Saw new RT LC yesterday

[Cortina]

A trader had offered them £3750 for it - so they upped that to £4450

so some close guesses ... I was expecting closer to £6k .... knowing that was high due to the profit on charging full list for a new one. Hmm ...........

Ah well ... nowt wrong with what I have .

 

[robvanelst]

Thats just crap, its no more expensive than its ever been. But were BMW every aiming at the ordinary motorcyclist? I dont think so, they have always tried to aim for the expensive end of the market, and had a price point above the competition.
When I left basic training in 1979, the cost of a new bmw or harley was more than my yearly wage, its well below the yearly wage of the average recruit comming out of training now.
If you take the average wage, in 1979 it was just over £5,000 a year, the current average is now £31,000 as a percentage of the average wage bikes/cars/etc have never been cheaper.
I dont say that £16,000 is not a lot of money but pricing out off the road? sorry thats rubbish. I now choose to spend less of my annual income on bike or the purchase of bikes than I used to, but I remember having to get a bank loan in 79/80 for £1500 to buy a second hand Harris Z1, couldnt afford a new Katana it was over 2.5 grand ;-0 and harleys/bmw were over 3 well out of my price range I think I was on or about £2,000 a year at the time. 1500 was nearly 3/4 of my annual sallary then, If you ignore my pention and just take my wages 16,000 isnt close to 3/4 or my current salery.

I agree - BMW is much more in line with the competition price-wise than it was in the past. I remember for example an R100RS back in 1976 costing nearly twice as much as the (much faster and technically more complex) Japanese top-models. The real price to pay though is a considerable drop in (relative) quality and reliability with whatever left BMW's factory since 1993 (boxer-wise anyway, I can't help thinking the K-series - car-like boring as they may be - being superior in both quality and reliability).

I am no fan of the Pan European but, given the (no doubt very expensive to produce-) engine and better build-quality and reliability, it is a bit of a bargain compared to the Beemer.
Also, I am quite surprised how little more BMW's 6 cylinder bikes cost compared to the relatively "simple" boxers?

 

[Dennis the Menace]

If people want to buy a simple twin for £16,000 then BMW will sell it to them, if no one bought it they would drop the price, they have done it before