Will there be any bike dealers left?

[Esceptico]

I have seen quite a number of dealers open and close over the years so assume that running a profitable dealership is not straightforward. Presumably they are currently not making any income from sales (are they still allowed to provide repairs and servicing)? But even when this Covid crisis blows over they are likely to be screwed by:

- potential buyers having no cash
- no new bikes to sell as manufacturers will be behind in their production
- It might well be summer and they will have missed the most important part of the year for sales
- cash starved owners might need to sell bikes or hand back those on PCP without a new purchase, forcing prices down

A perfect storm?

[Stuart Fordyce]

A few places I'm on the mailing lists for have sent emails saying service and MOT is still going to enable key workers etc to get about. Others are closed.

I'll be looking for a new bike in the winter and you do rather wonder who will be left (and if they will have any interest in part ex). I don't know if it's better to be like Superbike Factory and already have your stock, or it's bad to have all your cash tied up?

[Krikkit]

Stuart Fordyce said:

A few places I'm on the mailing lists for have sent emails saying service and MOT is still going to enable key workers etc to get about. Others are closed.

I'll be looking for a new bike in the winter and you do rather wonder who will be left (and if they will have any interest in part ex). I don't know if it's better to be like Superbike Factory and already have your stock, or it's bad to have all your cash tied up?

SBF should be OK as they're in a pretty cheap-to-run old building tucked away in Mac. Lots of dealers have fancy glass palaces on industrial estates that will cost a fortune.

Valid point though, stock vs no stock would be tricky.

[jjones]

Krikkit said:

SBF should be OK as they're in a pretty cheap-to-run old building tucked away in Mac. Lots of dealers have fancy glass palaces on industrial estates that will cost a fortune.

Valid point though, stock vs no stock would be tricky.

SBF moved to better premises last year.

Had an email from them
"
In light of the Government’s announcement, we are writing to let you know that we have temporarily closed our Cheshire showroom with immediate effect until further notice.

If you have ordered a motorbike, please bear with us, as we will be in contact with you to discuss your order.

If you are still interested in buying, selling or part exchanging a motorbike, please do not hesitate in sending through enquires via our website.

Obviously during this period of uncertainty, we won't be able to respond to your enquiry as promptly as we would like to. However please rest assured, as soon as the business is operational, we will get back to you.

Thank you for your understanding

The Superbike Factory Team"

[Krikkit]

jjones said:

Krikkit said:

SBF should be OK as they're in a pretty cheap-to-run old building tucked away in Mac. Lots of dealers have fancy glass palaces on industrial estates that will cost a fortune.

Valid point though, stock vs no stock would be tricky.

SBF moved to better premises last year.

Ah, I'm clearly out of date! Shame as the old place had charm.

[unident]

Esceptico said:

I have seen quite a number of dealers open and close over the years so assume that running a profitable dealership is not straightforward. Presumably they are currently not making any income from sales (are they still allowed to provide repairs and servicing)? But even when this Covid crisis blows over they are likely to be screwed by:

- potential buyers having no cash
- no new bikes to sell as manufacturers will be behind in their production
- It might well be summer and they will have missed the most important part of the year for sales
- cash starved owners might need to sell bikes or hand back those on PCP without a new purchase, forcing prices down

A perfect storm?

Insert any business here and you’ll have the same issues.

[BobSaunders]

Any starting to post interesting discounts?

[unident]

BobSaunders said:

Any starting to post interesting discounts?

I thought motor dealerships were told to close. My Facebook feed is full of car dealers though, as I sold mine a fe weeks ago and haven’t got round to buying another one yet.

[dibblecorse]

BobSaunders said:

Any starting to post interesting discounts?

As has been said, they are shut ....

Will be a nightmare for them (and many businesses) when they get to re-open their doors as I suspect lots or orders have been cancelled so they will have lots of unsold new stock that either already arrived or en-route, same with cars, many threads across PH of people cancelling orders etc or pulling out of used car purchases, I was one a few weeks ago as this started to set in and my stocks had tanked that I was going to use for the purchase.

