Sucks the way you got treaty at the Hardley/Buell stealership.
One thing you wanna think about, tho: The 1125R has a major flaw. Gas boils in the frame when bike idles less than 5 minutes! The gas drips out of a tube onto the hot exhaust! Do a web search and you'll see there's a lot of complaints. Not saying it can't be fixed, but I know someone who has one and he's scared shitless to ride it now.
Check out this post on motorcycleforum.com: http://www.motorcycleforum.com/showthread.php?t=78153
Nuff said.
olds_cool
Don't Be a SQUIDIOT!
You're obviously a man of style and taste...Originally Posted by salsashark
Well how's this for a "Smile on my face" closure.
Picked up my new 07 Roulette Green Triumph Speed III this afternoon.
Thank you Foothills BMW/Triumph! Pleasure doing business with you... as always.
Now I just have to think of a name.
I wouldn't go that far...
which tank bag is that? I was a bit saddened to learn that the metal tanks were a new for 08 thing, so my magnetic Joe Rocket is once again cast aside.
Do not put off living the life you dream of. Next year may never come. If we are always waiting for something to change...
Retirement, the kids to leave home, the weather or the economy, that's not living. That's waiting!
Waiting will only leaves us with unrealized dreams and empty wishes.
It's an old Marsee bag. I've got a larger Nelson-Rigg one that works too, when I need more space.
Being new to the area where what HD dealership gives sport bike riders the time of day?
There's been positive mention about Sun, but I honestly have no idea...
Do not put off living the life you dream of. Next year may never come. If we are always waiting for something to change...
Retirement, the kids to leave home, the weather or the economy, that's not living. That's waiting!
Waiting will only leaves us with unrealized dreams and empty wishes.
Salsa, et al,
Want the other side of this story posted or are opinions here only of a one-sided bent?
Dave
Post away. I was the witness and will attest to the facts of OP's post/rant/story.
King,
Witness to the days events is not the entire story either.
I can loose a sale, to another Buell dealer, or a competitive brand, no problem. Everyone has different tastes. I respect all riders, and, despite the closed-minded opinions some here expressed, I own and ride many different motorcycles based on the type of riding I am doing, not the image or crowd I want to associate with. (3 Harley's, a Buell and until I can sell it, a Ducati Multistrada 1100S presently) But it is rare I loose a sale of something I sell with out a fight.
A lot of time, work and communication went in to finding a good trade value for his bike when other dealers reportedly made little or no effort, according to him. Those other dealers were said to be charging over MSRP, paid him little or no attention, and if they had an 1125 on the floor, didn't even allow him to sit on one.
When he called the first time a good two weeks earlier, and sight unseen, not only was MSRP pricing offered, an enthusiastic invitation to come up and demo ride was extended.
This sale was no lost because we did not respect the buyer, a rider of a competitive brand, nor because we did not offer respect and meaningful engaging dialog, nor because we did not provide helpful information from our first hand ownership and/or riding experiences on the 1125 on the street and from race course time - as is implied throughout this thread by many.
No, this sale was most likely lost due to some financing communication errors on both our parts about the expectations prior to, for and on that busy Saturday morning. Now, in respect of his privacy, I will have to be careful about what is revealed, but some is germane to the points he raised.
Regardless of what some here posted, I am a professional and take my job, reputation and customers experience very serious. If we conducted business the way this thread implies we do how is it that we have sold all but one new Buell that was on our floor when Salsa came in to demo ride? How is it that our dealership is at or near the top of customer satisfaction survey scores for our area, state and region year after year?
If readers here think about that, then admit there may be a second side to this, maybe even allowing for Salsa to be right but me not being wrong either. It would be easy for me to dismiss this thread for it seems one-sided and followed by riders who may have no interest in ever coming in our dealership. But I work hard and have legions of faithful, repeat customers, many of which I ride with often. It is some of those riders who brought this thread to my attention wanting to respond for me/us since they have a considerably different opinion of our dealership than is portrayed here. So to prevent a run on & on, back & forth of opinions, I asked them to let only those who were actually there respond.
