When buying new, will price vary much between dealers?

[James83]

I'm planning to buy a new bike (Suzuki), and there is a main dealer in my town. Now my first thought is to get them to give me a price for the bike with the options I want, then phone around a few dealers in my area (Around 50 miles away in various directions), tell them the price I've been given and ask if they will beat it.
So, having not bought a new bike before - some questions:

1/. Will I likely get it much cheaper? I know a dealers used bikes price is more of an opening bid, but is the same true buying new? Is haggling for a new bike the "done" thing?

1b/. Suzuki have a "Buy a new bike, get £750 towards your deposit" offer going on at the moment. Does that come out of the dealers pocket or Suzuki's? Just so I know when they try to offer it to me as a "deal".

2/. Are there any advantages from buying from your local bike shop that I would be doing myself out of? They would be doing all future servicing either way, if that matters. I'm assuming if something goes wrong during warranty, it would be simpler to deal with the dealer I bought it from?
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Jonathan A wrote: tart.

[BakesBeans]

Just check the garages are not part of the same group. Also, when haggling rather than a lower price get extra's thrown in - you'll get a better deal that way.

If it were me, I'd go to the far away dealers first - spec the bike, get a price and go to your local last and haggle on a few years free servicing... extra's etc.


For cars, there's a website called drivethedeal, not sure if there is a bike equivalent.
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Current: Kawasaki ZX636
Previous Bike: Honda CBR600F ABS, Yamaha XJ6 F Diversion ABS, Honda VFR400 NC30

[Kierran]

I haggled 10% off against a new er6f. It was my first bike so told them the money saved would be put towards a chain, cover, boots, gloves and axle stands.
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Im not driving too fast, Im flying too low!
Current Bike - GSXR 750 K5
Current Car - BMW 318i

[FriendlyEllis]

I played dealers off against each other. Even in the same group.

Literally said I'm buying a bike today at 2 o'clock, best price please.

Keep giving one last chance and tell them what their competition is offering.

Got from £6900 down to £6000 - 14 percent!!!
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Honda CB600F Hornet 2013 -> Kawasaki Z1000SX ABS Tourer 2015

[Ste]

Different dealers will have different offers and prices. Some dealers (and salesmen) will be more motivated to make the sale because they want to meet their targets.

"Buy a new bike, get £750 towards your deposit" You can haggle more if buying on finance as the salesman gets commission on the finance deal he sells you. But you might get a better deal overall if you got a bank loan rather than finance. Crunch the numbers, work out how much the finance costs compared to loans.

Your local dealer will be happy to service a bike bought from any other dealer, there's no reason for them to not want your business.

Any dealer for Suzuki bikes will be able to deal with a warranty claim, your local garage isn't necessarily going to be your best bet for that.

Things you could try and haggle for them to throw in or throw in at a reduced price could be future servicing (this'd cover labour and not parts). I'd expect that to only be redeemable at the dealer you bought the bike and servicing plan from but I'm by no means certain on that so that's a question to ask them.

I wouldn't start by telling them the price you've been given elsewhere, ask what their best price is and if it's higher than what you've already been given elsewhere then that's when to say 'dealer xyz has offered it for £abc, can you beat that?'.

If you don't mind the vehicle already having one owner on the V5 then you can get pre reg vehicles for less than brand new ones that you'd be the first owner of.

Always haggle, for anything and everything.

[stuartt]

as far as i know a dealer makes about 10-15% out of a bike not forgetting all the hidden costs they have like all the free brochures they have to pay for & pictures of the latest models of bikes they have to hang on there walls.....the list goes on .

i'm about to buy a new bike just over a 120 miles away from me ( 110 miles further than my closest dealer ) just because the guy is helpfull friendly ....

i've not talked about money & prob won't till i go to pay for it .

if warranty work needs done you should be able to go anywhere although it must be a pain for dealers as they don't get paid for it as far as i know, they just get credit notes of there next order of bikes .

[TheBikerStig]

[suburban myth]

Just make sure nobody tries to offer you for instance a 2012 model.

[Rogerborg]

[James83]

[DrSnoosnoo]

[MC]

I got a Honda dealer to price match a price I'd found online (£500 off) from another Honda dealer who had a sale on. They went Luke warm when I said I'd be a cash buyer, so never even went for a test ride. Obviously that would have only been the starting point for negotiations
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Yamaha MT-03 '08 (crashed)
Honda XR-125L '04

[gavcarter]

OTR Prices are always worth picking to bits, but this is usually more-so with 125's and scooters, especially when they included, free helmet lock and CBT - 1st year insurance etc.