Compound that with PCP handbacks, although the finance companies do seem to be listening to customers and offering extensions etc, it will be carnage across so many industries.

I genuinely feel for them.

[MrGman]

I’ve got a pcp ending in November, things changed during the pcp and I ended up commuting which wasn’t planned so I’m well over the mileage allowance on my deal, my plan was to sell privately as i think it will be worth around my settlement figure, not so sure I’m going to have any luck selling privately if things carry on for too long though so may have to take a hit on it :/

[dibblecorse]

MrGman said:

I’ve got a pcp ending in November, things changed during the pcp and I ended up commuting which wasn’t planned so I’m well over the mileage allowance on my deal, my plan was to sell privately as i think it will be worth around my settlement figure, not so sure I’m going to have any luck selling privately if things carry on for too long though so may have to take a hit on it :/

Probably a minimal loss hopefully in the grand scheme of things, good luck and at least you can just give it back, the depreciation drop is their issue.

[Grindle]

Bike shops were on every corner almost in the 70s, but we have seen even major chains go bust like Motorcycle City, for example.
The specialist places seem to be the ones doing ok, my Ducati independent has 5 staff and the shop has done well for many years now and made the boss a pretty sum, going by the bikes he has and the car he drives!
But a town centre bike dealership either needs an amazingly good name or be very cheap to survive, it seems.
Tough industry. But then there are many others struggling too.

[dibblecorse]

Grindle said:

Bike shops were on every corner almost in the 70s, but we have seen even major chains go bust like Motorcycle City, for example.
The specialist places seem to be the ones doing ok, my Ducati independent has 5 staff and the shop has done well for many years now and made the boss a pretty sum, going by the bikes he has and the car he drives!
But a town centre bike dealership either needs an amazingly good name or be very cheap to survive, it seems.
Tough industry. But then there are many others struggling too.

I wouldn't judge a business based on the cars and bikes that the owner has, many a business headed up by someone seemingly 'living the life' has gone pop as it can easily be built on sand, hope they make it through whoever they are .... unless its a certain Ducati outfit that I won't name ....

[BobSaunders]

unident said:

BobSaunders said:

Any starting to post interesting discounts?

I thought motor dealerships were told to close. My Facebook feed is full of car dealers though, as I sold mine a fe weeks ago and haven’t got round to buying another one yet.

They were, but there is a difference between shutting up shop and continuing from home remotely to service customer sales - whilst at the same time needing to pay various bills. I would bet that some would possibly be interested in dropping the price ever so slightly to get some sales, rather than nothing.

Garages are not shut, nor is servicing. One would expect the dealerships to be cheekily open with various social distancing in place.

http://huntsmotorcycles.co.uk/coronavirus.htm

"Whilst our showroom is closed to the public, we are still taking orders for both new and used bikes. All our used bikes, and new bike offers can be viewed via our website. We are taking calls, responding to emails and can e-mail high resolution pictures of all our stock in a way which makes them easy to view on any device. We can discuss and agree part-exchange figures and arrange finance via the telephone and electronically. If you would like to make an enquiry our telephone numbers are:"

Edited by BobSaunders on Thursday 26th March 14:07

[unident]

BobSaunders said:

They were, but there is a difference between shutting up shop and continuing from home remotely to service customer sales - whilst at the same time needing to pay various bills. I would bet that some would possibly be interested in dropping the price ever so slightly to get some sales, rather than nothing.

Garages are not shut, nor is servicing. One would expect the dealerships to be cheekily open with various social distancing in place.

http://huntsmotorcycles.co.uk/coronavirus.htm

"Whilst our showroom is closed to the public, we are still taking orders for both new and used bikes. All our used bikes, and new bike offers can be viewed via our website. We are taking calls, responding to emails and can e-mail high resolution pictures of all our stock in a way which makes them easy to view on any device. We can discuss and agree part-exchange figures and arrange finance via the telephone and electronically. If you would like to make an enquiry our telephone numbers are:"

Edited by BobSaunders on Thursday 26th March 14:07

Whether that are technically open or not is moot. This is my current experience, albeit with a car. I sold my car two weeks ago to a dealership via one of the online type We Buy Any car facilities (not them though). I got a price that I thought was as good as I would get selling privately.