I will take some time this week to recreate the other side of this episode and hopefully Salsa will comment from an open mind and reaffirm much of what is written.
In the meantime, let me extend to anyone here, an invitation to come to High Country H-D/Buell and let first hand, face to face, personal experiences speak for themselves. We still have one new and our demo 11125 for sale so you can ride the bike at the heart of this thread. If for no other reason than that, a ride up I-25 to exit 235 is worthwhile.
We are open Mon-Fri until 6:30 and Sat & Sun, but no sales or demos on Sunday per Colorado Law. We can take any brand or model bike in trade, ATVs and snowmobiles too. We work hard through several wholesale and dealer sources to find you a competitive trade value. This invitation is not in reaction to this thread, but is common practice at our dealership.
Dave
High Country H-D/Buell sales
We sell numerous sportbike helmets, clothing, and riding gear and Buell-centric accessories that our sales volume can support. I have to sadly admit, this is rare in H'D/Buell dealers, even rarer at H-D only dealerships.
Several of our service techs have been to multi-day out of state Buell and specifically 1125 service training. Several of techs ride metric bikes, on-road and competitively in racing.
Without an extensive survey of employees at High Country H-D/Buell, on any given day employee owned bikes parked there include (model designations may be partial):
A Ducati Multistrada
A couple BMW GS1200R's I believe, the big dual-sports.
BMW RT1100
Honda VTX1300
Triumph Bonneville - both a retro and a classic
Triumph Daytona
Norton 850 Commando
Buell 1125r
Buell Ulysses
Buell XB9R
Several KTMs
Several highly Customized Buells
Sometimes when I walk into a McDonald's, I feel like I am just a number, other times, I actually get greeted by a real person because I treat them the same way. Chips are better when they fall then when worn on a shoulder.
Dave
No, no they are not.
In fact, in our northern Colorado area, last year Thunder Mtn, Greeley and Cheyenne dealerships all dropped the Buell line.
Years back when the Motor Company bought Erik Buell out, incentives were given to take on the Buell line in the Harley dealer network. In some cases, back in 2001 when Harley production was lower in quantity than today, I am sure the logic went something like this:
"Hmmmm, can't get anymore big-twins so we have lotsa floor space not being used. If we take some of them modified Sportsters they call Buells, we can get some more big-twins. "
Thus started some bad customer experiences with Buell at a minority of dealerships.
Today, Harley production is in-synch with demand and some dealers would rather just sell what they know. At High Country H-D/Buell, we know, sell and ride Buells. In addition to numerous service techs attending Buell service training at the factory, and our taking on Direct-Link to allow dyno-tuning of Buells in our dyno trailer, we have raced Buells and will continue to.
Also for the last several years most of the sales have attended Freddie Spencer Race Track schools at either Vegas Motor Speedway or Miller Motorsport near Salt Lake City.
Dave
We have only one 2008 new Buell left for sale right now, an 1125. Sold three 2008 Uly's in the last ten days alone.
I am defensive - sure. But I also feel bad Salsa came away thinking the way he did. I worked very hard to get him to come up to High Cntry, to get on a demo ride and to get him top-dollar on his trade. Seems we must not treat people as poorly as some here would have you believe if we are selling out our entire allocation including to people from as far south as Colorado Springs.
And there are no less than four other Buell dealers between the Springs area and Frederick, exit 235.
There may be one born every minute, but IMHO our string of high volume Buell sales years is not the result of luck.
Dave
High Country H-D/Buell
I've been out of the loop for a while but I have always had good experiances with HC
Reed hired me when I left the corporate world, engineering and product management. I have, and will continue to learn a good many things about sales of motorcycles from Reed. Reed is a personal friend. I have ridden many miles with he & his wife. We regularly help each other with sales leads when we know the other person has a bike more suited to a customer in our show room that we can not find the right bike for.
