Total Motorcycle Community Forums

Okay. It does seem really obnoxious for a dealer NOT to sell you the bike you want.

That said, why not go ahead and find a used 250? I understand the worries about warranty, etc. BUT if you find a decent machine, just take it to a mechanic and have them give it a good inspection to make sure there aren't any potential issues. It seems understood that you WILL be moving up to a bigger machine, so why fret over potential future mechanical issues?

I'd be willing to bet that in fact you will be wanting to move up to something more powerful fairly soon - possibly within a year or even sooner. You'll take a pretty big hit in the wallet having bought new.

Just my 2 cents.

P

If that was the case with the dealer, I'd find a way to have cash in hand (but in the jacket pocket really), say you want to buy the b ike. If they refuse, pull out your money, look reluctantly at it, and say, ok, I will go to ____ (<--- insert other dealer here).


Ok, really what tropicalhotdog said is a pretty good suggestion. But really, if the dealership refused the sale already, go elsewhere. Why go back to idiots? I'm also wondering why else they'd sayno. Possibly have the bike 'reserved' for someone else...???

A dealer saying no to a sale sounds strange to me. I visited a few dealerships before buying my bike from a private party. Every dealership I went to, I explained that I had just taken the MSF course and was looking for a beginner bike, and told them which bikes I was interested in (did a little research online before visiting their showroom). Not once did I have anyone try to talk me out of what I considered a "beginner bike". I would definitely complain to upper management. The biggest part of learning to ride, IMHO, is finding a bike that you are comfortable with.

Good luck!

You didn't say where in southern California you are, but a quick search shows 10 Yamaha dealers in the greater L.A. area. I would just go to a different dealer. The Honda/Yamaha dealer in my town (Mount Holly, NJ) is certainly willing to sell Viragos and Rebels, they have 'em on the floor and I know people who've bought them there.

I live in Rosamond, CA which is in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It is about 75 miles to northern LA suburbs. That is the reason that I tried to go to the dealers that are in Lancaster and Palmdale (easier to get bike home). I will be going to another dealership that wants to do business. I just wanted to know if anyone had ever had a similar situation. I think more than likely it was a strong arm upselling attempt. I will definitely go back there just to make sure that they know they lost this sale as well as all future sales to me. Hopefully that will discourage their practice of not realizing that if a customer wants something that they are selling, then they should sell it to them.

When I bought mine.. I was thinking 250.. they upsold me to a gs500... now 2 months later I am glad they did. However they were reasonable, and didn't try and sell me a 900cc bike. Plus I knew the salesman, so I trusted his judgment. He also said, buy whatever I feel comfortable with.

BTW I had them deliver it to my house. I live in a large townhouse complex and I was able to practice there, and the surrounding rural roads. I didn't take it out to the main road for 2 days. Here it is almost 2 months later, and I still have yet to take it on the Interstate, but Im getting more comfortable at higher speeds.

Good luck man! stop back and buy something small from there and say 'yea, I need this for the bike I bought elsewhere since you didnt want to deal' Might change their tone. Who else knows how many other people he did this to.

Every time I want a new bike the dealer won't sell it to me because it's not available in the states. This has happened with several Hondas (Africa Twin, Valario, CTs after 86), Triumph (before 95 but in Europe in 88), BMW (Funduro (avail. in MX 2 yrs before States),Basic (The last Airhead only sold in Germany)) Royal Enfields (now available in States) and even a Harley Sportster variant. (only avail. in the UK)

But I can buy a China throw away piece of crap at Wal Mart or Checker!

Well I went back to the dealership in question yesterday. I talked to the same salesman. I sat on a few bikes including some bohemeth tourer/cruiser. That thing had to weigh close to 1500lbs. It took 3 guys to move it out so that I sit on it.

Anyway, I reminded the salesman of our talk and my desire to purchase the virago. He told me again that he wouldn't sell it to me. I mentioned that I was going to call Yamaha corporate and he said that was fine, but his reasoning was that I would not be happy with that bike and it would be bad for his business (I wouldn't be a return customer). So I now realize that it was his attempt at an upsell technique that was very abrupt and strong. He is trying really hard to "earn" my business on at V-Star 650 Custom. I sat on that for a while and am thinking about going that route. I have seen other members buying that size cruiser for a 1st bike. I think I can handle the weight, doesn't seem that much heavier. But is it worth the extra $2,000-$3,000?

Thanks for all of the advice to this point.

Get the bike you want. I wouldn't give that guy my business for anything. Never let those guys push you around. His interests are not your interests.

If it's your very first bike, it's clearly better to learn on a smaller one. As others have said, it's even better advice to get a used 250 (Honda Rebel, Virago, Suzuki GZ, etc), spend a few months learning to ride on it, then flip it to another learner and go get your mid-size cruiser like a 650 Virago, or Vulcan or C50 or something. There's high probability you're going to drop your first bike just doing something silly like forgetting to put down the side stand, so it's obviously better to bang up an already "lived-in" bike rather than have to spend a few hundred dollars fixing up a brand new one.

So in the big picture, it's probably cheaper to get a used 250, learn on it, re-sell it, than get the bike you really want. By then all the 2008 models will be around too!

But get the bike you want, not the one the dealer is trying to push you into.

If you decide on the 650 V Star, I would buy it from a dealership that won't deny you a bike you initially asked for. The salesman's aggressive up-sell techniques may work on some poor folks, but it surely wouldn't work on me. I hope you don't tolerate this BS.