12-08-2018, 12:17 AM
Whatever may be the case with Yamaha's pricing generally, the potential purchaser of a bike is likely shopping for a specific model. The SR400 seems to bring out the same comment every time--too expensive for what it is. (and "what it is" here means "a small thumper without as much horsepower, electronics etc" as some other bike the commenter has in mind). But the hypothetical shopper for a new, authentically retro small displacement single UJM in the US has only a few viable choices--the SR400 at $5999, the Suzuki TU250x at $6999, and the Royal Enfield Bullet 500 or some variant, which start at around $4999 and head northward. Their new twins are priced competitively, if the buyer doesn't insist on Japanese manufacture and a wide dealer network. Sure, the buyer could get something that isn't retro or isn't small or isn't new for the money, but in the real world people want what they want, and their valuations reflect their budget, their desire, and the options that appear to be actual competition for their $. Manufacturers try to set prices that way: perceived desire for their target audience will encourage them to raise the price, but competition will push it down. And if a manufacturer consistently overpriced all their products in a way that wasn't perceived by buyers as justified by quality or prestige, it would soon go out of business. Evidence suggests that, whatever we feel about the price of this bike or that, big global manufacturers like Yamaha and Honda kinda know what they're doing.