GRAND PRIX MOTORSPORTS

[MUSHMEAT]

What about grand prix motorsports (c-470 & santa fe) How has there service dept. treated you?

[Kauai Boy]

MUSHMEAT, why did you edit your post?

[Slacker]

I have never had a problem with them. They used to have a Service Manager that was a complete ass but now that he is gone things are much better.

[snatfinder]

I have never had a problem with them. They used to have a Service Manager that was a complete ass but now that he is gone things are much better.

yep... can't think of the guy's name, but the guy that works there now, younger with brown hair and glasses was great to work with

[Sully]

Doesn't firefighter work there???

[Slacker]

Doesn't firefighter work there???

Yes - from my understanding, he is in sales.

[vw143]

I don't know for sure about them, they tried to tell me that sticker on a New Gixxer 750 was $11,900 and that a Gixxer 1000 stickered at around $13,900, and therefore I should pay $8500 for an '02 GSX-R 750 with 5,000 miles on it from their used department. THEY MUST HAVE BEEN SMOKING CRACK!

[troythetroll]

I've got a better story than that. They gave me a trade in value on my old 929, which was quite reasonable, and then asked me to unload it so their mechanics could check it out. I unloaded it, and then the salesman comes over and says, "well, lets go over and fill out the paperwork to buy the ZRX1200".....the stunned look on my face must have looked classic. "Buy? Buy what? I wanted a tradein value here a for a ZRX1200 and at Fay Meyers for a ZRX1100...I still have another shop to visit?"

The salesman says..."load your bike back up, your just jerking my chain and wasting my time, we're really busy here!". It was a Thursday morning, 10AM, i cast a inquisitive eye through the showroom...empty...across the used bike lot....a couple smoking a cigarette.....my gaze returned to him and he, noticing the lack of people to back up his "busy" claim, said "I've got lots of calls to make and you are just wasting my time."

I bought a bike that morning, just like I had told him. I bought it before noon, the time I told him I had before work started to get it done. But I didn't buy it from him. And I took less money tradein on the 929 as well. The only way bad dealerships go away is when people refuse to take their cager selling techniques and walk away.

[JohnS]

Just for fun Troy tell me about any good experience you've ever had buying a motorcycle.

[troythetroll]

Sure. I walked into Sun one day in 99, and after tracking down a salesman, I walked him over to the F4's, of which there were 3, and said, "I'll give you XXXX dollars" for any one of these. He went back with to his manager guy, hemming and hawing took place, he came back over, and asked for $50 more. I said okey-dokey, called the credit union on the cell phone, told them where to send the check.

Total time invested, 1/2 hour. Price paid, expressed as a percentage of MSRP, was lower than anything else I had ever paid for a new motorcycle.

If the dealers around here want to sell bikes like cager dealerships do, I'll buy them the same way.

I was pretty happy with Cycles of Boulder back when they were Cycles of Boulder, except for the service department which wrecked my brand new 929 the day I went to pick it up. I would catagorize that as a good buying experience, terrible service. Went back when they were Powersports and it wasn't as nice a place...deal wise.

[firefghtr]

The younger guy with brown hair and glasses is Matt the sales manager... he's a really cool guy. The service manager is Mike he is also a pretty cool guy. About the gixxer, i dont know about that price.. but really what can you expect from any dealership? of cours its going to be a little over blue book thats how the dealerships make money... so i dont know what ta tell ya on that one.

[troythetroll]

After being told for many years that dealers buy your bike off you from the price listed in a "little blue book", I believe its an old wives tale and a load of crap.

Otherwise, the total spread on the last motorcycle I traded wouldn't have been $1500, that is, the high price I was given ( at Grand Prix Motorsports ) wouldn't have been any different from the low price I was given ( Sun ).

They offer you what they think you will take....its always low, its hardly their job to give you more money than they have to, and if I want a fair deal on a trade I'll truck the bike back to Ohio to the shop I dealt with for better than a decade, because I haven't spotted a reasonable trade in value in this state yet. ( correction....I received what I considered a reasonable trade in value once...from Cycles of Boulder pre-Powersports...for an F4 )

[Anonymous]

ttt you are really an angry, angry man aren't you?

