Went looking at Sportsters yesterday

[Open Sore]

The g/f wants to get something bigger than the Virago 250 she has right now.  I was hoping to find her a nice mid-size Japanese cruiser, since I word at a dealership that sells Hon, Kaw, Suzi and Yam.  The problem with most of the newer cruisers from Japan, is they come with forward style controls, more legroom for avg to tall riders.  She is short, so on the V-Stars, Vulcans and Boulevards she has to slide all the way forward on the seat to reach the pegs/boards and that's w/o a bend in her knee.

At the HD dealership she sat on a couple of XL1200's.  What is nice about them is they come with mid-control pegs.  She had no problem reaching the ground and the pegs were comfy for her.

What kinda pissed me off at the dealership was, I mentioned to sthe salesperson, they had 12 used Sporty's on their website, and we wanted to look at a couple of them, but she kept sitting T. on new '09's.  I was hoping to get something at least a couple years old to save some cash, but I want an '04 or newer (when they switched to a rubber mounted engine) for a better ride quality.  The reason we drove the 35 miles to the dealership was to see the used on their website.  We have a HD dealership less than 10 miles from the house, but they weren't showing any used that we were interested in.  I mentioned the used a couple of times, but each Sporty she brought us to, was labeled '09.  I eventually gave up asking and just got an idea of what fit the girlfriend best so we can look for used privately.  I indicated at least 3 diff times we wanted to see some used, but never got showed any of the used.  They weren't on the main sales floor, not sure if they were outside, in the shop or what, but the sales person didn't seem interested in showing us the used.  Not sure why someone would ignore what the customer is requesting.

I was shocked when the salesperson quoted the price tag, $9600 for an '09 XL1200.    I thought they were more along the lines of mid 8's for a 1200 and 883's were in the 6's.  The girl tried to give me some BS about how well they hold their value.  The next bike we buy for her, is intended to be her bike for many years to come.  For the amount of riding the g/f does, we cannot justify spending $10K or more.

The salesperson lost a chance to sell something yesterday, by ignoring my requests.  I don't think we will be visiting that dealership again.

I must say in addition, some of the new big-twins are absolutely beautiful.  

[JimWilliamson]

This is g/f, not wife. Are you planning on giving her $$ for this purchase? If not, she can buy / spend whatever she wishes.

Bummer on the clueless salesperson tho. Perhaps you could have stated your case to the salesperson as you stated it here?

[atadaskew]

craigslist, cycletrader, ebay etc etc is full of people trying to sell their Harleys.  The problem is that most of these knuckleheads (the people not the bikes!) bought the bikes on subprime loans that Harley financial underwrote and now they can't afford the bikes.  Sounds familiar, no?  Thing is, everyone refuses to believe that their bikes, being Harleys, could possibly drop in value so you'll see ads in the line of "I'm not trying to make any money on it, just trying to pay what I owe" etc etc.
I would wait until early next year, then you will see all these used sellers actually selling their bikes for what they are worth.

[Open Sore]

JW-

It is still g/f, but will eventually be wife.  We have been living together for 2.5 years.  We share household expenses and larger purchases are usually discussed and then decided on.  I'm definately not the type of guy that would tell her she couldn't buy something, or that I have to okay every purchase.  

If she decides to buy new that would be fine by me, she would be able to afford it.  Financially it just makes sense for us to try and get something a few years old.  There are other things that we need to buy for, and want to do to the house, so spending a little less for a used makes sense right now.

Unfortuanely, the idea of us wanting to see used was lost on the salesperson.

[Open Sore]

craigslist, cycletrader, ebay etc etc is full of people trying to sell their Harleys.  The problem is that most of these knuckleheads (the people not the bikes!) bought the bikes on subprime loans that Harley financial underwrote and now they can't afford the bikes.  Sounds familiar, no?  Thing is, everyone refuses to believe that their bikes, being Harleys, could possibly drop in value so you'll see ads in the line of "I'm not trying to make any money on it, just trying to pay what I owe" etc etc.
I would wait until early next year, then you will see all these used sellers actually selling their bikes for what they are worth.

I have checked ebay a couple times.  The main idea of going to the dealership was to get her to sit on the diff models for sizing, and get some pricing on their used inv.  Their website doesn't show pricing, and when I called for pricing on a couple of them, they told me "Let me get your name and phone # and we will call you back with the prices".  I didn't feel like dealing with a bunch of follow up calls so I told them we will just come in.  I figured if I could at least get their asking price out of them, I could check NADA, and get an idea what they paid on trade and then give them a counter offer with some profit for them but a lower purchase price for us.  That never happened, only pricing we got was for a new '09.

[Geoff]

You were steered by an inexperienced salesperson with no steering technique.

Although it makes my wife mad, I actually have fun in these situations. You see, if the salesperson didn't listen to me, I'd pull her aside and ask if she read the new book on cooking with semen? It's discussed here on STN. I'd let her know that semen is an exciting ingredient that can give every dish you make an interesting twist. Unless she's more jaded than me, the salesperson will walk away in disgust, allowing you to work with someone else.

[chornbe]

*ALL* the new sportsters are lowered. Add in a few hundred bucks to the budget to put both ends of the bike back up where it belongs if you get one.