Bike Sales

I popped into a local Kawasaki dealership today and was looking at a rather
fine used W650 they had for sale, before long the owner of the shop
approached and his opening line was "your bike isn't worth a lot"

He must have assumed that I had never bought a bike from a dealer before,
that my pride and joy (that he had just trashed) was for sale and that he
was the only bike dealer in the world, its amazing how crap some salesmen
are at their job.

David
Royal Enfield Bullet Sixty-5 (don't laugh)

 

David Thomas says...

This is the point at which I turn round and walk out.

Rule No.1 of vehicle sales: Never ever slag the buyers current vehicle.
it is their pride and joy, no matter how scabby, high mileage and
abused. Be subtle about describing the reasons why it won't fetch top
trade-in value.

 

<snip>


My mate owns and rides both a Royal Enfield Bullet Sixty-5 and a
Kawasaki W650.

I never thought he would have a soul mate..

 

Several weeks ago, standing eating my chips outside a main dealer (as you
do).
Saw a sales plonk look over 3 different bikes for part ex.

His comments to each potential customer were identical.
"Nice bike, I can see you look after it"

I thought two of the bikes were crap!

Who's stupid, the sales plonk or the potential customers?

 

Geez says...

No-one. The customer knows what's coming, and he knows his bike is shit
but he hasn't been insulted.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, David Thomas

Depressing, isn't it? When I rented a bike in the States last weekend, I
was blown away by how friendly and helpful the guys at the dealership
were.

As an example, I'd arranged to pick the bike up on Saturday morning, and
return it on Sunday. On the way "home" from the office on Friday evening
I realised I was pretty much passing the dealers, so I rang them and
asked if I could collect it Friday night instead. No problem, no extra
charge.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Podium Placed Ducati Race Engineer As featured in
Performance Bikes

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
SBS#39 OMF#6 Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"
Suzuki TS250 "The Africa Single" Yamaha Vmax Honda ST1100 wiv trailer

 

They're not all like that - I never thought I'd find myself saying it, but I
had a jolly good chinwag with Neil at Frazers (Glos), and have been offered
a test ride on anything they have pretty much whenever I like. I'm off to
try a new R1, Fireblade, GSXR 750 + thou, and whatever else takes my fancy
in the next week. Certainly a far-cry from my experiences last time I tried
Frazers 5 years ago...

 

what a tit.

TBH though, I'd have thought a W650 would be the sort of 2nd bike it
would be better to buy privately, rather than through a dealer.

 

darsy wrote

You mean keep the number of people who know you have one to the absolute
minimum? I can dig that.

 

heh.

BTW, they are not that bad.

 

I've said it before - I wouldn't mind owning something like a W650 or
a Triumph Thruxton. It would have to be a 3rd or 4th bike, though.

 

darsy wrote

I have to confess that I very nearly bought one a couple of years back.
Saved by a rare moment of lucidity I was.