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Ghost dealer...


mrzoom

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Nice day here today. I though I'd go to the 2yr old BMW dealer here in Tulsa to see if anything had changed and look at the 2019's.

Well it's worse than before. I walked in at 11am and was the only person there. No other customers and no employees!!!

Inventory is a little dated. NO 2019's of any model. One 2017 RT, one 2018 RT, 6 2017 and 2018 GS's 2 baggers and 2 1600's.

One bagger had a rear trunk color matched that looked nice if you are a bagger guy.

3/4th of the show room is for the Indian line. Nice but not my style.

I hung around for 20 minutes and no one else was there. I could have lifted some gloves but wait, they didn't have any. :dopeslap:

Very depressing. :P

 

I then went over to the Cycle Gear store and tried on helmets. Shoei large RF1200 fits good. :thumbsup: hint to wife... I didn't care for the Neotec II but

that's why we have choices right?? I'll shop for a better price as they wanted $599 and didn't have a large in silver in stock.

You can tell they cater to the sport bike crowd. The tyre rack was 99% rear tyres. :rofl:

Back home to rake leaves. :cry:

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The motorcycle business has been tough for several years as the current customer base grays out and not enough new young buyers are coming in. BMW is trying to deal with this with new models in smaller displacements and more sporting focus to bring in younger buyers and honestly to take share from the other European marques as well. Harley Davidson is betting big on E-bikes with their recent huge Silicon Valley tech center investment to support development of this platform. I would guess that bet was driven from their marketing research that says young customers want "eco friendly" transportation. I use the quotes as the perception of electric vehicles eco friendliness exceeds the reality of that platform. (could be a long debate for another thread).

 

I fear that unless at the bike dealership level of the market, we will see fewer of them. Retail dealership owners needs to be very well capitalized and diversified to make survival possible. For BMW that might mean the bike only shops give way to combined dealerships with their autos (that would suck IMHO).

 

All I can say is if you value having a local dealership and it provides good customer focus, you should consider supporting them with some of your parts and accessory purchases.

 

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As I think about it perhaps this dealer is between certified techs. No certification equals no new bike deliveries.

BMW is the poor stepchild. Indian, Honda dirt, Polaris 4 x 4s are the money makers.

I spend my money either at Bentonville,100 miles away or Denver, a phone call away. Both have people that

speak "parts", in other words they know right from left :thumbsup:

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Different question, how often do you hear from your BMW dealers, that they can't ship oil?

I have tried to order oil from several BMW dealers over the years and at least two have told me that they can't ship oil.

Amsoil, BeemerBoneYard, Bob's BMW and Amazon don't have this problem. Is there a special license required or is it just poor training of the parts personal?

Just curious.

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Different question, how often do you hear from your BMW dealers, that they can't ship oil?

I have tried to order oil from several BMW dealers over the years and at least two have told me that they can't ship oil.

Amsoil, BeemerBoneYard, Bob's BMW and Amazon don't have this problem. Is there a special license required or is it just poor training of the parts personal?

Just curious.

 

A new twist on an Oil Thread - I like it!!

 

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As I think about it perhaps this dealer is between certified techs. No certification equals no new bike deliveries.

BMW is the poor stepchild. Indian, Honda dirt, Polaris 4 x 4s are the money makers.

I spend my money either at Bentonville,100 miles away or Denver, a phone call away. Both have people that

speak "parts", in other words they know right from left :thumbsup:

 

 

Used to be the dealership paid for "tech" to go to school which BMW required for certs.

A very costly, in time while the tech is gone to train, and in money for classes, room/board, travel, etc.

 

Even between techs, inventory would be different.

 

$omething i$n't right, IMO.

 

AFA the combo auto/bike sales centers, BD, is being done.

Was the model a while back, goal of many with BMW.

Many pros and cons were determined, as it is w stand alones of either ilk.

No panacea.

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Different question, how often do you hear from your BMW dealers, that they can't ship oil?

I have tried to order oil from several BMW dealers over the years and at least two have told me that they can't ship oil.

Amsoil, BeemerBoneYard, Bob's BMW and Amazon don't have this problem. Is there a special license required or is it just poor training of the parts personal?

Just curious.

 

To ship oil legally it has to be packaged as "hazardous material". By ground shipment only. Special packaging includes a containment bag and an absorbent material to soak up spillage.

