Short Story, KTM Purchase Adventure

[Wayne-o]

I'm not going to mention dealer names. This is more about exposing dealership questionable practices. I bought my 2019 KTM EXC-F 6 Days at a dealership in Massachusetts we'll call Dealer A. In hindsight it was probably a rather impulsive move. Traded in my '17' DR650 and paid the man. LUV the bike. Had a ball with it Last year. In September I started sniffing out a smaller more agile KTM. I went down to Dealer A, we talked price and after all the BS, the price was $9157.00. I put a deposit on the new bike cuz he gave me a discount of $450.00 because I'm a loyal good customer.

I stopped by a popular riding area in NH and spoke to a few guys there about my intentions and they suggested Dealer B. I called Dealer B and talked a bit. I got a price of $8700.00 OTD. I was pretty impressed. I put a deposit on it after I called Dealer A to get a refund on my deposit.

Before I go on, I need to mention that Dealer C (another dealer in Massachusetts ) and Dealer A are owned by the same company. In fact Dealer C is where Dealer A got my 450 from. Dealer A is not an authorized KTM dealer. Anyways, I decided to call Dealer C directly and they gave me a price over the phone of $8,799.00 OTD. Dam, that's $400.00 cheaper than their sister company, Dealer A was going to charge me.

The 450 needed Service so I brought my 450 to Dealer D. This dealer sells nothing but KTM's. He is in Massachusetts too. He didn't have the model I was looking for but he told me the price he sold the last one for. That was $8,499.00 OTD. WOW.

I actually went back to Dealer A to talk about my exploits. Dealer A wasn't happy. He said he couldn't even match the price that the sister dealership was offering. He started to go through the various costs. Ya know.......destination fee, documentation..........yada, yada, yada. I left after saying that he has been exposed. I also said I was concerned with what he charged me for the 450.

So, after a lot of haggling with dealer C, I finally got them to send me their offer in an e-mail. See below:



GOOD AFTERNOON Wayne,


I was off yesterday and out straight today so I now have a chance to respond to your e-mails. I was hoping we would meet today...
The information you requested is as follows...
First of all I told you we accept your offer of $8499.00 and we do have have the bike you want!!! the 2020 KTM XXX XCTPI
.The MSRP IS $8799.00 PLUS the fixed cost of destination from KTM of $450.00, we then build it from the
Crate and set it up for the service dept to get it ready and prep it for you and ready to drive at a fixed cost of $199.00 plus the documents to save in an off-site( facility for seven years) for off-road being $159.00 . This totals $9607.00. You offered $8499.00 on January 14,2020 via e-mail which we accepted also via e-mail and phone. This e-mail confirms the offer and the breakdown. The savings is a grand total of $1,108.00.
Please feel free to contact me. My cel is XXX-XXX-XXXX and direct -line is XXX-XXX-XXXX.
I hope this is what you need to make your decision and we will meet soon!

Sincerely,

I definitely feel like I was had buying the Six Days from Dealer A. I haven't gone back to Dealer A to tell them the latest pricing news that blows his offer right out of the water. Probably won't.

I guess some dealers really suck.

[Tricky Mike]

[Kurlon]

Yeah, I was floored at the range of OTD prices I got when shopping for my KTM. Over $100 spread initially between Dealer A and Dealer C. As I initially talked up Dealer A I bounced C's offer off them and similar, they broke down their numbers and said no way they could match, then called back damn close. In the end I opted for C on the basis that there was no haggling, etc, I called, asked the price and got straight up the lowest OTD of anywhere out of the crate. A initially gave me a higher price and didn't move till I pushed, so I drove further to go with the place that treated me better off the hop.

[Wayne-o]

Ya.........definitely can't read this hung over

[maxim_X]

I know you're not trying to out anyone, but names would help people shopping for Katos in the future. For me personally, I can honestly say that the kind of work you put it to get a good price is something I would never do, because I have no impulse control. Normally Cliffs would be my first stop, and if they had a 250XC this November when I bought mine I wouldn't have looked anywhere else. They didn't, and Pilgrim powersports in Plymouth did. They gave me a little discount, which was great and built it for me while I sat around drinking coffee.

What bike did you end up with anyway?

[Tricky Mike]

Ya.........definitely can't read this hung over

Yeah, just busting balls.

Lately I try to assign a value to the headache... If the money saved/earned vastly outweighs the headache required to get there I do it. If it doesn't, I just buy the bike (or sell the bike or whatever) and do my best to not continue shopping after the fact. Especially if I bougt on impulse. Rarely is there good news in researching an impulse buy after the fact. Kind of takes the fun out of an impulse buy.

