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| #13  22-Dec-2004, 13:36 | ||||
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| "i agree totally John"-we'll have to be careful Steve, agreeing with each other-we'll be into a 'group hug' next and who knows where that would lead...............  : lol:John   |
| #14 22-Dec-2004, 14:23 | ||||
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| Whilst i disagree with the Companywide logic of the 'big turnover' i think they actually did a lot for Biking. THey gave the average man on the street a way into biking he would never have had. Usually through the face he'd feel intimdated walking into a place full of hairy sweaty bikers. They gave him a BIG BRIGHT place full of shiney things... They did indeed steve !!!!! then left them in the shite , with servicing warranty etc etc Oh and yes 50% off and mass buying power cheaper bikes etc etc and absolutly Diabolical RESIDUAL values to the point of (the secondhand bike market nearly collapsed  thats what i meant about (Don't comment ) if you dont know the trade steve ! not dont coment period ! may be the way i wrote it  JUST MY OPINION  |
| #17 22-Dec-2004, 16:42 | ||||
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| #18 22-Dec-2004, 17:06 | ||||
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| You don't have to look far to understand why dealers are going bust. Whether it's Carnell's and their spin-offs using a similar business model and selling bikes to the masses on the cheap or other complex social factors, motorcycling is not much to do with the automotive industry these days. Hands up, who owns a bike as essential transport, a cheap alternative to a car? Not many people I'll bet, because it ain't a cheap alternative. I'll bet you that even a commuter bike is nearly as expensive to run as a small runabout, especially when you take the higher insurance a bike usually attracts and the fact that the bike will rot away after a few winters. So what's motorcycling become? It's more akin to the leisure industry. People are much more likely these days to buy a bike as a toy. That's why sportsbike sales dominate in this country and it's why people are so fickle that they rush out to buy this years model based on what MCN says is the best bike this year and sod the depreciation. You don't do that if you're looking at it as transport, you want a bike that you can ride in all weathers and run it hard until it's earned it's keep. So the typical motorcycle is a great big, very shiny and very expensive toy, a luxury item that all but committed motorcyclists can do without if they have to (I bet we all know someone who's gone out, bought a bike and jacked it in as soon as the novelty has worn off). So how do people fund these expensive shiny toys? Mostly, it's fuelled by credit (let's face it, only Lord Rattler and the like can pull several thousand pounds out of their back pocket and say "I'll have that one"  ). And the cheapest form of credit? Yup, remortgaging! All very well until the interest rate creeps up, the housing market cools down and people realise that they've already milked as much of their housing equity as they're comfortable with. People are pulling in their horns, tightening their belts and just not splashing out on big ticket items as they've done steadily over the past six or seven years of mortgage nirvana.So under these circumstances the opportunities that opened up when the mortgage boom came are now closing up again, and all the businesses that climbed onto the bandwagon in the good times are now finding that there's not enough room for them all. Only the fittest are going to survive. It's always been that way. Keeping fit in business means that you have to be agile enough to understand what your customers want and give it them, so the smart money goes to the people that understand their customers in the first place. Really understanding what your customers want means that you have some sort of relationship with them and value them as a person. Ask yourself whether you've ever done business again with someone that treated you as if they didn't care. |
| #20 22-Dec-2004, 17:48 | ||||
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Monty
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