 

Dealers don't want to fool with this. But the truth is, it gets shipped all the time by just putting the containers in a box and out the door it goes. The Amazon shippers and those that go after the internet sales simply don't worry about the details of correct shipping. The Post Office is pretty strict about this, but even then they don't really know what is in the boxes. UPS and FedEx care about......very little beyond getting paid for moving it.

 

We have it easy in the US. I have had customers that tried to ship me clutch baskets from overseas. If there is any oil on them and the shipper inspects them, no shipping. I had one customer that cleaned the basket, but it smelled like parts cleaner and it was refused.

 

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Different question, how often do you hear from your BMW dealers, that they can't ship oil?

I have tried to order oil from several BMW dealers over the years and at least two have told me that they can't ship oil.

Amsoil, BeemerBoneYard, Bob's BMW and Amazon don't have this problem. Is there a special license required or is it just poor training of the parts personal?

Just curious.

 

To ship oil legally it has to be packaged as "hazardous material". By ground shipment only. Special packaging includes a containment bag and an absorbent material to soak up spillage.

 

Dealers don't want to fool with this. But the truth is, it gets shipped all the time by just putting the containers in a box and out the door it goes. The Amazon shippers and those that go after the internet sales simply don't worry about the details of correct shipping. The Post Office is pretty strict about this, but even then they don't really know what is in the boxes. UPS and FedEx care about......very little beyond getting paid for moving it.

 

We have it easy in the US. I have had customers that tried to ship me clutch baskets from overseas. If there is any oil on them and the shipper inspects them, no shipping. I had one customer that cleaned the basket, but it smelled like parts cleaner and it was refused.

 

 

My habit is to buy locally when at home (though usually not from the dealer for oil as I use Mobil 1 instead) but when I need service away from home I've had Beemer Boneyard ship a service kit to wherever I think I'll need it; they do bag the oil (in really high quality bags - they always get reused for something) but I've not seen them include an absorbent. I've ordered other oils/fluids on amazon, and like you said they have never come in anything other than their original bottle dropped in a box. Anyone who has spilled oil in the shop and had a tablespoon look like a quart or a quart (god forbid!) look like a gallon or more can imagine what sort of mess a crushed box of four quarts or more would cause in a sorting facility....

 

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I would guess that bet was driven from their marketing research that says young customers want "eco friendly" transportation. I use the quotes as the perception of electric vehicles eco friendliness exceeds the reality of that platform. (could be a long debate for another thread).

 

I'm not trying to start that thread, but make sure whatever comparison you're looking at between EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, I've seen a whole bunch of them that include the emissions for every bit of the EV supply chain back to mining lithium for batteries or coal for electric generation, but don't include emissions from oil drilling, extraction, refining and transportation in the ICE supply chain. There's clearly a lot of motivated reasoning going on.

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I would guess that bet was driven from their marketing research that says young customers want "eco friendly" transportation. I use the quotes as the perception of electric vehicles eco friendliness exceeds the reality of that platform. (could be a long debate for another thread).

 

I'm not trying to start that thread, but make sure whatever comparison you're looking at between EVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles is an apples-to-apples comparison. For example, I've seen a whole bunch of them that include the emissions for every bit of the EV supply chain back to mining lithium for batteries or coal for electric generation, but don't include emissions from oil drilling, extraction, refining and transportation in the ICE supply chain. There's clearly a lot of motivated reasoning going on.

 

Right you are. The point being that life cycle analysis is very complex with detailed cradle to grave evaluation for every component in the item under analysis. And the one or two times I participated in this exercise, it took more than a year to complete for one item. Being a little over general here but it typically comes down to that which is produced and uses consumables as efficiently as possible wins the greener contest.

 

Back to the ghost dealer topic.

 

As I think about it perhaps this dealer is between certified techs. No certification equals no new bike deliveries.

BMW is the poor stepchild. Indian, Honda dirt, Polaris 4 x 4s are the money makers.

I spend my money either at Bentonville,100 miles away or Denver, a phone call away. Both have people that

speak "parts", in other words they know right from left :thumbsup:

 

If the dealer isn't committed to BMW brand VS other marques it sounds like that it won't be long before BMW dumps him as a dealer.

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I wonder how many existing small dealer are going to be able to stay in business in the coming years. Evidently bike sales are slowing down for all makes/models.

