Whether to Buy Local or to Save Money

[Nice n Easy Rider]

In a recent post (Got my new RT today,but have a small mechanical problem) under Hexheads and Camheads the OP received a new RT that he bought at a distance and had shipped but it arrived with a non-functioning signal on one side.

 

Linky

 

Several posters questioned the merits of buying from a distant dealer and then expecting service from a local dealer. That got me to thinking that we're confronted with that choice more and more often it seems. We can buy our produce in a large grocery chain where much of it is grown overseas (I read that 75% of the garlic comes from China; I guess Gilroy must cover the other 25%) or we can pay more at the farmers' market for fresh produce grown by our local small farmers. We can buy our car from a local dealer and help support the local economy or we can shop online for the best price and travel 200 miles to get "a deal".

 

I try to support the local business people as much as possible but can't say what I would have done in the OP's situation where he was saving $2000 by buying from a distant dealer. It's a lot easier to speak of principles when it's not your money on the line. How does everyone else make the decision as to where to draw the line between saving dollars and supporting local business people (and maybe even your neighbors)?

 

[Joe Frickin' Friday]

Several posters questioned the merits of buying from a distant dealer and then expecting service from a local dealer.

 

I would expect service from the local dealer, regardless of where I bought my bike, because my service dollars are as green as anyone else's. Why would the local dealer not want my service dollars? re: warranty repair, the dealer may not make as much money as they do on non-warranty service, but it's not a loss, and it's better than an empty service bay and an idled tech. The only reasons a local dealer would refuse to service a bike bought elsewhere is out of pure spite, or if his schedule is totally packed servicing bikes that were bought from him.

 

On other matters:

 

Hardware store is a mile away (another one is 5 miles away on a Sunday-motorcycle-ride route), Home Depot is about 10 miles away. If I need a couple of nuts and bolts or a single tube of construction adhesive, I'll hit the hardware store; if I'm buying bulk quantities for a big project, I'll take the time/trouble to go to Home Depot and save money.

 

Grocery store vs. farmer's market? FM happens once a week, parking is a PITA, it's overcrowded, and they don't have nearly everything I want, which means I'll be stopping at the grocery store anyway to get the rest of my items. Browsing the FM can be an interesting recreational pursuit in my spare time, but I don't shop there for meaningful quantities of food.

 

 

[upflying]

I bought my Chevy truck from a dealer 50 miles away rather than using a local dealer 5 miles away. Reason was to get a better deal. I have since taken it to the local dealer for service and warranty work. No evidence of resentment that I didn't buy from them. To top it all off, my license plate frame advertises a Chevy dealer in North Carolina. Money is money.

[beemerboy]

After supporting them with my service, parts, and accessories I gave the local dealer a chance to sell me a new bike. Well, they flubbed it in a big way thus sending me out into the market. After selling my '04 KRS I ended up buying a late model K12s with very low miles and let the dealer know what happened. They acknowledged that I got a great deal (it was a private party purchase) and were only too happy to do the 6K service on my new bike as well as some update/service recall stuff.

 

I'd have preferred to keep things local but we simply couldn't reach an agreement but were able to maintain a business relationship. They've since been bought out by the local HD conglomerate and don't have the same sales/parts/service emphasis they used to so I no longer do business with them.

[RichEdwards]

I recently posted that my dealer (where I purchased my '07 GT and four other bikes in the last 7 years) went to bat for me when my ABS went belly-up two months after the warranty expired. They got BMW to agree to absorb the part cost ($1850) as a "good-will" repair and they agreed to install it for free. I don't think that I would have received the same effort if I purchased the bike at a dealer 1000 miles away.

[Albert]

That's a fair point Rich. In the OP's case they would still be $150 ahead even buying the part though.

[Quinn]

I feel that I should at least give my local dealer a shot at selling me something. Then it's up to me to decide if the convience and possible return hassle is worth the added cost. What I don't do is spend two hours of his time asking questions and getting a full demo only to go home and order it on the internet.

 

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[TestPilot]

As the person who brought up this topic in the previously identified thread, let me clarify my concerns. If a large dealer like Max BMW can sell at deep discounts and will ship anywhere in the country, that dealer is essentially setting the price for every other dealer in the country to match. Perhaps some can, but smaller dealers, working on narrower margins, will eventually go out of business. Then where will you get your maintenance done?

[EddyQ]

As the person who brought up this topic in the previously identified thread, let me clarify my concerns. If a large dealer like Max BMW can sell at deep discounts and will ship anywhere in the country, that dealer is essentially setting the price for every other dealer in the country to match. Perhaps some can, but smaller dealers, working on narrower margins, will eventually go out of business. Then where will you get your maintenance done?

