EurotaxGlass's predicts stable 2007 UK motorcycle prices

[totalmotorcycle]

EurotaxGlass's predicts stable 2007 UK motorcycle prices
24th November 2006 - Autoindustry - autoindustry.co.uk



Coinciding with the 2007 International Motorcycle Show in Birmingham, EurotaxGlass’s has issued a commentary on retail motorcycle prices for the new model year. In the past, says Glass’s, many official UK importers adopted premium pricing strategies that not only served to generate healthy profit margins but in part protected them against currency fluctuations.

However, the combination of short supply and high retail prices has more recently led UK consumers to seek cheaper machines from parallel importers, a trend that significantly impacted upon the UK market.

Glass’s says those days are largely behind the industry as most manufacturers have established common distribution and pricing policies across Europe, while the changing economic climate has led to far greater currency stability. The recent consistency in retail prices is probably just as well since the market for powered two-wheelers has proved to be highly price-sensitive.

“Exchange rates still favour the European distributors of Japanese motorcycles, with the euro increasing in value by over 9% against the yen in recent months,” says Randal Thomas, Motorcycle Editor at EurotaxGlass’s. “However, any hope that list prices will drop as a result may be short lived as the trade still seeks to address the lack of profitability on selling new machines.”