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.
23-Jul-2004, 00:15 
Jools
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