Wilsons Sandbox

$4350. is about invoice on that bike. Invoice is what a dealership pays the parent company for a vehicle. I work for a Honda automobile dealership, I am fairly well schooled in this. When you sell cars or bikes at what you pay for them it is hard to keep the doors open on your store let alone pay your employees a decent wage. Typically when employees are underpaid they tend to do poor quality work. All the people that rant and rave about poor quality work from dealerships might factor that in the next time they are trying to grind some poor guy down to nothing on a car or bike deal. Everybody has to make a buck to make the system work, that is the way capitalism works. Other wise your lookin at Russia in the seventies. I can guarantee you that if this dealership always sells his bikes at what he pays for them he is hosing his customers somewhere else to compensate for the loss of income, either that or he is laundering money for someone! When some cheep SOB tries to grind me on getting his car fixed I make sure he gets "The Discount Technician" (50% OFF most of the time) working on his car. The cheapest guy always pays the highest price ultimately. Morgan I tip my cocktail waitresses very well and have a hard time paying for a drink in any bar in town, think about it.

----- Original Message ----- From: To: ; Cc: DSN_klr650@egroups.com> Sent: Sunday, August 06, 2000 3:40 PM Subject: Re: [DSN_klr650] Very NKLR - Those damned car dealerships > and chiseling and getting all emotional and letting $50 make or break a deal > is nuts. >> > > On the other hand, the dealer who sold me both my Polaris Victory and my KLR, > as well as a couple of other bikes in the past, sells for not much more than > his cost and nobody can beat his deals. (He has a 2001 KLR on his floor for > $4350.) As a result he is repeatedly the second-largest-selling Polaris ATV > dealer in the country, and is consistently one of the busiest Kaw dealerships > in the area. He moves huge volumes due to his prices and is doing well enough > that Honda begged him to open an ATV franchise for them, which he just did. > > Pete the cheap Streak > > > > Visit the KLR650 archives at > http://www.listquest.com/lq/search.html?ln=klr650 > Support Dual Sport News... dsneditor@... > Let's keep this list SPAM free! > > Visit our site at http://www.egroups.com/group/DSN_klr650 > To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > DSN_klr650-unsubscribe@egroups.com > > >

A little different perspective: I believe the industry average that is spoken of relates to 1 - 1 1/2% on sales. If that is the case, then its a question of how many times you turn your inventory as to whether or not you've invested poorly or well. If you turn your inventory 10 times per year and make 1 1/2% on sales (or each turn), then your total return for the year is 10 x 1.5% or 15%. Kind of like the supermarket business where they traditionally have a low return on sales, but make it up by turning their inventory frequently. Richard in Tucson 94 KLR650 86 VFR750

> years, dealerships as a rule are doing pretty good. But put into > perspective the return on investment. If you were to invest $10 million

to

> 50 (and in a lot of cases, much more) of your own money into a business, > what would you think is a fair return on that investment? It's an

industry

> average to have 1-1 1/2% percent back into your pocket after all is said

and

> done. Dealerships are for sale all the time all over the place, if they

That's what I'm thinking. Without a decent profit you cannot keep the doors open. He's gotta be gouging somewhere else to offset this or the business is a front to launder money or something. It just doesn't calculate. Karl

>Pete >If he is actually selling at cost I'm sure he sells a ton of bikes but >since >he makes 0 per bike where is his profit? He needs to pay his >help,utilities,rent, probably interest on a loan, etc. I suppose he must >make >it on service and accessories. > >Ed >Windsor Oh

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