What's with motorcycle salespeople?

I was leaving Balboa Park yesterday as a guy drove up on a Boulevard
M109. It struck me a singularly beautiful bike. (Perhaps the fact that
I was visiting art museums that afternoon affected my perception).
Curiosity piqued, I called Quinsey Powersports and asked if they had one
in stock that I could sit on. I chose Quinsey because their service
department has been taking very good care of my bikes over the last five
years and I considered them reliable.

The salesman I spoke with said that indeed they had the bike in stock
and gave his name. I rode down there, looked at the bike, sat on it
(which was my main objective) to check the ergonomics, and asked about
what it came with and what I'd need accessories for. I then asked how
much that was in real money, knowing that MSRP might or might not
matter, and that there were inevitably other charges and fees, and I
needed to know the total cash price.

Salesman started putting some paperwork together, then started asking
personal questions. I told him that I had dealt with their service
department for 5 years and was well known to them. He said he didn't
have access to those records.

We reached an impasse when he insisted I produce two forms of
identification. I asked him why, pointing out that this would be a cash
transaction and that he'd have plenty of opportunity to examine the
payment instruments before surrendering either title or possession. He
said that was their standard practice. I said "no" and walked.

Am I missing something, or has the post-9/11 security state reached the
level where "how much" is now a state secret?

Rich, Urban Biker

 

The only thing I can come up with is that they're going to try to
"sell" you some financing, and they need that ID to start the credit
check stuff. They probably don't make much (or at least as much as
they want) on a cash sale.

Completely different end of the two wheel spectrum, but I recently
bought an '07 YZ250 from Mach 1 Motorsports in Vallejo. Jeff Leggitt
let me and my son take the bike home with a handshake and a promise to
mail him a check when I got home.

 

No, I had a showroom ryder do the same thing to me *before* 9/11. And
they tried to sell me motorcycle *before* allowing me any test ride.

 

Why would a credit check be at all an element in a cash sale?