Is it worth it

[menace]

Is it worth buying 2nd hand bikes from dealers?


I mean after i sell my cage ill be looking for a bike and i do see that the dealer prices are usually a ~grand up on the private sales...

All i wanna know what would you do? Buy from a dealer and have a peace of mind with some sort of warranty, i hope or take the plunge and buy from a private...




.ps im talking about 250 bikes mostly circa 1990..

Thanx all in advance... :)

[Hitcher]

Eenie meenie miney mo...
Toss a coin and off you go...
She loves me, she loves me not...
Indecisive? Maybe not!

[menace]

Eenie meenie miney mo...
Toss a coin and off you go...
She loves me, she loves me not...
Indecisive? Maybe not!
Why thank you Hitcher....

What would i do without your advice....

[FROSTY]

Im in the business and even I can't give you advice on that one.
Mostly Ive bought privately lately But there are some big advantages with buying from a dealer.
1) you know the bike isnt stolen and will be yours
2)they can organise finance for ya
3) if it shits itself you do have the right to return it expecting them to fix it
THere are a couple of laws protecting you from the dealers
Ohh and BTW about that grand extra.
The dealer has to pay GST on all sales
so lets say its a 5 grand bike --6 at the dealer.
ok of that 6k the dealer pays our goverment 600 in gst
so hes left with 5400 -he has rent ,power phone etc to pay to have the place running to sell you the bike -say $50 per bike.
leaves 5350 -the bike will need some repair/servicing before its ready to go on the showroom floor--$100 on average
leaves 5250---oh yea and if something goes wrong he has to fix it too
-not a lot of profit is there?

[madandy]

Go to the dealer if you are usure about how well you will be able to assess a pirvate bike's condition. I buy private and have seen plenty of private sellers trying to get dealer prices . :bash:
Dealers clean a bike up real nice, get their skilled mechanics to check 'em out and tune&servicve them.And most importantly a good dealer could offer you some riding advice that might save your life.

[BigB]

Go to a dealer :yes:

When we brought our bike it had a one year warranty, thank god it did as the first day we had it the battery went flat, they picked bike up and replaced.

Then it had carb problems was it the shop 4 times before sorted out and we didn't pay a cent :2thumbsup and I got to ride some great loaners.

Cheers

[BritStorm]

Notwithstanding all the valid advantages of buying from a dealer, nobody likes to think they have paid more than they have to or to think thier bike is instantly worth a hell of a lot les than they just paid.

I'd be tempted to buy from people on this forum cos at least you know they're comited bikers. Don't though buy from close friends cos if anything goes wrong, you'll feel stitiched up and they'll feel responsible. There are firms that will check that any bike has clear title/no finance owing so I'd get that done. Other than that, if you buy private accept that if it goes wrong, it's your problem. Just hope that any repairs are less than the difference you'd have paid between private and dealer.

[moko]

Choosing the right dealer is as important as choosing any bike you buy from them.Place I normally buy from is really good,mate bought a cheap ZZR1100 from them,scruffy so they banged it out for way under normal price for a shiny one.Dropped a valve the same evening and they fixed it with no argument,lent him a 600 Bandit in the meantime.I`ve had stuff replaced under warranty there before now with the following words,"Yamaha will argue the toss but that`s not your problem mate,between us and them".
Another Dealer,one that Britstorm no doubt knows well,has got a notorious attitude towards complaints once you`ve wheeled your bike out of the showroom,their sales staff know bugger-all and even their mechanics complain on the net about the "in and out a.s.a.p."attitude towards servicing.Bastards tried selling a mate of mine a Hornet 600,told him the discount was because "no-one likes Black bikes",the minor detail that it was not only black but also an old model hadn`t seemed important enough for them to mention.

[Jackrat]

This depends a lot on you.If you are working your way up and would like to trade in the future,going with a good shop will have it's benifits.
If like me you are buying long term with no real desire to part with the bike you could save a bit by going private.On a newer bike I would go with a shop to get their warranty an back up service.If you were to buy from a shop like Mt Eden motorcycles you will be geting top service and discounted spares for as long as you stay with them.In the long run that's worth the small extra cost.

[RiderInBlack]

Watch out for which dealer you are dealing with. There is one in Tauranga and at least two in Whangarei that I would count as bad as if not worse than buy privately. Get local biker knoweledge about which dealers to trust.

Alway good to take an experienced biker with you when going to look at any bike (private or dealer). One that you can trust to give the bike an unbiased once-over, special when you eyes get all glaized over and you mouth starts drouling over the bike you are looking at.

Never just go with the advertised price. Most owers/dealer expect to haggle and have put up the price to counter that. In the end if you really want the bike, the seller won't haggle and you feel the price is reasonable, your've lost nothing by trying.

It's important that you don't show too much keeness to have that particular bike as dealers/owers will have you signing you life away before you know it. More often than not it is better to try the bike one day (go away to think about it) and come/phone back later to talk deals. Never allow them to pressure you (there will be other bikes, do youself a favour and go look at them).

