The Only Reason You Should Pay More Than You Have To...

[Cormanus]

...because you're lazy and/or gullible.

I scratched the new-bike-bug by visiting the showrooms of 3 local dealerships after work today. Every single one of them charges an additional "delivery" or "assembly" or "PDI" fee.
Why does every one of them do this? Because I live on Camp Pendleton's doorstep. Young servicemen return from Afghanistan or Iraq or elsewhere with money saved, (very hard-earned money) wanting and deserving a new motorcycle, so the demand is naturally high.
And surely these motorcycle dealerships wouldn't screw-over America's fighting men, just because there are so many of them with unspent hazardous duty pay. Heck, most of them have "We Support Our Troops" painted on their windows.
But America is a free-market economy, not a moralocracy, and that's exactly what the dealerships here do. They brazenly charge an additional 500-700 dollars in the name of "delivery", "inspection", "PDI".

So I treat these showrooms as 3D websites. I inspect & admire the bikes, sit on them, am careful not to leave scuffs or fingerprints, and when they say the additional fees are non-negotiable and that my expecting to pay MSRP plus TTL is unreasonable, I smile, leave, and search on the internet for dealerships within a weekend's ride that have that model in stock.

I traveled 150 miles up to Santa Barbara for my most recent new bike purchase. They looked me in the face when they shook my hand at the deal's close, and I got to enjoy a relaxing ride home on my new Ninja 500R. Win-win. It was mildly inconvenient to spent $39 and a morning riding the train up there, explaining my carrying a helmet to my interested fellow train passengers; but at the end, I saved enough money for a 4-star hotelroom with a hot-tub and two high-dollar classy call-girls.

I think it's pretty shameful that local dealerships charge our young servicemen the additional fee, with "We Support Our Troops" painted on their building. I'll be dipped in diarrhea and called stinky before I'll pay that fee myself. I'd really rather spend that money on the classy callgirls for our returning heroes.

Ha--there's an artillery range on Pendleton right now. Despite being 25-30 miles away, the windows are shaking in their frames. Kaboom!

By the way, I didn't spend that money on the 4-star room, hot-tub and call-girls when I bought my Ninja 500R for MSRP plus TTL, but I most likely will when I buy my Bonneville or CB11 far, far away from Camp Pendleton. So thanks in advance for a memorable night, local dealerships.

If your dealership expects you to pay more than MSRP plus TTL (tax, title, & license) walk out of the dealership and find another. MSRP already grants them plenty for the freight & assembly.

I agree this opening salvo was inflammatory. But the rest of his post, which argued that ripping off a gullible/slightly vulnerable group was a pretty grubby thing to do was, in my opinion, right on the money.

I think you're way out of line and to me it sounds like you want special treatment because you're a serviceman...

All dealerships charge freight and set-up fees and in my state they all charge a Doc fee too.
Once in a while you get some of the fees knocked off on models that are sitting the floor for awhile or bikes that aren't hot sellers but in the beginning of spring on a bike that's new this year I think you're expecting too much.

Stop trying to play the troops/ veteran card and just go make the best deal you can.

Damn straight. I think this is way, way out of line.

I'll pay whatever the hell I want for my motorcycles. I've been buying them for over thirty years and if I listed them all like some do there wouldn't be room in the bloody signature for them. I like having a good relationship with a local dealer that I can ride to in ten minutes. And I do. Same with my cars. All bought from the same dealer. I just treated the entire dealership to lunch last week because they have been so good about things.

If that doesn't work for someone else, fine.

Damn straight. I think this is way, way out of line.

I'll pay whatever the hell I want for my motorcycles. I've been buying them for over thirty years and if I listed them all like some do there wouldn't be room in the bloody signature for them. I like having a good relationship with a local dealer that I can ride to in ten minutes. And I do. Same with my cars. All bought from the same dealer. I just treated the entire dealership to lunch last week because they have been so good about things.

If that doesn't work for someone else, fine.
One of the many engaging characteristics of Breckinridge Elkins is his ability to get the wrong end of the stick.

Damn straight. I think this is way, way out of line.

I'll pay whatever the hell I want for my motorcycles. I've been buying them for over thirty years and if I listed them all like some do there wouldn't be room in the bloody signature for them. I like having a good relationship with a local dealer that I can ride to in ten minutes. And I do. Same with my cars. All bought from the same dealer. I just treated the entire dealership to lunch last week because they have been so good about things.

If that doesn't work for someone else, fine.
One of the many engaging characteristics of Breckinridge Elkins is his ability to get the wrong end of the stick. Nope. I guess maybe what it amounts to is that I worked hard enough over my lifetime to be able to afford what I have without having to take a train 150 miles to save a few hundred bucks. That's what we're supposed to do, right? Work hard, achieve some financial success and some leisure time and a bit of comfort along the way?

Where this thread went south was from the gitgo. The original post by calamarichris flat-out insults anyone who doesn't do it his way.

I don't give a rat's ass how he or anyone else buys his motorcycle. This thread started on a @~*^e note and just got worse.

By the way, that's "Red Mist" to you. Only my friends call me Breckinridge.

You're welcome to buy your motorcycles or anything else in any way you like as are others. As it happens, I probably wouldn't travel any great distance for a modest saving either, for many of the same reasons.

I was under the misapprehension I was referring to the titular fictional character in a Robert E Howard story. If your name really is Breckinridge Elkins and your CB1100 is called Capn Kidd, I apologise for my impertinence, Mr Mist.