IMHO Reed would not have made a difference in this particular situation. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
But for the record, I ride a Buell, owned it less than a year and have over 11,000 miles on it. And not that it matters, Reed does not own a Buell.
Where as Reed has had a great effect on the Buell presence at Sun, High Country has never lowered its affection with Buells. And in the numerous race track and H-D/Buell sales on-track riding training we have taken over the years where competitive models such as the Triumph Speed Triple, the Duc Monster, numerous BMW, Aprilia, Suzuki VStrom, KTM, Honda, KLR and Yamaha are ridden on a closed course along with Buells and V-Rods, I am not aware of one Sun employee attending.
Dave,
Thank you for taking the time to respond (even if it has been almost a month). Like I said in the original post, I only wrote what I personally experienced. I never had any issues with you. You obviously love bikes and that was apparent by your knowledge when we first met. My biggest issues were with the finance issues and the fact that I had to jump through loops that through all my car and bike buying years I have NEVER had to do... and I can't stress this enough.
Just like I told Bones, I have never left a dealership (car or motorcycle) feeling like I did when I left there. I wanted a bike and your finance guy wanted to sell insurance. Did you know that he had quotes printed up before asking me if I had insurance. If he wasn't trying to get a commission off of that why would he have done that?
There were severe breakdowns in communications, both on my side and on HC's as well. If you really want to rehash this month old issue, then by all means we can go point to point however fruitless it may be. Yes I may have presumed that a deal could have been made that day. In my defense, I can only go by past experiences (1 bike though a private seller, 2 bikes @ Aurora Honda, 1 bike @ Foothills BMW/Triumph, 1 @ Vickery Motorsports) to gauge how to purchase a motorcycle.
Just like I told Bones when he called me... my problems weren't with you (and I appreciate you attempting to clear the air). My primary issues were with Mr. finance guy. I wish you the best and am glad you all are selling your Buells.
For anyone else, just let me reiterate this one more time... my experience which I posted was mine and mine alone. If you've had good dealings with HCHD, then I'm happy for you.
For me personally, I'll stick with my Triumph.
Do not put off living the life you dream of. Next year may never come. If we are always waiting for something to change...
Retirement, the kids to leave home, the weather or the economy, that's not living. That's waiting!
Waiting will only leaves us with unrealized dreams and empty wishes.
I went by High Country when I was shopping for my Dyna. They made me feel like a scab. I bought from Rocky Mountain H-D on County Line Rd. and Santa Fe (US85). They were great! Call Dave Arnold if you want to be treated right. If I every need another H-D or if I break down and get a Buell instead of the Ducati S2R 1000 that I'm really craving, he's the guy I'm going to do business with... and Harry in Finance... great bunch of folks!
Perhaps you are a scab?
I bought my Ulysses there. I had a Lightning I bought elsewhere, but longed for dirt roads. When my Lightning broke down on Peak to Peak last year, HCHD was the only dealer willing to come get me, and on a Sunday no less. While I was there, they let me ride a demo to go get lunch. So I took a Ulysses, from then on I was hooked.
I didn't talk with any finance guy, got the credit app and gave it back to the sales guy. They found out my pay off. All I needed to do was get the new bank listed on my insurance when I came back to pick up the bike.
Been a while, but I bought my softail from HC in '03 and had a great experience. I also go there occasionally for parts, accessories, and service supplies. I test drove the 1125 there too and while the bike didn't quite live up to my hopes for it, the guys there were, and always have been, great to deal with. That sucks that you had a bad experience Salsa, but you did end up with a great bike in the end! I've been trying to steal my buddy's ever since he bought it.
I'm glad you had and continue to have good experiences. Funny how this works. I've never been treated badly at Vickery, but I know people who absolutely despise the place.
mehhh... that's life. I've moved on. And yeah... the Speed Triple rocks!
Do not put off living the life you dream of. Next year may never come. If we are always waiting for something to change...
Retirement, the kids to leave home, the weather or the economy, that's not living. That's waiting!
Waiting will only leaves us with unrealized dreams and empty wishes.
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