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I went to this place in Lake Forest CA and they were having a sale. I tell them to set me up with some financing and they come up with a $803 crate and prep charge. Everyone that is going there is getting ripped off. What a lousy place to buy a bike. They charged someone I know $1600 for crate and prep. When he went back to tell them they ripped him off they did nothing to help him out. Don't ever buy anything from this place. They blow.

Funny, a lot of places up here in Canada charge about the same. It's how they make sure they make a profit.

yeah and funny how its never a fixed fee either. it goes up as the price of the bike does (or the amount you chew down the prices does).

I think that's a function of how much it costs to ship the bike. A 400lb package would naturally cost less then an 800lb package. But that's just my silly opinion. And the bigger bikes usually require more work to assemble. Believe it or not they do have to pay their mechanics to put the darn things together.

carvedaddy wrote:I went to this place in Lake Forest CA and they were having a sale. I tell them to set me up with some financing and they come up with a $803 crate and prep charge. Everyone that is going there is getting ripped off. What a lousy place to buy a bike. They charged someone I know $1600 for crate and prep. When he went back to tell them they ripped him off they did nothing to help him out. Don't ever buy anything from this place. They blow.

You know what, you could have just walked away from this deal. No one held you down and forced you to sign anything, that is the consumer's trump card.

What really blows is that you've posted this RANT in more than one forum.

Obviously others are willing to pay the prices they charge or they'd be out of business.

This thread ought to be deleted or locked at least.

P

I'm still trying to figure out what a "Crate and prep charge" is. Is this something that people are paying above the price of the basic motorcycle? Sounds like the ever present, "Doc fee", which should really just be called "extra profit fee".

When it all comes down to it, dealers will try to distract you with mumbo jumbo names for various increases in the price, but the bottom line is that it doesn't matter what they call it. When the dealer says, "Oh, there'll be an added that fee", all that means is that he just bumped the price up a little more. The name of the fee is merely to get you to think it's a justified increase.

Is there any difference in a bike that sells for $10,000 and one that sells for $8,500 plus $1,500 if various fees and charges? You bet there is. A good salesperson will hoodwink a buyer into thinking the second bike is a real bargain. I'm amazed at how often this works.

I guess this guys gonna post this on every motorcylce forum on the net. I think he needs to learn some negotiating skills first. If you want a good deal you gotta know what you want and what you can get before you walk in the door.

used bikes dont come in crates.

9000white wrote:used bikes dont come in crates.

New bikes come in crates, but I never had a dealer try and charge me for putting one together. What I bought was a motorcycle, not a box of parts.

Some places roll the crate and assembly into the "floor price" so you never see it on there. Others don't.