How dealers lose the sale

[Guth_imp]

Beerman, I find dealer encounters such as those you've outlined to be a total turnoff as well. I'm sure that I too would have walked away under those circumstances. I hope that you end up being extremely happy with your new Speedmaster and that you'll share some details of your experiences on the new bike with the rest of us.

By the way, I'm curious to know if you ever considered buying a used CB1100 at any time during your search?

Thanks Guth. Yes, I did consider used, and there are some very good deals out there on very good bikes. Unfortunately, I have a personality disorder which makes me think that the latest version of something is going to be measurably better than previous models. Hence my focus on the new Ex and RS!

Beerman

No worries and understood. We all like what we like and that's what we should focus on when spending our money.

When I visited my dealer in December 2013, I intended to buy a Honda CBR500R. Just loved the looks and tri-colour paint.

Jim the sales person rolled out the bike so I could sit on it. He probably knew my 225 pound, 6'2", 67 year old frame would not fit comfortably on it, but never said a word. However I quickly realized a café racer style bike was alright in my 163 pound twenties, but not now.

He then had me sit on the CB500F model. It was far more comfortable. Then he rolled out the CB500XA model. BINGO! The perfect bike for me. I bought it that day and they stored it for me until my 68th birthday in early May.

As I became a good customer, anytime my CB500XA was in for service they offered me a choice of one of the Honda or Yamaha demo bikes to ride. The Yamaha FZ-09 was a hoot! I rode it all day. They also offered to let me ride any of the Goldwings that had been traded in.

Three years later I traded in my CB500XA on a 2017 CB1100 EX. Although my trade-in had more than 33,000 kilometers on it, they offered me a good price for it because I had taken good care of it and was a good customer. It pays to establish a good rapport with your dealer, and fortunately for me a good salesperson made it easy.

You would think that a salesperson might also realize the value in the establishing a good report with their customers, but obviously that is definitely not always the case. While there are still plenty of people who take pride in their work and who routinely go the extra mile, there have always been (and always will be) people in the workforce that do a subpar job — including a good number of salespeople amongst them.

Obviously some salespeople just don't get it (no matter who they are dealing with). But in some such instances, I'm guessing those of us in the older crowd are experiencing age discrimination. When we come walking into a dealership for the first time at a more "mature" age, some salespersons might not see nearly the same the same potential in us for continued additional sales further on down the line as they do in others who are in their 20s, 30's, etc.. Maybe to them we look like a one-and-done opportunity. Therefore don't feel like investing much of their time/effort in us v.s. the next person that comes walking in the door. As we've seen often on this forum, they would obviously be proven wrong many times over.