Honda's habit of making too many bikes

[misterprofessionality]

We all know about the flow of 2014 bikes still coming from Honda and still leftover in dealerships at jaw-dropping prices, and we just had a new member find and purchase a new-in-crate 2013. The anecdote I was told when I bought my '14 in 2017, was that Honda has a habit of doing this kind of thing with their motorcycles, basically because they make too many. What other bikes are currently on the market suffering from the same circumstances as our CB? are there any other manufacturers still distributing 2014 models of a bike at bottom basement prices right now? I don't even know where to look to find this out.

[use2b_imp]

I know I was upset buying my VTX 1800S for near full price and the next month they were selling for $5,000 less all over the country.
left a bad taste in my mouth about Honda back then which reflected heavily on buying my used CB1100 .
I still feel i got the bike for free by buying the upgrades at a discount and with all the labor , headaches and shipping free.

[misterprofessionality]

it certainly taught me a lesson about shopping for the "latest and greatest" thing. I think from now on i'll always be looking for last semesters texbooks, you know? before buying my CB i had no concept of a phenomenon like that even being possible. it seems silly to me now to buy any current model year new bike. even if you're specifically dead set on that particular one and you've gotta have it...wait a while. just wait a while to see if you end up with any leftovers.

[cooldrum_imp]

Honda has always offered a broad variety of bikes. Some models are great sellers and some wait for buyers. In the case of the CB1100, they could have promoted it more.
I was anxious to purchase new in 2013, but I knew if I was patient, nice pre-owned ones would show up on the market. In 2016 I found a low mileage one for almost half the price of a new one.
I guess when buying new and your emotions take over, you just "go for it." If you can wait, you can save a few dollars.

[the Ferret]

the opposite side of that cooldrum is although we might have paid more we got to ride them in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 while you were waiting for a cheap one to show up. Of course with the 14 DLX there were no left overs and used ones are rare as hens teeth and tend to bring big money comparatively speaking.

Buying a discounted left over is a great deal, (I bought my ST 1300 as a left over for $6000 off) and buying used is often a great deal, letting someone else take the depreciation hit as well.

[baxtercat_imp]

I'm with Ferret on this one. Only in retrospect is it easy to see the cost advantages of waiting. But in real time, we never know for sure how many bikes are imported and when Honda will turn off the tap. The GB500 was only brought here two years, didn't sell well, was discontinued and then soon became a collectible bike, with prices well above MSRP. In that case, anyone wanting one today will be saying "I should have snapped that up when it first came on the market." The premise is that $$ is the main criterion, but for many of us, we balance several--how much we have available to spend, the cost of not buying and thus not riding the bike during that period--and as a corollary to that, our age and the shrinking number of riding seasons we will have available. No one wants to spend more than necessary, but sometimes having the bike you desire will be worth more to a certain individual than the cash saved.

[pdedse]

I try to buy models of cars and motorcycles that are "left-over" to get as good a price as possible. Sometimes that means I end up buying a color that was not my first choice, but I can live with that mostly. The '14 standard was perfect for me because black was my color of choice and the 10k msrp had fallen to 7900 when I purchased mine Jan of '16. It was a good price at the time. Hindsight says I could have saved another 2k and purchased now.

However... I wouldn't have had the bike for the two years that I did, I wanted it then and enjoyed it immensely for the time I had it.

I purchased a '17 ex in Februrary of this year for 10k, two grand less than msrp. I have no doubts that some of these will be left over come Jan/Feb of '19 and maybe the price drops to 9k or even less...but I'm geting older. 10k is a decent price now and it I want to ride it this year, not next.

Plus, we have no sales tax in Oregon, so we don't take a hit on that.

[LongRanger_imp]

I can think of a few other models: '14 Interceptor, which dealers here are blowing out for $6995, and the short-lived W650, which was only available for two years and languished... Now, they're nearly as desirable as the GB500. And, if you're interested in a new BMW, each December the factory provides huge financial incentives to dealers to clear the remaining stock -- like $2000-$3000 off. It sometimes pays to be patient.

[misterprofessionality]

I can think of a few other models: '14 Interceptor, which dealers here are blowing out for $6995, and the short-lived W650, which was only available for two years and languished... Now, they're nearly as desirable as the GB500. And, if you're interested in a new BMW, each December the factory provides huge financial incentives to dealers to clear the remaining stock -- like $2000-$3000 off. It sometimes pays to be patient.

I'm always interested in a BMer. in fact, the R9T was the bike i almost got instead of the CB, unti i found out the CB was like 5k under MSRP.

[the Ferret]

Just imagine it's 1983 and you are interested in the new Honda CB1100F and you think you'll wait a couple years and pick up a left over... HA!