How To Negotiate With A Dealership

Catch phrases? How about "no thanks, but let me know if things change." and walk away. With any negotiation you have to be willing to walk away from the deal. But more importantly, "they" have to know you are willing to walk away, and once you do you must wait for the other party to call back. First one to blink usually looses. This may mean going to a couple of dealerships but it all comes down to how much another 500 to 1000 means to you.

Unless there is a material change to the softails for 2015, the model year change doesn't mean a whole lot. It's still summer and prime selling season. They can get more for that 2014 right now than they could 6-7 months ago.

You're the buyer and it's your money. You make an offer. Just say "I'll do $18,000 and sign right now." See what they say.

Definitely walk if you don't like the offer. Try a few other dealers and hopefully you'll get them bidding against each other (to a point).

The salesman just told me he couldnt knock $1,000 off because of the fact that its two-tone, big blue/vivid black. He said if it was just black he could knock $1,000 off.

That really doesn't sound like a bad price IF there isn't the bs prep, document fee, freight, etc. added later.

And be up front and tell them you are going to buy a bike and you are going to shop so today, right now, give me your best shot. And I will be buying a bike somewhere and I will NOT call you back cause you are going to give me your best price right now and I will decide within a couple of days to buy it from you or someone else.

Be fairly honest, be to the point, don't take a lot of their time, and be prepared to buy or walk as others have said.

Around Indy the dealers are inclined to offer "gift cards" as an incentive. You could ask for a merchandise gift card for an amount of your choosing. Of course if you had a trade of some type that's a bargaining chip in your favor. Keep in mind it doesn't have to be a HD or even motorcycle related. If you have something of value you believe someone may value more you got yourself a chip. I don't know about the waiting game wouldn't hurt to ask about any 2013's left though, that would give you an idea how much a dealer can come down. Also, try to work in Percentages, 750.00 off of 19,744 is like 3%. Indiana sales tax is 7% I like to use that as a point of reference. There always used. Not hard to find a bike a few thousand miles and any added chrome or performance goodies can be had at a discounted price! The last part is how I got my 2012 Heritage w/ 4500 miles this spring...Craigslist.

Oh those fees...documentation fee is your last play. Nope. By the time it comes down to that part of the sale and your SERIOUS about buying a brand new HD no salesman will let a sale slip away because of a 100.00 or whatever add-on. Let him/her know that 100.00 is too much. He'll say its only a hundred.. You say yep the dealership will never m

Hit them up for whatever you need, helmet, leather, case of oil and filters, gift cards, etc. There are too many dealers out there wiling to deal, find the highest volume dealer you can, that's where you will do the best.

Tandem160 said:

Oh those fees...documentation fee is your last play. Nope. By the time it comes down to that part of the sale and your SERIOUS about buying a brand new HD no salesman will let a sale slip away because of a 100.00 or whatever add-on. Let him/her know that 100.00 is too much. He'll say its only a hundred.. You say yep the dealership will never m

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I tell them it's the girl in the offices job to do the paperwork to get me my title if I buy a bike from them and I ain't paying no stinking bs document fee.

And dealer prep? More bs. HD pays them a PDI (pre delivery inspection) fee. If that's not enough to get the bike ready they need to discuss that with the MoCo.

I'm not the world's greatest negotiator--but I tell the salesman up front I don't want to see any prep, document fee or anything else on the written paper he is about to give me after he goes in the back to sharpen his pencil. I only want to see ONE number that covers EVERYTHING except tax & license. And if his boss really needs to get anything more than MSRP (and hopefully maybe less than MSRP) he needs to hide that in the ONE figure he gives me.

I'm getting old and cranky and real tired of the bs games motorcycle and car dealers try to play.

I dunno. Somebody in another thread talked about the factors that drive MSRP and how that affects a dealer's ability to come down on price, so that might be it.

I just got a 2014 Street Bob for $2500 below MSRP, and that was the price on the sticker. As soon as I bought it they put that same tag on another Bob just like the one I got. None of the other dealers around here had anything like that going on, so this dealer apparently had some wiggle room.

Can you look around at other dealers?

Tandem160 said:

Oh those fees...documentation fee is your last play. Nope. By the time it comes down to that part of the sale and your SERIOUS about buying a brand new HD no salesman will let a sale slip away because of a 100.00 or whatever add-on. Let him/her know that 100.00 is too much. He'll say its only a hundred.. You say yep the dealership will never m

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In the end it's doesn't matter to them how they write the ticket. I actually WANT all those fees on there with a lower base price. You don't pay sales taxes on those fees!

chasarms said:

In the end it's doesn't matter to them how they write the ticket. I actually WANT all those fees on there with a lower base price. You don't pay sales taxes on those fees!

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I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that, on a new vehicle/bike, you pay tax on the MSRP, regardless of what the actual sale price may be.

Probably has to do with the taxing authority wary of sweetheart deals where the owner's BIL wants to pay less tax and obtains a sales invoice that shows the BIL paid $5K less than MSRP

Louisville Joe said:

I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that, on a new vehicle/bike, you pay tax on the MSRP, regardless of what the actual sale price may be.

Probably has to do with the taxing authority wary of sweetheart deals where the owner's BIL wants to pay less tax and obtains a sales invoice that shows the BIL paid $5K less than MSRP

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That is not the case in Missouri. You pay taxes on the cash amount stated on the documentation. Nor do we pay on the trades. So, if you buy a bike for $20,000 and the dealer gives you $8K for your trade, you pay sales tax on $12K.

chasarms said:

That is not the case in Missouri. You pay taxes on the cash amount stated on the documentation. Nor do we pay on the trades. So, if you buy a bike for $20,000 and the dealer gives you $8K for your trade, you pay sales tax on $12K.

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Here in KY we only pay tax on the difference when it is a USED vehicle. On a new vehicle a trade in does not lower the tax bill.

Louisville Joe said:

Here in KY we only pay tax on the difference when it is a USED vehicle. On a new vehicle a trade in does not lower the tax bill.

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Yet another reason to never buy new.

Get several dealers on the line (check out fly and ride programs, awesome way to get to know your new bike). Pit them against each other. 99% chance the local guy will get your service anyways and he'll get over being butt hurt that you bought somewhere else. This is strictly a business arrangement. They are all out to seperate you from as much $'s as possible.

But what about what the salesman told me? That he couldn't come down $1,000 because its two-tone (big blue & vivid black). Is that legit? He says he can get me a plain black one for $1,000 less but not the two-tone.

Mike

Here's what I did on my recent purchase. I walked in, selected the bike and said "I want to pay X, out the door...". No shipping, prep, bull$hit addons....include TT&L. Do your homework first. If they say "no", then go somewhere else.

I also told him I had an afterthough and if I bought $750 worth of goodies for it, would he get me 10% off the cost of the goodies. he talked to the parts dude and, yep, he could do that too.

You're in the driver's seat, not the sales dude.

Just my $.02,

Ronnie

Louisville Joe said:

I could be wrong, but it is my understanding that, on a new vehicle/bike, you pay tax on the MSRP, regardless of what the actual sale price may be.

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That's against state law in Texas. Never have I ever seen that done, not cars, not scoots.

Ronnie