This coming Spring I intend to purchase the deluxe model of the 2014 CB1100. This will be my first NEW bike purchase and I want to make sure that I don't get screwed by the dealer due to my own naiveté.
I went to a local Honda dealer earlier this week and put down a $500 deposit on the bike. The salesman walked me through what the OTD price would likely end up being when the time comes and I was shocked to see that they were expecting me to end up paying somewhere around $13,500... for a bike with an MSRP of $11,899!? That seems pretty ridiculous to me. There was, of course, tax, title and reg fees but, on top on those, there were freight and setup charges that tacked on another $700 or so. Am I being jerked around? Should I try to negotiate those fees out of the OTD or is that an exercise in futility? If they won't budge, should I take my money and go elsewhere? What is normal?
Any advice on this would be very welcome. Thank you!
I think mine was MSRP 10K + 1K for them, and than they came "down" $200 from there, dealers in our area do not bargain much, our area is doing well economically. You will see others on this forum who get much better deals.
I'm no expert, but the "set up" fees are not uncommon.
You are purchasing a bike that has not yet been released, so the dealer really has no incentive right now to "deal" with you. If they had 3 of them on the sales floor with no prospective buyers, you would be more likely to get a bargain. But in this circumstance, they probably won't.
If you want to save money, you may be better served to wait until the bikes are in the showroom, if they aren't moving, negotiation would be more likely to be effective.
Having said that, I know you are excited and really want the bike, so if it's what you want, go for it. If you are happy with what you get, you made a good deal. Don't stress over it.
Enjoy
My rule of thumb for buying a typical bike new is if you pay MSRP as the OTD price, you did fairly well. But there's a zillion exceptions, and putting down a deposit for a fairly rare bike is one of them.
Setup and shipping charges are typical and you aren't getting screwed.
Freight/setup are fairly standard charges. At MSRP, they're making about $1,500 on the bike, plus some of that freight/setup charge (there _IS_ some cost to the dealer to un-crate and assemble the bike). Since you're (attempting to) purchase a bike that isn't even available yet, they are in the driver's seat -- which was pretty much the case with mine, even though they had three of them last April. Your best bet for buying any vehicle (or anything at all) is to be in a position of not really caring if you get the thing or not. All that being said, I'm pretty sure I paid MSRP, and the dealer ate the freight/setup charge when I bought mine, but like I said, they had three in the store. Now, if you were to purchase a 2013, you can probably get it for ~9k + tax/title/license. Financially, new vehicles are a total boondoggle.
As others have pointed out, you're not in a great bargaining position. If you were willing to wait until the bikes were actually on the floor, no doubt you could do much better.
The problem is much the same as the one I had last March. Each dealer I talked to was either getting one or two of the 2013 models and no one knew if there would be any more after that. In order to make sure I got mine, I was going to have to pay more. The best deal I could make was MSRP + tax, title and license. They knocked off the freight and setup. Had I waited until the bikes had been out for 4 or 5 months, I could have paid $800 - $900 less.
Bottom line, if the dealer knows you're going to buy from them (the deposit being a dead giveaway), they won't be shy about tacking on whatever extras they can think of. The best you can do is to try and negotiate as much of that out of the price as possible.
Thank you everyone. I'll see what I can do to have them knock the freight and setup off of the price. If they won't do it, I'll call some of the other dealers around town and try to play them against each other for the lowest OTD price. If nobody will budge, fine. $13,500 it is! One way or another, I will be riding a 2014 CB1100 Deluxe this Spring.
Thanks again for all of your input.
Good luck!
Hey, I just noticed the '76 KZ750 in your sig. I had 4 Kaw 750 twins back in the old days, including a red '76. Those were the days when the inline-4s were too pricey for my budget. Great bikes.
(01-25-2014, 06:11 PM)Flynrider_imp Wrote: [ -> ]Good luck!
Hey, I just noticed the '76 KZ750 in your sig. I had 4 Kaw 750 twins back in the old days, including a red '76. Those were the days when the inline-4s were too pricey for my budget. Great bikes.
I vaguely remember the twin 750 Kaws from back in the day also. Wasnt it marketed as a budget 750 for those who didnt want to slap down the extra money for the inline 4's? I dont remember much about them to be honest. Wasnt this also about the same time that Kaw advertised their new 650/4 as outrunning any 750 right out of the crate or something to that effect?
They have not even announced price yet on this bike.
http://www.autoevolution.com/news/2014-h...74150.html
The price seems real high. I would wait and negotiate between dealers when they hit the floor. 15% increase over last years model seems high I would not lay down any money without MSRP being announced yet.
(guess they must have sold well)
Example: I paid $9800 for mine last years with the msrp at $9999 plus tax. No dealer prep or other charges.