[Cajun]

RiderinBlack which one in tauranga won't ya deal with??

there are a few around here that i won't deal with either

[RiderInBlack]

RiderinBlack which one in tauranga won't ya deal with??

there are a few around here that i won't deal with either
Will send a private message on that. Don't need a liable suit. Besides they might have improved:shifty:

[Cajun]

hahaha true that, riderinblack
but improved just means how days they don't deal with road bikes

[menace]

Thanx guys much apricated i think ill probably go with the dealer option unless something amazingly cheap pops up but even then i doubt that i would get in time...

Anyway just out of curiosity has anyone ever haggled with the dealers about price and if so how was everyone sucsesful?

[FROSTY]

menace -I can recomend two shops to go see.
1) bob haldanes --see chris haldane -he will look after you
2) Mount eden motorcycles -I cant sing their praises too much -its a bikeshop run by dedicated bikers -and don't be afraid to haggle.

[Wenier]

If ya do go with private jus shop around and ull find a good deal 250s are usually easy to pick up in private sales and generally arent stolen as long as u look in the right places

[RiderInBlack]

Anyway just out of curiosity has anyone ever haggled with the dealers about price and if so how was everyone sucsesful?Fu*k, your mad if you don't haggle with dealers. Cycle Spot dropped $500 on a CBR1000FL without me having to breath hard. Didn't buy from them in the end as the same bike was at Red Baron for even less, and ended up finding what I wanted Privately in the T&E for over $2000 less than any of the Dealers. OK, it had done 50,000Km (twice that of the same bike in Cycle Spot), which is nothing to these bikes, and had to repair the collector box (would have only cost $300 if I got Custom Chambers to do it, but fixed it myself). Otherwise in good condition, and was NZ new (even had the old fawn coloured ownership papers).
Had run a VIN check on the internet (took less than 5mins, WOF, all the owners, etc) before buying it, and run it through a full service at reconised honda bike as soon as I picked it up.

[Coldkiwi]

I haggled with Red Baron over my GPX250. They had it posted for $3600. I Argued my way down to $3100 and then said 'well, $2500 is all the cash I have so I'll have to put the remaining $600 on finance' (the truth) they said 'not worth it... how about $2900? 'nope, only got $2500....' 'alright.... $2600?' SWEEET!!


without a doubt... if they can move on a price an still be profitable, they will

question: have haldanes improved recently? They seem kinda uninterested in people spending money in their store last few times I was in!
Agree about Mt Eden. Good keen bikers to the last who are just as happy to talk about bikes as they are to sell bikes. Top blokes

[wkid_one]

AT the end of the day - the 250 market is fucked anyway. Prices are always high as there is a need to buy them. As said - at least buying off a dealer, you get a limited amount of recourse and some safety in that the bike will be yours without any issues around hot bikes, or outstanding finance.

But - I would go private - much cheaper. I am happy to check the rego for stolen reports and outstanding finance if you want me to.....just pm me the rego.

Dan

[FROSTY]

I haggled with Red Baron over my GPX250. They had it posted for $3600. I Argued my way down to $3100 and then said 'well, $2500 is all the cash I have so I'll have to put the remaining $600 on finance' (the truth) they said 'not worth it... how about $2900? 'nope, only got $2500....' 'alright.... $2600?' SWEEET!!


without a doubt... if they can move on a price an still be profitable, they will

question: have haldanes improved recently? They seem kinda uninterested in people spending money in their store last few times I was in!
Agree about Mt Eden. Good keen bikers to the last who are just as happy to talk about bikes as they are to sell bikes. Top blokes
I guess Im a little out of touch but Ive had fantastic service from haldanes
But then dave cole in the workshop is a mate of mine and Bob used to sponser me many years ago so I guess I might be biased
I can remember one cold wet friday night before a race meeting Bob waiting till I got there to fit some new tyres to my bike.

[Coldkiwi]

ah well.. maybe it was just my scraggly hair :)... or the fact that they remembered it was me who binned (ok, the lady turned into me) their ZZR 250 on a test ride a few years ago!!

good to know they're getting it right with others at least.

[MikeL]

question: have haldanes improved recently? They seem kinda uninterested in people spending money in their store last few times I was in!
Agree about Mt Eden. Good keen bikers to the last who are just as happy to talk about bikes as they are to sell bikes. Top blokes

I had good service from Haldanes when I bought the XJR. Took 3 bikes out for test rides, came back for another ride on two of them and had a hard job making up my mind, but they were very patient and laid back about it. Their style is a bit less pushy than some others that I have dealt with.
So far I have bought from Red Baron, Colemans (twice) and Haldanes and I have no complaints except that Red Baron probably took advantage of me a bit due to my ignorance about bike values but that was as much my fault as theirs. On the whole I think I would be happiest buying from Mt Eden - it's just that they have never had the right bike for me at the time. And after my experience with Red Baron I have always haggled and got between $500 and $1000 off the marked price.