What a bike; sorry nothing to moan about

[FastFred]

Had my 1200GS '09 since Feb this year. Other than the side stand paint I have nothing to moan about. Just such a cracking bike. Handling, comfort, safety and 52mpg (wth accelerator wire mod). Not one bike got past me in 5 days at Manx GP and yesterday left Scarborough (Gold cup) at five past four and was home in Stroud at ten to eight in comfort. I just leave electronic suspension set up for rider plus panniers and tyres at two up pressures and it handles a dream. I only then need to push one button to convert to two up when missus is on. This bike does everything I need. Yes they are expensive but the real cost is the yearly loss.

 

[red1]

Yes they are expensive but the real cost is the yearly loss.

Do you mean depreciation?

If you do, you may be in for a shock.
My mates just swapped an 18 month old GSA with all the toys for a 30th Aniversary Edition and it was around £5 to change and that was with only 8K on the clock.

I've swapped various late models (K1200GT-SE, GSA, R1200RT-SE) all about 2 years old over the last few years. All with about 20K-25K miles showing and you still get that sharp intake of breath from the sales guy.

The old story of "BMW's can take the miles and still hold their price" doesn't hold true in my experience.

 

[Pukmeister]

Funny how things differ ??

I paid £8k for my nearly new (ex-demo) R1200GS in 2004. Rode 40,000 miles on it, serviced it myself, kept it looking very nice, not a pampered toy but I used it as intended by the designers.

Traded it in against a 2008 GSA this summer, got £4700 for it at a main dealers. Thats £3300 in depreciation over almost 5 years of ownership ( average of £660 a year). It cost me 5 grand in cash to change, which I considered a fair price.

So much for depreciation stories, don't service it yerself stories etc etc.

 

[SilverFish]

I think its the same with any bike (or car) - most of the depreciation happens in the first 2 - 3 years. Depreciation will then continue at a much lower rate and slowly start to taper off.

So the longer you own it the less of a loss you suffer, overall.

Market forces I suppose. If you want to have a nice new bike every two years its gonna cost you; but if you can hold fire over the 'buy' button for five years, you'll have more money.

I was lucky to find a three month old GSA at a non BMW dealer, and got a very nearly new bike for a few thousand less. The first owner having suffered the first years depreciation.

Mike