The car subsequently went up for sale for £5k more than I sold it for c12% mark up. I thought that was optimistic. It has since been reduced to a price below what he paid for it. I spoke to him and he said since this all kicked off he hasn’t a single phone call about any car that he’s selling. A lot of his competitors are in a similar position.

They may be able to ride it out, they may not but many won’t. That’ll mean a short term flood of used cars and prices will drop, followed by a loss of supply (no / very few new cars are being made currently) and a price hike.

We’ll gain short term and lose out longer term. Fairly simple economics unfortunately.

Bikes are even worse though as they’re a toy for the vast majority and that might take a long time to recover.

[dave2007bc]

Esceptico said:

I have seen quite a number of dealers open and close over the years so assume that running a profitable dealership is not straightforward. Presumably they are currently not making any income from sales (are they still allowed to provide repairs and servicing)? But even when this Covid crisis blows over they are likely to be screwed by:

- potential buyers having no cash
- no new bikes to sell as manufacturers will be behind in their production
- It might well be summer and they will have missed the most important part of the year for sales
- cash starved owners might need to sell bikes or hand back those on PCP without a new purchase, forcing prices down

A perfect storm?

There will be many with significantly less income over the coming weeks/months but there will also be some that come out of this with a decent amount of cash, potentially burning a whole in their pocket.

If you're on £30k pa typically and are furloughed, you'll have 80% of your wage for doing nothing. You can't spend it on fuel, eating out, football, nights out, merely 'essentials'. A lad at work is in that position and has, after a marriage, split just moved back in with his parents. He had a 100 mile commute and spent a fiver everyday at the local shop for dinner each day. No football to watch or bet on, no pubs to go to. If he's furloughed until the end of May he's expecting to have at least £2k saved up (he'd typically have nothing).

You've then got a number of workers that are sat at home on full salaries; teachers, teaching assistants, some key-workers, public servants. I work with Councils and an entire department of 60 staff, North of the border, was sent home on full pay for 12 weeks.

What about all those that don't/can't work and are on benefits? There's been no mention of any reduction in benefits to 80% of what they usually are so again, a large proportion of people that are getting 'full pay' but with no way of spending it.

The above assumes some form of normality at the end of May of course.

[lukeyman]

...or 100%...

whistle...

[MrGman]

dibblecorse said:

MrGman said:

I’ve got a pcp ending in November, things changed during the pcp and I ended up commuting which wasn’t planned so I’m well over the mileage allowance on my deal, my plan was to sell privately as i think it will be worth around my settlement figure, not so sure I’m going to have any luck selling privately if things carry on for too long though so may have to take a hit on it :/

Probably a minimal loss hopefully in the grand scheme of things, good luck and at least you can just give it back, the depreciation drop is their issue.

Yeah it will be minimal and I’m certainly not moaning about it given what’s going on.

I’m hoping to be treating myself to a bike when we’re on the other side so there best be a dealer open for me

[NS400R]

Talking with our local bike repair ahop where I've just had an MOT done, they've had several cancellations and won't be making this month's rent. They're worried.

[Grindle]

dibblecorse said:

Grindle said:

Bike shops were on every corner almost in the 70s, but we have seen even major chains go bust like Motorcycle City, for example.
The specialist places seem to be the ones doing ok, my Ducati independent has 5 staff and the shop has done well for many years now and made the boss a pretty sum, going by the bikes he has and the car he drives!
But a town centre bike dealership either needs an amazingly good name or be very cheap to survive, it seems.
Tough industry. But then there are many others struggling too.

I wouldn't judge a business based on the cars and bikes that the owner has, many a business headed up by someone seemingly 'living the life' has gone pop as it can easily be built on sand, hope they make it through whoever they are .... unless its a certain Ducati outfit that I won't name ....

Well, he has a house in Portugal and 2 here in UK inc. one in London, all mortgage free. But i do take your point.