I went shopping over the weekend and visited two dealerships. The first is about a hour from my house and I could not have meet a better salesman. I then went to the dealership closer to home and got the high pressure, used car salesman treatment. I'd rather deal with the first dealer but going out there for service would be a pain. Does it matter where you buy vs have the bike serviced? Does it make sense to buy at one place and have it serviced closer to home?

 

Give them each ONE chance, whoever makes the deal gets the sale. Tell them up front and make them play. They can't be mad about that.

Mark

 

I don't think you could expect the same level of service at your closer dealer if you bought the bike elsewhere. They're required by law to perform warranty work no matter where you bought the bike. But for something that might be in a gray area, they have no motivation to really help you out. Just something to think about, might never be an issue. The flip side of that is if they treat you poorly on warranty repairs, they might lose a paying customer. Depends on what their philosophy is and whether they look at the big picture or not.

Having said that, I recently traveled 4 hours one way to buy my Victory. The local dealer was rude, and my selling dealer beat his deal by $3700. That's a no-brainer.

 

Yes, it matters.

 

I know it's a cop out but "it depends". I've heard and read stories on both sides of this. Some dealers don't care where you bought your bike. They're happy to have your service bu$ine$$. Others treat buyers better than non-buyers. Around here (does you no good but it makes my point) there is a dealer that apparently doesn't treat their non-buying service customers the same as those who bought there. I experienced that myself....took only one time to convince me to not go back. The dealer I use is exactly the opposite.....they'll do whatever they can for anybody who puts their bike in their shop. I've had friends take their bikes there and they've been very happy. I'd ask around. Sometimes hanging out in the showroom you can strike up a conversation and learn a lot about a dealer.

 

I have been to the pbh area dealers a lot, which 2 dealers?

 

You traveled four hours to buy a Victory? And posted this on an HD Forum? You funny guy.

 

To me, the service department is more important than the sales department.

 

Very generically, service dept doesn't care where you bought the bike/car/boat/truck from.

 

I have dealer in my town that I won't buy anything from unless it's an emergency.There's another dealer about 40mi away that I like so much sometimes I go there just to hang out.I take my bike there for service because they'll do it while I wait and I don't mind waiting there they have a mini motorcycle museum and allot of different bikes there to look at it's also a Triumph Kawasaki and Honda dealer.Guess where I bought my bike.