Rocket Prices

[rocket3rider]

Hello fellow Rocket Riders & Captains.

You know as a Triumph rider, and especially those of us that ride the Rocket, we know it is the best cruiser in the world. HOWEVER, I have a major problem with many of the dealers and people in the market to buy one.

It seems like dealers are giving the motorcycle away...2007 for $13,000 and less. What is going on. Instead of the bike retaining a good value, we are getting killed by dealers giving the bike away.

My uncle rides a 2000 HD Heritage Softtail with over 35,000 miles and he can sell it for as much or more than he paid for it. I personally think the bike is ***** compared to the Rocket, but my point is made.

I understand everyone wanting a good deal and I understand supply and demand. The problem is the other side of the deal. It kills the secondary market, for those of us who are selling the bike, and almost have to give it away.

If the motorcycle is as good as we all say it is, then it is time we give it some respect with pricing and build value into our motorcycles instead of getting killed on the market by the Fatboy's of Harley Davidson.

Just my thoughts, would love to hear yours.

[tbsrider2000]

I feel the same way. I hate seeing a fully accessorized Rocket going for under $10K. Although, it's an outstanding deal for who ever gets it! There have been a couple of examples sold right here on our forum.

I have been guilty of taking advantage of these type prices as well. I picked up my '04 Rocket III in Jan '06 for $12,500. It was a demo bike and has a whopping 123 miles on it! For 3K off of MSRP, I can like black and it's new enough for me! My first Hinkley Triumph, a '00 Thunderbird Sport, I picked up in September 2001 with less than 1,000 miles on it for $6,000. I believe MSRP was close to $9500, if I remember correctly.

Triumph motorcycles just have not been known for holding on to their financial value. Shoot, we are going to look at a 2000 Triumph Tropy 1200 tomorrow for $5K.. Sport tourers from Honda, Yamaha, etc.. of the same year sell for closer to $7K

[Mojoinco]

Wah! I have never bought a motorcycle with the idea it would be sold, nor worth a dime when I was done with it. With narrow exceptions (HDs a few years ago) motorcycles have always been a bad investment. Think bikes are bad? Try boats and RVs. Bikes are things of passion. Ever look at the resale value of a used sport bike?!

Enjoy the bike, or buy Krugerands....

[TRI-AL]

I'm "paranoid" of them "discontinueing" the beast, myself (or worse yet) the "company" going "belly-up", so the decrease in MSRP always scares me as well. I would be satisfied if they just kept the thing in "production" as is and only changed the colors available from year to year as in the "old days". :hammer:

[Easywheelie2]

Well, my local dealer seems to sell a lot of RIII's and the best I could do on the price is $800 off and this is my third bike from them in one year. I guess it depends on your area's market. Foothills BMW bought 3 new 05 RIII's from a dealer early this year that couldn't sell them and Foothills unloaded these bikes in no time.

[Pig9r]

No different from any other metric cruiser as far a resell. Show me any other vehicle that has resell values like HD's do. It is a good sign Triumph is dropping the price, they are trying to attract more people to the Rocket. According to my dealer, Triumph feels the Rocket hasn't quite caught on yet. Triumph is a solid company, they can do things that other publicly held companies can't, Bloor has to answer to just himself, not stockholders. They are selling record amounts of bikes each year. Many of their bikes are top in their respective class. That's something Triumph couldn't claim just a few years ago.

[ This message was edited by: Pig9r on 2007-06-19 21:35 ]

[sbljr]

On 2007-06-18 07:56, rocket3rider wrote:
My uncle rides a 2000 HD Heritage Softtail with over 35,000 miles and he can sell it for as much or more than he paid for it.

No he can't he just thinks he can (unless he somehow bought it for an incredibly LOW price in 2000 when $tealers were selling them anything but low). Nowadays if he does try to sell it for what he probably thinks he can get he'll be disappointed--like several guys I know who've tried to sell lower mileage Harleys than that lately.

Harleys DO still hold resale better than any other brand of bike but it ain't like it used to be. The only Harleys I've sold above what I had in 'em were near-stock and LOW mileage and that was back in the 90's. A lot of guys claim they made money on Harleys, but the ones who aren't dealers by trade are mostly using some optimistic arithmetic to tell themselves they did :wink:

[baggage1]

I know for sure that the market is still soft in areas mainly due to the lack of the word getting out and the,"intimidation factor",and as far as I'm concerned it can stay that way. In recent rallies and shows I was the only Rocket to show up and I know there are many sold by my dealer probably close to 80 but I rarely see one.

[Englishguy]

Yep the world is upside down when idiots.. I mean buyers pay Ferrari prices for farm machinery and we can pick up the Ferrari equivalent for the price of a Chevy. The way I see it we win and the sixty something, born again bikers get riped off. Lets face it they are not paying for the bike, they are buying in to the image. Real bikers ride to Sturgis on a Triumph, they don't trailer the Harley to a location five miles out of town. :razz:

[Bluespoke]

Must be a US thing. Here in Oz, a new R3 retails for around AU$24K, plus ORC. It's near impossible to find a second hand one for under AU$20K. Harleys seem to lose value more, over here. Guess people are waking up to them.