was a important customer. Still does.

You can screw a customer but at least rub their ******* while you are doing it...

 

Well, how about a couple of good-dealer stories to break-up the monotony? My local dealer (HD of Baton Rouge) has an honest sales staff and I haven't heard any idiotic stories about them like I've witnessed in this thread. When I bought my '07 I wanted to buy from them, specifically dealing with one trusted salesman, but told him I was going to "shop around" for price. No dealer at the time would come off of MSRP, and the only negotiating possibility was the trade-in, in my case a '96 RK with 106k miles on the clock. None of the other dealers wanted to touch my beloved old RK that ran like a top, apparently because the high mileage scared them, but this dealer actually wanted it and gave me a decent trade-in. The owner's wife, who runs the shop, told me "We won't have any trouble selling that bike, as I know the TLC it has received." It made me feel very good when it sold the first day it hit the sales floor. Let me find a hanky, as I'm getting teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Anyway, along to another story: A friend had tried for a year to buy two different scarlet-red SG's but this same local dealer didn't want to give him enough for his trade (cherry low-mileage '98 Softail with wide-tire mod). The first SG sold, a month or two passed, and one day a second scarlet-red SG appeared on the showroom. He tried to negotiate again--no go, not enough for the trade-in. That new SG sat in the showroom for six months unsold, and one day the sales manager came up to him and said, "Let's talk about getting you that bike." They talked, but the price still wasn't where the buyer wanted it to be, as he was driving a hard bargain. After the talks failed he walked out to his vehicle and grabbed his checkbook, wrote a check for the amount he wanted to pay, and came back in saying "Do you want it?" They suddenly decided they did and he rode out on the bike one year after he first started talking to them. Persistence pays. It sounds like the dealer was giving him the run-around, but they were not. He just wanted a certain amount for his old bike and was going to hold-out 'til he got it, or else he would just keep riding what he had. I wish I had that much patience.

 

Went to a dealer, picked out a new scooter. Told the sales rep that it would be a cash deal and I wanted two numbers: 1) best cash price on the new scooter and, 2) trade-in for my old scooter, just in case I decided to trade it in. A few minutes later, the sales rep came back with an orange day-glo poster with a number written on it. I asked "what is that?". He said "this is the monthly payment on your new bike." Needless to say, I got up and left, the sales rep following me all the way to the parking lot.

 

I would never, ever trade my bike or my car. They never offer anything close to its value because their sole goal is to make money off it. I prefer to retain as much of my money/value as possible so a dealer will have to find a trade elsewhere.

 

There are some real pieces of work out there. Isn't it scary how stupid some (sales) people are?