[troythetroll]

ya think? I dunno....I definitely can get crabby pretty quick, and I definitely am opinionated, and roll all this up with trying to find a decent shop when I moved here in the 90's and being disappointed compared to a relationship I had spanning some 15 years with a single shop back east....maybe I just got a bad taste in my mouth for modern, Denver style bike selling/service that has never gone away.

I would speculate that I would have been just as cranky, related to bike shops/service if I had moved to any other large urban area, Columbus OH, Dallas TX, San Fran,CA, I'm betting the modern business methods which I find distasteful are all over the place nowadays.

It is a bummer though, I used to pay MSRP and not object, I could make a phone call and get a straight answer on the price or availability of something, I knew what my trade in was worth because it IS in a book someplace and some shops do use it, I once was given something FREE just because I bought 2 new bikes in a 2 month time period...amazing, FREE! Ah well....at least out here we have Second Creek open 5 days a week for a pittance....and Pueblo as well......an advantage over a fair chunk of the rest of the country to help make up for lack of decent shops/service spots.

[Anonymous]

Strongly suggest you check out Twin Peaks after the first of the year. I hear the new ownership rocks.

Blue book isn't the defacto standard for bike price, more of just a guideline really. It can vary (sometimes widely) depending on what the actual local market value is. Sometimes this works in your favor, sometimes it doesn't.

And we have a couple great places for service here - TK Motorsports, and TFOG.

[troythetroll]

TFOG was the shop I ended up finding who I take all of my work too now, as well as purchasing what I can off of them in the interests of helping a good shop profit rather than just going for the best price like some internet junkie might.

I've been using TFOG exclusively since 99-00 I think, before Scott was on board. Quite happy with them, I've lined up work for them with 2 buddies as well, one who brings his racebike in from Ohio for tires and tuneups just because I recommended them....Scott and Jim rule.

Took me 2 years or more of looking to find them though... Sam who was a student at school of mines at the time initially recommended them, and after that I stopped looking....good people to work on your bike are hard to find, and once you find them, why look elsewhere until they give you a reason?

[friscokidd]

I bought my r1 from grand pricks and the selling price was decent, person was friendly, not to mension (sp) cute. But the service people.....i had a bent chain adjuster bolt, and i asked them about warrenty,

gp - did you have your 600 mile service done here?
me - no
gp - then we cant warrenty it.
me - wtf
gp - sorry, then he walked away.

so my 2cents, Grand Prick service can sucka **** but sales and what not, there ok

[Anonymous]

Is THAT why they wouldn't fix that bolt Frisco? I remember it being bent... Don't see what a 600-mile would have to do with it, all they do is change the friggen oil anyway.

[firefghtr]

troy you need to chill its not that big a deal, thats why there are tons of dealerships to choose from. some offer different things. and there are alot of factors that go into the price of a used bike. as an example we don't always get cherry cond trade ins and have to do work on them to make them nice again, in wich case bringing the price up a little.. for example..etc. so on person might see a great deal and another see it as a bad deal.

[troythetroll]

Firefighter, having been buying and selling bikes for better than 20 years now, I am aware of how differences in condition affect value. I am also aware of how current inventory could conceivably affect value ( they already have 3 of your bike on the floor and don't want to acquire more inventory of that type ), and I am aware that certain individuals at any given dealership might have different attitudes which is reflected in what they want to offer you on any particular day.

Knowing all of this in advance hardly lightens my mood when it comes time to buy or sell a bike.

[firefghtr]

okay stay mad then

[Anonymous]

Their attitudes are also somewhat based on the crap the customer makes them deal with. I.e. if you go in there being an ass, they'd probably rather not deal with you.

[troythetroll]

I'm hardly mad about buying a bike, its a business transaction which some people, like the dealers, have a vested interest in hosing the buyer on. Once you understand that, its problem solved as far as I'm concerned.

[friscokidd]

Is THAT why they wouldn't fix that bolt Frisco? I remember it being bent... Don't see what a 600-mile would have to do with it, all they do is change the friggen oil anyway.

Yup, thats what they said. I even asked them, wtf does a oil change service have to do with a bent f-ing bolt? They replyed, "You need to check ALL the bolts and make sure that nothing is wrong, that is what we do in our 600 mile service, not just an oil change". Which makes since, but no reason to void the warrenty on a specific bolt that almost made me loose a rear wheel while crusing down the freeway.

oh and thanks again for the help at the time peanut, much abliged (sp)