01-28-2014, 08:19 AM
Clueless huh? That was rather condescending.
I don't doubt for a minute that the engineers at corporate Honda knew about the proposed changes, but having spent 17 years in the motorcycle industry, as a store manager and a sales manager, I know that sales reps are on a need to know basis, and generally aren't told a whole lot about upcoming models until that info is ready to be released to their dealers and the press.
I just find it interesting, that Honda sales reps in Dec 2012, were telling complete strangers at a trade show, about changes to a brand new 2013 model that hadn't even been released to their dealers yet, changes that their dealers still are not aware of in Jan 2014, and that nothing leaked out to the press or over the internet about these proposed changes in 13 months. There is still nothing in the press or on the internet that I can find, concerning the CB 1100 Deluxe which is due to be released in the U.S. in the next 3 or 4 months. We can't even find out definitively what kind of wheels it has...mags like the standard, or spokes like the European EX. Or if it is available with ABS or comes standard with ABS. Dealers have no info on them other than model, color and price. I was just at a dealer speaking with the owner today? He could tell me basically nothing. He believed it had mags, but he wasn't really sure. He had no idea on the ABS.
I don't doubt for a minute that the engineers at corporate Honda knew about the proposed changes, but having spent 17 years in the motorcycle industry, as a store manager and a sales manager, I know that sales reps are on a need to know basis, and generally aren't told a whole lot about upcoming models until that info is ready to be released to their dealers and the press.
I just find it interesting, that Honda sales reps in Dec 2012, were telling complete strangers at a trade show, about changes to a brand new 2013 model that hadn't even been released to their dealers yet, changes that their dealers still are not aware of in Jan 2014, and that nothing leaked out to the press or over the internet about these proposed changes in 13 months. There is still nothing in the press or on the internet that I can find, concerning the CB 1100 Deluxe which is due to be released in the U.S. in the next 3 or 4 months. We can't even find out definitively what kind of wheels it has...mags like the standard, or spokes like the European EX. Or if it is available with ABS or comes standard with ABS. Dealers have no info on them other than model, color and price. I was just at a dealer speaking with the owner today? He could tell me basically nothing. He believed it had mags, but he wasn't really sure. He had no idea on the ABS.