Bike Dealers - how many will go to the wall in 2011

JohnnyBoxer

JohnnyBoxer

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Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki, Harley........................not a day goes by without reports of more going bust

Long standing, well respected businesses slipping away

Fecking shame:(

Can't be good for any of us

Have we already had ...............'The Golden Years':confused:
 
Aren't BMW in the enviable position of increasing sales in recent years despite the recession due to their constantly improving and expanding product range? :nenau

It's the Japanese who seem to have lost their way.

Can't see AJ's having their massive expansion backed by the bank without a strong set of accounts behind it.
 
As you say,not good at all.
Sales of most Jap bikes,especially sports bikes are down 30 ish % i believe.
Euro bikes sales seem to be holding up reasonably well.
Suzuki have only just completed a cull of their dealers,kicking about 40 into touch.
I guess Yamaha dealers have most to worry about given the price hikes on the Yamaha range.
These straightened times may well see the end of highly leveraged businesses irrespective of the brand on the door.
 
The bike market has been dwindling for a few years now, and the Japanese brands seem to have suffered whereas BMW have flourished by making what the market wanted. The Japs kept on producing identikit sports bikes with the same specs as the others with no USP.The only way they've been selling bikes is by discounting so they've been competing/fighting with each other for an ever dwindling customer base. Surely a recipe for disaster which is now playing out. A great shame, but too many bike dealers are not very sophisticated in the same way that car dealers are, and so have stuggled to adapt to changing economic times.
 
JohnnyBoxer said:
Have we already had ...............'The Golden Years':confused:
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The Golden Years of motorcycling have long gone mate.
Motorcycle's were at one time an integral part of many lives, these days they're a fringe element for most.
 
Colban said:
I guess Yamaha dealers have most to worry about given the price hikes on the Yamaha range.
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And the fact that the entire range is shite and over-priced.

Never owned a single Yamaha in over 30 years of riding and no plans to.
 
Arsey said:
And the fact that the entire range is shite and over-priced.

Never owned a single Yamaha in over 30 years of riding and no plans to.
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Always reassuring to read about 'facts' from someone who hasn't a feckin clue where they came from:D
 
Timolgra said:
Always reassuring to read about 'facts' from someone who hasn't a feckin clue where they came from:D
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Pleasure !!


grinning-smiley-010.gif
 
Timolgra said:
The Golden Years of motorcycling have long gone mate.
Motorcycle's were at one time an integral part of many lives, these days they're a fringe element for most.
Click to expand...

Very true..................my old Dad commuted all his working life on a bike (Mum had the car:blast)

It was the norm, in the 60's/70's/80's

All year round, bike theft was virtually unheard of...................you just got on with it, no full face helmets either

I'm proud to say we were a motorcycling family, I started @ 10................halcyon days:clap
 
For a lot of people Bikes are just another "toy" or must have gadget. Come a recession its the first thing to go to free up some money .
 
In the not too distant past most new bike buyers were young(ish) men, who wanted the newest model (i.e. different colour) to what their mates owned, who also hadn't a clue about finance so it was fairly easy for the main stream manufacturers and their dealers.
"Pile em" high sell them cheap and make the money from the finance, and there was a steady stream of willing punters to keep the merry-go-round revolving.

Nowdays the market has grown up and got fed up with all the hyperbole, and the youngsters aren't that interested when they can get a car for peanuts or sit in front of TV screens for their kicks while the government makes them jump through ever decreasing hoops to get a starter license. . IMHO :rob
 
Arsey said:
And the fact that the entire range is shite and over-priced.

Never owned a single Yamaha in over 30 years of riding and no plans to.
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In the 70's & 80's Yamaha made some of the very finest, cutting edge dirtbikes (Yamaha TY/IT/YZ) and their 2 stroke road range was very good - RD400/RD350LC etc

Yamaha were engineering pioneers in motorcycling design and execution

Honda were leading 4 stroke technology too

All Jap manufacturers lost their way a bit in the mid to late 80's................but came back in the 90's with the Fireblade and R1..............both very evolutional

So...................I think your sweeping statement was a bit unfounded:confused:
 
On the upside, it might go back to how it was in the early 80's when it wasn't "fashionable" to ride bikes, I can remember when I turned up on the bike and got looked down on.... it was great:D Oh and other riders stopped to help on the side of the road :rob
 
Motorcycles and Moore (solus Yamaha dealer) at London Colney have just closed. They sold 70 R1's in 2009 but only managed to sell two last year. Yamaha's recent price hikes have not helped at all. Who would have thought a few years ago that the retail price of a FJR1300 would be £14500.
 
It is a shame that dealers close and as we all know, it's for many different reasons.

Motorcycling is now an expensive hobby, you can buy two Ford Ka's for the price of a new and fully equipped GSA.

The government haven't helped either, making the test a lot harder with having to travel a long way to get to a test centre.

Manufacturers don't help by selling their bikes at different prices to different dealers, I know for a fact that one dealer that has just closed, couldn't buy their bikes in for the price that another dealer was selling them for.

Finally we don't help ourselves either. We go to our dealers to find a product and then go home and look for the same thing online, when we find it cheaper we buy that one. The premium that the dealer charges covers his staff, premises (usually more that a commercial warehouse etc) and staff training etc. We then moan when dealers go out of business.

If biking is going to carry on we need to encourage the kids on the scooters to get their full license and buy a bike. We need to talk to them, give them a nod and make them feel like they're part of "the gang".

I remember when I was 17 and on my first bike, a Suzuki GS125, and getting a wave from someone on a big bike, it made me feel special and part of something, it's one of the reasons I've had a bike for the past 26 years.
 
Bob Southgate said:
Motorcycles and Moore (solus Yamaha dealer) at London Colney have just closed. They sold 70 R1's in 2009 but only managed to sell two last year. Yamaha's recent price hikes have not helped at all. Who would have thought a few years ago that the retail price of a FJR1300 would be £14500.
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That's the problem with not updating the product and giving it a price hike. For the same money as an R1 the same buyer could by a BMW 1000RR with all the technology that carries, like wise for less than the FJR1300 you could buy the Kawasaki 1400 with all the electronics etc etc. They need to compete on a level playing field.

One of the big surprises of last year was that KTM only sold just over 100 990 Adventures, 40 of which were demonstrators and that was also after a price hike of over £3000. Not much of a surprise really was it?
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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