There is "normally" a charge for PDI, road tax, quick service etc - barter with those

[JP7]

It is worth thinking about your timing as well. Most dealers have quarterly targets. So turn up towards the end of March, June, September or December and you can often get a better deal if they need a few more for their target.

[Llama-Farmer]

You can generally haggle them down in price by a certain amount, but as mentioned, it is extras the dealership can offer that will make you most savings.

Things like extended warranty, free or paid-up-front low-cost/fixed-rate servicing, dealer-fit options like exhausts/tail tidies/crash bungs etc.

Don't be afraid to push your luck as far as you can, asking for things like £x00 of new kit thrown in or xx% off any kit you buy with the bike, such as new leathers/helmet etc.


Depending on how far the Suzuki dealers are from you, closest isn't necessarily the one worth going for.

My sister went to the 5th nearest Fiat dealer for her car, because it was able to offer her much better deal, after-sale package and all round good customer service.
The closest dealer happened to be most expensive of the 6 she spoke to, the most rude, and wasn't willing to go any "extra miles" for the customer.
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Current Bike: 1999 Honda CB600 FX Hornet
Next Bike: I want a CBR-RR. And I want an F800 GS-A. And a VFR 800. Can I have all 3?
Dream Bikes: Honda VFR750R RC30, Honda NSR500, Ducati 996 R

[Christoffee]

Read in whatbike that mark up on bikes is low - profit of £300 on a 125 or £700 on a 600 (if I remember correctly) - and haggling should be on free servicing and free labour for parts fitting.

Only from reading, no personal experience!
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Bike: CBF125

[Rogerborg]

So they all say, but dealers lie for a living.

There's also the issue of volume discounts: if yours is the bike that pushes them over the line for the month/quarter, you can save them many thousands of ponds.

I'll note again that Suzuki are a special case. They've got a huge dealer network who are just not shifting bikes. They've dropped below one new bike per dealer per month at times.

The GSX1250FA is really pretty decent value at £7115 (after the "£750 towards your cash deposit" bollocks), but fu​ck 'em, you're not there to make a friend, and there are other alternatives.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[James83]

Interesting. Made some calls and did some haggling, best offer was £7800 with luggage, touring screen, 6 months tax and first service. Now this is, to my mind, the Suzuki built in discount, plus maybe £100. Not huge numbers, but best I was offered on the day.

Walked into my local dealer today and told them what I was after and asked them what they would do it for. Expected a higher number and that they might then match. Instead they asked me what the best price I had was, I told them, and they said (And I more or less quote) "I'd bite their hand off mate, I can't match that". Figured that was an opener, so gave it a bit of "Oh well, that's a shame, thanks anyway" and slow walked away. Hung around for a few mins (Wife wanted to try on some gloves anyway) expecting a "Actually, I just spoke to my manager and he says we can work something out" type approach, but no, they let me walk out the door without another word.

So, ordered from the other dealer. Am really quite surprised tbh, I can't believe the local guys wouldn't make a profit matching the other dealer, and I'm a cash buyer who knew exactly which options I wanted, so it's not like I was a tough sell, so why not even try and get the business? Both main Suzuki dealers. Must be more to selling bikes than I realise.
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Jonathan A wrote: tart.

[suburban myth]

Just because they're both main dealers it doesn't mean sales staff operate under the same terms and conditions or incentive schemes.

There's no saying that dealer don't 'A' need to sell x more Suzuki's this month and will do all they can to get that final sale. There's also no saying that they aren't getting a little support as an incentive, maybe as a new dealer, or as a faltering one.

As for the specific sales person, one of the big car chains who I had an interview with a few years ago basically laid out their payment structure to me and it was something like this:

Car 'A' is screen price £10000, £1000 of this is dealer profit, £100 is this is salesman's commission. The dealer will match any discount the salesman gives (sale price of £9,900 in this example gives dealer £950, sales man £50). salesman must also sell 'x' number of cars per month/quarter/period/whatever to attain his commission for that month.

Seems to me that maybe you spoke to someone who wants to eat well next month.

[MattEMulsion]

Maybe the dealer that you are buying it from is making naff all profit on the deal. Some people seem to like being busy fools, which is obviously a win for you in this instance.
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Yamaha YZF-R6

[andys675]

dealers get finance on bikes themselves from companies like transamerica, they get the first say 60 or 90 days interest free, then have to pay interest or have to pay for them, this can mean they have a 30 or 50k bill coming and if they have poor cashflow will sell the bike for sod all profit just so they can pay off their bills, and that is why some dealers can't / won't match others offers as they are literally selling bikes at cost to pay off their debts
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Some people feel the rain, others just get wet.

[Rogerborg]