HAS DUCATI DROPPED THEIR PRICES ?
 

Looking through the MCN i have seen at least 3 Ducati dealers mentioning "DUCATI PRICE REDUCTION"

The prices seem to have been reduced from £750 for a base model up to £1500 off a new 999S.

If this is correct it looks like the excellent deal i was given on my CBR600RR against my new 749R was not so good after all.

I wonder if these have been reduced as well ?

Are they official dealers or importers?

On page 17 of MCN their target price shows no reduction on the 999, but it is the MCN:sniff:

[Edited on 22-7-2004 by Triple Nine]

The 749R wont be discounted much.They seem to be flying out of the showrooms as quick as the dealers get them in.
As for the discounts,I think there is a lot of unsold '03 bikes around.

I believe that Keith is right - the deals are on 2003 bikes, however, if MCN is to be believed the problem is industry wide with registrations down for all manufacturers and most dealers offering discounts to try and get bikes sold.

Euro 2004 and the bad weather seem to be being blamed but could this be the sign that the spending boom is starting to slow down?

New bike sales are down 27% this year.

That's either because the last few years have seen bike sales doing OK-ish, and people in the market for a bike already have a 1-2 year old bike that they don't intend to change yet. This would account for a natural cyclic dip in the market.

Or, let's face it, very few people have £20K cash in their back pocket for a 999R. Very few people have £7K in their back pocket for a new ST come to that, so bikes are purchased with the help of an equity release remortgage, a bank loan or some other sorts of finance. With the writing on the wall with regard to the all time low interest rates we've had these past years and the fact that it's been swinging up again for a while I think people are much more reticent about taking out big ticket loans for what is essentially a big toy. Take out a big loan for major home improvements which ( barring a housing crash) will improve the value of your home? Yes, maybe. Take out a big loan to have an item which will lose half it's value in the first two years? Hmmmm.

We all know that bikes are no longer a cheap form of transport like they were when I were a lad. There are a number of people that use them to get to work (and for work) but these people are in the minority nowadays. You only have to look at dealers, reckoning that any bike that does over 3000 miles a year is a high mileage bike, to know that. So bikes are a big, expensive purchase that are mainly bought by fair weather riders for the occasional Sunday blast...and if the summer is rubbish? They all stay at home instead of thinking about going down to the bike shop.

Ducati will suffer more than most. Let's face it, apart from hardened Ducati enthusiasts, most people have to think harder about buying a 999S at nearly £14K than they do about a Gixer Thou which you can get for £7K.

So like everyone else Ducati have to think hard about balancing the list price so that they make a profit, maintain the premium brand image and don't knock the residual value by discounting hard, but at the same time they have to make sure that all the bikes they're turning out of the factory actually end up in owners hands, not just sitting in a dealer showroom.

So a long answer, but with sales down over a quarter on last year, I would be very surprised if the dealers were not discounting heavily, and I would also be surprised if Ducati weren't doing the same...although they might not want to admit it.

Jools - have to agree.
After testing a MS, within days a letter popped through my door offering me £500 worth of DP goodies, this on top of 0% credit and as well as what I could get out of the dealer.

I have picked the wrong time to be skint - poo, or a new Multistumpty with some nice tasty bits would now be in my garage. Don't you just know that there will be no deals about when I come to get one.

A normally well informed friend told me a few weeks ago that a large Paralell dealer has bought a large stock of Ducati's and will be advertising them very cheap and as such the importer has responded with price cuts.

This is of course a rumour but ties in with recent events.:eureka:

My dealer says there has been a 'price restructuring' at Ducati, hence the new low prices. I'm well peeved - only got my 749S 2 months ago and I've now lost an extra £900. The 999S at £1500 off is a big hit.

I'd noticed D&K knocking out the 749 (yellow only) at £6999 and the 749S (red only) at £7999 and thought they were good deals. I guess that's the reason for the price drop.

Do you think it's worth an extra grand because it's an S?... or because it's red :devil:

It's worth the two extra for a yellow S like mine :D