 

Very nice used motorcycles are available at very attractive rates - the Cincinnati area Craigslist has 1,120 listings under "motorcycles" - 248 of them are "Harleys". This saturated "used" motorcycle market will certainly have an effect on new motorcycle sales - I can likely buy a 2 year old bike for half what it cost new.

 

Heritage Honda in Maysville had been in business fro 55 years and was Kentucky's oldest Honda dealer and had the entire Honda line (motorcycles, quads, generators and lawn equipment - and they went out of business earlier this year.....nobody knows why they closed their doors..

 

 

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I know for a fact that the only thing that saved some motorcycle dealers in West Virginia was the introduction of ATV's. They became a better selling, more profitable line than motorcycles were. I am sure that still applies to many. I know BMW has some rather strict standards for their Dealers. While on one hand that is good, on the other it compromises the number of dealers available. I am all for having trained techs for working on the bikes and stocking parts. But honestly I don't give a damn about fancy showroom displays and signage. Some of my best buying experiences, both auto and bike, have come from Dealers that you might drive by and think they need to spruce things up a bit!

Edited by realshelby
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My understanding is that in recent years BMW Motorrad has been requiring a lot of capital investment in showroom bling, posters and banners, color coordination, accessory/clothing product placement/displays, standardized building exterior branding, etc. That gets expensive for small dealers -- or even big ones.

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My understanding is that in recent years BMW Motorrad has been requiring a lot of capital investment in showroom bling, posters and banners, color coordination, accessory/clothing product placement/displays, standardized building exterior branding, etc. That gets expensive for small dealers -- or even big ones.

 

My thought on the sanitized standard BMW showrooms is it feels like a giant vacuum trying to suck the last dollar out of your wallet. :facepalm: Heard great things about Paul Heid pictured below. I'd much rather shop here.

 

Ed's picture.

i-qqLLDpj-X2.jpg

 

Pat

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I agree Pat, always liked the old school shops and acquired one in 1980, Yamaha. But was obvious it needed to transition into the modern era with a nicer store front and tidy showroom displays of not only bikes but clothing and accessories. Did the best we could with what there was to work with and surely not the only reason but within 3 months Yamaha's market share had doubled in N. Fla back to the national average (22%).

 

The downside to those old shops is they catered mostly to the service end and tho it built great customer relations they also suffered at sales as it became secondary. I walked into a small BMW shop in Daytona (Ormond) in 1984, there were maybe 4 new BMW's on the floor but I was transfixed on a new black R65. I hung around 30 minutes or so staring at it : ) then walked over to service where everyone was working on something and asked a few questions. They didn't have time so I left, could've easily been talked into that little puppy. It took another 30 plus years but I finally got one just like it. :grin:

 

Here's an article on some of BMW's thoughts for the future.

 

https://advrider.com/bmw-plan-a-major-entry-in-the-us-cruiser-market-and-more-m-bikes-says-new-ceo-dr-markus-schramm/

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My understanding is that in recent years BMW Motorrad has been requiring a lot of capital investment in showroom bling, posters and banners, color coordination, accessory/clothing product placement/displays, standardized building exterior branding, etc. That gets expensive for small dealers -- or even big ones.

 

 

John, not recent,

That has always been the "new" model.

The old mom and pops that were the heart and soul of the original BMW dealership network

began to change towards end of 20th century.

BMW has required coordinated carpet.signage,displays etc for a long time.

They have no problem mandating change, regardless of cost.

They have shown strange support for certain dealerships (location) by financially providing better deals or subsidizing.

They have had mixed success with showroom floor "requirements" as some ignore and are doing well, some comply and aren't, and vice versa.

Motorcycle ownership is changing, time will show us if these times need new product, sales/marketing, or???

 

 

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I fear that unless at the bike dealership level of the market, we will see fewer of them. Retail dealership owners needs to be very well capitalized and diversified to make survival possible. For BMW that might mean the bike only shops give way to combined dealerships with their autos (that would suck IMHO).

 

Well you may have figured out the future!

 

The BMW dealership in Louisville was a bit of a strange mix - they had BMW and Harley marques on the same showroom floor......and the store had BMW accessories on one side of store and a segregated Harley accessory/clothing area on the other side of the store.

I just went to their website, and discovered the BMW franchise was acquired by an automobile group. (Go to the dealer/about us link, and it explains the "Martin Group").

 

https://www.bmwlouisville.com/

Edited by Thumpin
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