Dealers, how much profit per used bike?

[Ribenapigeon]

How much of a margin do dealers look for on their use bike sales. For instance this one https://www.ecossemotorcycles.co.uk/locator/500167/2006-56-reg-kawasaki-zx636-636.aspx#
Im not looking to buy this bike but am interested in a ZX636 second hand in the future. Does buying from a dealer have enough advantages over a private sale to make it worth it?

[P.addy]

Friends with a dealer, their buying price for my old TL1000S was £1200.
They would sell it for £1995

[G]

Remember markup is different to profit.
[edit - I see you talk about margin in the post it's self].
I suspect you're talking markup - the figure Paddy is giving.
Unless you have really, really good reason to trust the dealer, if anything does go wrong I'd expect a load of hassle to get it sorted.
Yet the main advantage SHOULD be that you get a good bike that they'll sort if there's a problem.
I've seen more dodgy bikes lied about from dealers than private sales.


Of course profit has to consider lots of other factors - you're paying for their staff, their business rates/rent, utility bills, insurance and so on.

[Wonko The Sane]

the only advantage I can see of buying from a dealer is you've somewhere to go back to if there is an issue a month or so later as the vehicle has to be fit for purpose.

With a private sale you don't get this back-up and 'sold as seen' means what it says.

beware of dealers who sometimes try and shift older / not so great condition stuff pretending to be private sellers - main trick here is to phone up "about the bike"

If they ask which one, ask them what they have, it's unlikely a private seller will be shifting on more than one vehicle at a time.
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[sabian92]

[lihp]

[G]

They only have to pay VAT on the markup I thought?

[Shaft]

[BrownTrousers]

[lihp]

Wow, shame there isn't a retarded karma button, how did I manage to get VALUE ADDED tax so out of context?
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[Rogerborg]

I wouldn't use a dealer to buy any bike that I could obtain privately elsewhere. I only got Ze Beemer from Herr BMW because I couldn't find an equivalent in private hands.

Pay more in order to go through the convoluted process of making a warranty (express or implied) claim stick? No thanks.
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[Ribenapigeon]

[-Matt-]

Not too sure about the dealer markup question - to put into some perspective though... I'm not sure what the mileage is at 'below average' on that ad, but I got my ZX6 [identical to that one pretty much] private. Paid the same as that pretty much, over 3 years ago with 1600 mileage.

I personally would never use dealers, just be careful what you buy used, and who you buy it off. Warranties unless its with a new bike aren't worth the paper they're written on a lot of the time - and even then it will often tie you into massively expensive dealer servicing that you could do for pennies at home - so even if you do have a warranty covered fault the amount it 'saves' you in repairs you could of already saved home servicing half the time anyway.

You can probably get a bike similar to that private for around 3k now, even a little below if you really hold out and check the ads regularly.

[Ribenapigeon]

[-Matt-]

A lot depends on the place and its expectations of profit as well I suppose. I enquired to fowlers in bristol recently about part exchanging my zx6, just out of interest more than anything.

I could sell it private for about 3500. Fowlers would and are selling similar for about 4000 They offered me somewhere between 2000-2500 depending on the result of an inspection

Thats a pretty bad example though to be fair, I expect a lot of other particularly smaller places might be more reasonable.

[ScaredyCat]

When I traded my cbf125 in the dealer gave me £1700 against my new bike. It was up for sale not long after for £1995.

When I was originally looking they had 125's for 2k So I just bought a new one for that much instead. Perhaps they just use pricing like that to sell more new bikes. I don't know I wasn't going to buy a 2nd user bike for the same price they were offering a new one at was I. So, hook -> line -> sinker ? Probably.
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[Ribenapigeon]

[P.addy]

[_Iain_]

Price varies on what the deal is with the bike.

Have seen a free RX125 fitted with £300 of engine bits and then sold for £2k.

Have also seen a Ninja 250 taken as a PX and sold for less than what was given for it.

There's no strict rule, it's so varied...Green book comes out, its got a few variations as to what a bikes worth to buy in at, and a few examples of what forecourt price should be on it.

But as already said, the price it goes out at, and the margins in it differ massively depending on each individual bike. Either way 99% of the time there's normally double or more the profit in a used bike than there is in a used machine - brand new scoots actually make less than £100 profit, there's more of a margin in selling the kid a lid/gloves/jacket & chain!
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[chickenstrip]

I think Iain's right about it depends on the bike. And that there is not much to be made from selling new bikes. Most of a dealer's profit probably comes from the workshop. If a mechanic is getting paid about £10 an hour for arguments sake, and then labour is charged at £50-60 an hour, plus profits on oils/lubes (bought in at bulk prices).

Some of us are pretty much tied to dealers/workshops for various reasons - the trick is to find a good one (there are some still around) and stick with them. I had a problem on mine, took it to the local (recommended) workshop; he spent most of the day cleaning the carbs and fiddling with this and that for much improvement, then charged for an hour's labour and a set of new plugs (gave me the old ones back as they weren't too bad too).

[MC]

[G]

[Visitor Q]

Dealers are, often, some of the lowest form of 'human' life I've ever dealt with.

The worst (reliability wise) bike I've ever had was bought from a dealers.

The other bike I bought from a dealer, at inflated price, promptly holed its downpipes within a month. Somehow they counted as consumables under their warranty scheme.

Never again.

Had one 'dealer' swear blind I was looking at a 30,000 km bike. Even though its original brake discs had a 4mm drop (both sides!!) on the front. 130k km even seemed unlikely for that wear (in Oz), more likely 230k km.

Private sellers all the way. Just don't be a prick about it
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[esullivan]

[Shinigami]

only reason to use a dealer is if you need to pay by credit card XD
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