I'm on the tail end of taking a ton of track parts off of my Duc, selling them all individually, putting the Duc back to stock and selling it separately. It has been 100% the expected shitshow of scammers, dumbasses, tire kickers, lowballers, etc... But the net is like a $5K difference compared to what the bike would probably have sold for in track trim, so I held my nose and got on with it. If the difference were in the $1K range I would have just sold on the quick, skipped the migraine and moved on... Anyway, point I'm trying to make is that the headache sucks. I'll lose a little money to avoid it and be happy about the deal.

[Wayne-o]

I know you're not trying to out anyone, but names would help people shopping for Katos in the future. For me personally, I can honestly say that the kind of work you put it to get a good price is something I would never do, because I have no impulse control. Normally Cliffs would be my first stop, and if they had a 250XC this November when I bought mine I wouldn't have looked anywhere else. They didn't, and Pilgrim powersports in Plymouth did. They gave me a little discount, which was great and built it for me while I sat around drinking coffee.

What bike did you end up with anyway?

I will take delivery of a 2020 KTM 150 xc-w TPI Feb 22

[maxim_X]

I will take delivery of a 2020 KTM 150 xc-w TPI Feb 22

Good pick! I didn't know they went TPi on the 150's. That's going to be super fun.

[Wayne-o]

Gonna keep the '19' 6 Days too. Wanna sell the '18' Ducati Scrambler 1100 though.

[Kurlon]

Good pick! I didn't know they went TPi on the 150's. That's going to be super fun.

I'm curious when KTM will end up going TPI on the SXs... TM offers it on their motocrosser IIRC?

[Gixxer]

Saving $1100 is worth calling around to dealers. I thought this story was going the way of you not getting your deposit back, which is what happened to me at Best Cycle.




And again... I know it’s not apples to apples but.... you don’t go to buy a cup of coffee for $x and then get charged a cup fee, a pouring fee, a service fee....

Like yes, you have to pay for freight to get shit shipped to you.... otherwise you would have nothing to sell. Want me to cover all the costs? What was your electric bill this month to stay in business?

Nice that your dealer seemed to waive all that shit.

[maxim_X]

I'm curious when KTM will end up going TPI on the SXs... TM offers it on their motocrosser IIRC?

As far as I know the tpi switch was an emissions thing. It’s working out alright compared with carbs, but I think the weight and simplicity will beat having the TPI on an MX only machine.

[feralchimp]

First, glad to hear you got a great bike and managed to save real money by shopping around.

Distant second, transactions would be a lot cleaner if we'd all just drop the pretense that total transparency about retail costs / margins is something we should expect, or that dealers should attempt to provide. There's a price at which each sales manager, for each bike, to me personally, on that day, is willing to sell. Backing into that number via a narrative is always at least partially bullshit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Wayne-o]

First, glad to hear you got a great bike and managed to save real money by shopping around.

Backing into that number via a narrative is always at least partially bullshit. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I agree...........I was just amazed that the two sister companies had vastly different pricing. Then after I went back and said what the sister company offered for a price Dealer A wouldn't budge on price. Shit, this is where the bike is coming from anyway. Dealer A got thrown under the bus by it's own sister company. I'd be bullshit.

[nhbubba]

You mean dealer's aren't my friend and don't reward loyalty?
Well I'll be. I never would have guessed.

[Kurlon]

You have to actually buy bikes to get friend points with dealers.

[nhbubba]

I think you are trying to allege that I've never actually bought a motorcycle from a dealer before. I have.

[Kurlon]

I think you are trying to allege that I've never actually bought a motorcycle from a dealer before. I have.

Yeah, but neither of us do so with any frequency. On the flip side I knew people who were pretty much guaranteed to be in buying a bike every year like clockwork, you bet those guys got breaks.

[nhbubba]

So for us mere mortals... call around for the best deal?!?

[Kurlon]

Yup, but avoid doing so prematurely, ask too often without committing and... back on the bad price list.

[tls25rs]

If anyone is familiar with the dealership landscape in MA it isn't too hard to come up with possibilities of what dealers the OP is speaking of. Not surprising to me if it is who I think it is.

[SVRACER01]

i cant speak for all dealers/manufacturers but i know that HD pays the dealer to set up the bike. which means that dealers are getting paid for setting up a bike that theyve already been paid for. wouldnt surprise me in the least if it was the same for other manufacturers as well

[JettaJayGLS]

I was just amazed that the two sister companies had vastly different pricing.

The first person you have to beat is your teammate. Auto/car sales are cutthroat.

[Kurlon]

i cant speak for all dealers/manufacturers but i know that HD pays the dealer to set up the bike. which means that dealers are getting paid for setting up a bike that theyve already been paid for. wouldnt surprise me in the least if it was the same for other manufacturers as well

On the Ducati side they definitely didn't 10 yrs ago.

[Gixxer]

On the Ducati side they definitely didn't 10 yrs ago.

That would be really interesting to know about the four jap manufacturers