 

If the local dealer is off $2000, then it is very wise to let the local dealer loose the deal. I shop off the internet for savings of $50.

The local dealer can jack his mantainance costs to offset the loss of sale or choose to deal somewhere else. Then, the mechanics at the honda barn would say, hey, I need to work on BMW bikes, look at what folks pay . . . And the supply and demand system works out. It is when folks do weird things like paying far more than they should when long term issues with the supply and demand happens.

[tallman]

And here the local UJM shops charge $130/hour while the BMW technician w/35 years experience charges $74/hour at an independent shop.

 

This topic has been pretty well hashed over in the past.

Some folks give a local, or closer dealerships a chance and the price is close, sometimes it isn't.

I know a board member who has bought numerous beemers and many 1200 GS bikes.

He gave our previous dealership a chance on two bikes to sell him one.

That was good of him to do.

He ended up elsewhere, but not from lack of looking or our trying to make a deal.

He just got a great deal elsewhere.

That happens.

 

My problem is when BMW provides an artificial support to a dealer which allows them to creat volume sales and become competition to smaller dealerships when that wouldn't happen if they didn't get the original discount.

If all dealerships had that option, then it would be up to the dealer to set competitive prices or not.

But it isn't fair to say that dealer X is setting the price for others when ;they can ship a bike across country for less than a smaller dealer can buy the bike to sell at retail.

YMMV.

 

 

[Polo]

As the person who brought up this topic in the previously identified thread, let me clarify my concerns. If a large dealer like Max BMW can sell at deep discounts and will ship anywhere in the country, that dealer is essentially setting the price for every other dealer in the country to match. Perhaps some can, but smaller dealers, working on narrower margins, will eventually go out of business. Then where will you get your maintenance done?

 

How did Max BMW got so big? They chose to reach out and sell beyond their counter and probably have a narrower margin than the smaller dealers and rely on volume. I don't imagine that BMW has a very aggressive volume discount scheme. (I admit that I really don't have factual information on this, I'm just guessing based on BMW's overall attitude on some other matters.)

 

So Max BMW can offer their local patrons better prices on parts, and charge about the same for labor if not better and that's where the money is.

 

If the local dealer chooses not to be as enterprising, that is their decision; they can certainly define their business model as they please. And whether they say it, imply it, or I yield to paranoia, and consider them to hold me hostage for not paying their excessive prices, then I will seek a solution to my problem elsewhere.

 

In reality, they have never given me the impression to hold it against me in any way. They are proud of their parts, they are proud of their labor, and you can pay or not. I don't believe they have lost sleep over my buying some parts from them, and some elsewhere. They have good mechanics and are well supplied, but they control a large and inelastic enough market that this business model seems to work for them.

 

I will save money every chance I get as long as I don't sacrifice quality.

 

 

[Polo]

My problem is when BMW provides an artificial support to a dealer which allows them to creat volume sales and become competition to smaller dealerships when that wouldn't happen if they didn't get the original discount.

If all dealerships had that option, then it would be up to the dealer to set competitive prices or not.

But it isn't fair to say that dealer X is setting the price for others when ;they can ship a bike across country for less than a smaller dealer can buy the bike to sell at retail.

YMMV.

 

 

I can see that as a very unfair practice. It would take a lot of Joe Q Public not buying from that dealer in order to send a message to BMW.

 

I don't see that as a simple supply VS demand issue, as much as a bad policy from BMW if indeed it is the case.

[KDeline]

 

I would expect service from the local dealer, regardless of where I bought my bike, because my service dollars are as green as anyone else's. Why would the local dealer not want my service dollars? re: warranty repair, the dealer may not make as much money as they do on non-warranty service, but it's not a loss, and it's better than an empty service bay and an idled tech. The only reasons a local dealer would refuse to service a bike bought elsewhere is out of pure spite,

 

 

And that is what a local dealer did to me when he could not come close to a price I got elswhere. That owner has recently sold, the new owner said it will never happen again.

[elkroeger]

A friend of mine took his car to the shop, with the parts in the trunk. He announced that he discovered he didn't have the tools to install them after all. The guys at the shop put 'em on, rang him up, and that was that. I imagine it's more common than you'd think.

 

At any rate, people that I know in this and similar businesses don't have time or energy to hate you for going elsewhere. I look at it like fishing - you can't hate the fish you didn't catch. Ever seen a Dodge dealer refuse to take a Ford as a trade-in?