(11-24-2016, 01:00 AM)Ulvetanna_imp Wrote:

(11-23-2016, 05:04 PM)LongRanger_imp Wrote: $1500 freight and setup for a Grom? Seriously? People are still buying them? I've seen ONE in the four years they've been available. Dealers can't give them away out here (sound familiar?)

Yep. Same for the Kawi minibike. Economics, if folks haven't noticed, are of great interest to me. What people will pay for, and why. That's marketing, of course.

Guys pay huge sums for bikes that look like the bikes they wanted when they couldn't afford a bike. They pay gigantic fees for bikes that temporarily evoke nostalgic sentiments. It's a much better way to soak someone of his dough than horsepower; there are plenty of bikes making over 200 HP and they are not very expensive, with lots of competition. But build a bike that looks like an old Triumph or Norton, the wallet opens along with the heart. I wonder what Honda's gonna charge for the CB1100RS.

Marketing types can't afford to have a heart; they just figure how much they can squeeze from each purchase.

In some locales, like SoCal, that can be a lot of money, especially when financing is cheap and easy. Those huge fees cause the negotiations to start at a very high number, and if you have a trade, you don't often feel like riding to Bakersfield to do business. "It's only so much more a month."

After four years of so much more a month you could have ridden to Bakersfield a hundred times on the amount paid.