What month to buy a new litre sports bike?

[blade7]

It's 9 years since I last bought a brand new sports bike, and back then around October is when the dealers seemed to drop their take it or leave attitude. Is it the same now, or do the dealers just tough it out until spring?

[tafkattn]

The month just before new registrations come out seems to be a good time. Dealers are sometimes given incentives to get their numbers up.

[paddy1970]

December .... between Xmas and New Year

[Mr Squarekins]

Yup, I went for January. Crap weather and most of the country is skint or booking their summer holidays.

Bought my latest bike on the 28th Jan, just before people got paid.


What have you decided to get?

[blade7]

Mr Squarekins said:

Yup, I went for January. Crap weather and most of the country is skint or booking their summer holidays.

Bought my latest bike on the 28th Jan, just before people got paid.


What have you decided to get?

Probably a S1000RR for the cruise control and heated grips, but anymore than £16k and I lose interest.

[Paft Dunk]

Picked up my S1000RR in December for that sort of money last year.

[tafkattn]

That's what I paid for my Tuono, inc. Akra and map, in the last week of February so it was on a 21 reg, instead of a 22 reg if I'd waited a few days. As soon as they flicked over to 22 reg, the prices went up a grand.

[Pazuzu]

The month after you actually buy one in my experience :-)

[blade7]

Paft Dunk said:

Picked up my S1000RR in December for that sort of money last year.

Which dealer was that from? I like the looks of the carbon wheels, but I'd choke at paying an extra £3k to have them.

[J B L]

Picked up my Speed Triple S 1050 in December 19 (probably one of the last before the 1200 was released) for £7,999. Seems this is the time to get them. Went to get it in a van. Dealer barely bothered with the PDi but it's all good now.

[Paft Dunk]

blade7 said:

Which dealer was that from? I like the looks of the carbon wheels, but I'd choke at paying an extra £3k to have them.

Vines in Guildford. All done in a single day. I took their quote over to Bahnstormer in Alton as they had a ‘we refuse to be beaten on price’ offer. And were unable to match Vines.

Being a BMW customer (any BMW V5C in the household) will also give further £500 discount. As will finance if that works for you.

And as per points above, dealers were looking to get to a number of bikes sold to meet bonus levels from BMW.

Join the various dealers mailing lists, there are often promotions when they need to shift bikes. Looking over old emails seems to be last week in November through to mid December had the most promotions on list price.

My general observation is that dealers seem to thrown in extras and low cost options during the year so you might not get that free alarm and smoked screen but will get a good price. Depends what you are looking for.

[KTMsm]

If you know exactly what you want call the Dealers and say I'm looking for the best deal on an XXXX here's my number

Follow it up with an email once a month

Then if they need to shift old stock or hit a sales target you should get a call

[blade7]

Thanks for the replies. A dealer I visited on Saturday told me the £800 contribution finishes at the end of August, I think it runs to the end of September though. The bike I was interested in, had the Akra can fitted. That's a waste of £600+ to me, doesn't add any power or noise and is longer than the standard can. They had plenty of stock, so perhaps there will be a better deal next month. As I've bought a new one in the past, I'd hope that counts for something with BMW?

Edited by blade7 on Tuesday 23 August 12:09

[Gixer968CS]

Canons in Witham (Essex) were offering incredible deals on GS1250s earlier this year - new bikes for considerably less than used ones. May have been model specific but I think they were looking for sales numbers. I think I was there around April time, so just after the new reg had come out.

[Mr Squarekins]

blade7 said:

Thanks for the replies. A dealer I visited on Saturday told me the £800 contribution finishes at the end of August, I think it runs to the end of September though. The bike I was interested in, had the Akra can fitted. That's a waste of £600+ to me, doesn't add any power or noise and is longer than the standard can. They had plenty of stock, so perhaps there will be a better deal next month. As I've bought a new one in the past, I'd hope that counts for something with BMW?

Edited by blade7 on Tuesday 23 August 12:09

I'd agree on the can. Standard sounds good esp. On the overrun. Akra can without full system just rings of 'all the gear'.

[blade7]

Mr Squarekins said:

I'd agree on the can. Standard sounds good esp. On the overrun. Akra can without full system just rings of 'all the gear'.

The standard can is straight through, if Akra headers match up it, that would be good a stealth system. Unless gen3 headers fit?

[Mr Squarekins]

blade7 said:

The standard can is straight through, if Akra headers match up it, that would be good a stealth system. Unless gen3 headers fit?

No way gen 3 headers would fit the engine imho. Good chance that std gen 4 can fits gen4 akra system. Easy to find out before buying a full system I guess.

[Ambleton]

Most dealers have year end targets to hit.

It's not a sports bike, but I bought our scoot brand new in December. The dealer needed it sold and gone by year end to make up their figures.

Despite being a mid/high spec 125 (which are in ridiculously high demand at the minute) I managed to get it £300 below list with free delivery.

It probably didn't help that the dealer was out in middle of butt f nowhere, but meant I could buy over the phone and they delivered it to my door. Thankfully I knew what I wanted and it was brand new so there was little/no risk.

Not sure I'd do that with a litre sports bike though that's probably >4-5x the outlay of a 125 scoot.

[blade7]

A dealer told me that BMW are concentrating on the bigger sellers, and aren't building any 1000RR's at the moment.

[Mr Squarekins]

blade7 said:

A dealer told me that BMW are concentrating on the bigger sellers, and aren't building any 1000RR's at the moment.

I must admit, i've been surprised at how few msport models I have seen on the road since I bought mine. Just one in 7 months.

They had a few in stock in bmw Wolverhampton a few weeks back.