I was shooting the s*** with the sales manager at my local dealer on Saturday and I mentioned I may be interested in a new bike, he got some info on my bike and asked if I serviced it there. I told him I do my own services and he replied "that's a shame, I have to pay full price for the service dept to go through a used bike in order to get ready to sell. If we did the services, I wouldn't need to have them do that. It usually works out to around $600 per bike that I could be giving you back on your trade." I told him I felt like he was full of dung, and that I'm sure every used bike has to be inspected/cleaned/serviced, but not at the tune of "regular customer price." He insisted he wasn't BS'n and I just went along with him...and didn't buy a bike.

How accurate is this info? Sounded like a load of crap to me when he claimed the sales dept had to pay full price on the services performed by the service dept.

 

I dunno, but I bought mt Sportster slightly used in '05. It had Samson ripsaw pipes on it. i ttok it back to the same dealer for state inspection, they told me it failed Pa state inspection for the pipes, offered to replace them, but didn't want to give the Samsons back. i told them to keep their inspection sticker. IOf the dealers werent such ripoff sharks, it would be another situation, and most of them are.

 

I'm trading in my bike in June. I've gone to 3 dealers comparing desl. One dealer did ask me about service. I also do all.my own service. He hasn't given me a trade value yet because I'm still riding it this adding miles and lowering the value. Acc to him. So unless he's 1k over my normal dealer he's not getting my business

 

BS....!,my salesman doesn't ask me any of that crap!

 

Total BS. He doesn’t have to pay his service guys anything. They’re getting paid whether they’re drinking coffee or working on bikes. He’s trying to milk you. Even if it did cost them money, that’s a cost of doing business.

 

Don't trade it in, new Harelys are worse than the old ones...

 

It is possible the dealership has some sort of accounting system that gives this a hint of truth.

It is also possible you should ignore everything sales people tell you except the bottom line dollars.

Last time I traded, one dealer very sincerely described a thousand dollars of work he would have to do
to my trade, another did not mention anything. one was charging over nine hundred for setup, the other
a hundred and change.

now if the sales manager and the service manager are the same person, well lots of "money" can change hands.

 

It's been my experience this varies from dealer to dealer.
The last 5 I traded in, they had no problem with me doing the service.
(same dealer though)

 

Well they didn’t have a problem with the last bike I traded in and I did my own services on it too, different sales manager though. I ended up selling mine, but I was just wondering on this.

 

That dealership is probably trying to get an extra 1300 bucks, because they will tell the poor smuck buying your bike that he / she will have to pay for the service, and inspection. .