I sincerely apologize for offending you. You're absolutely right.
My reference to the dealers should have been directed more towards Honda itself.
I just feel that some of Honda's motorcycle parts prices are a smidge on the
high side (I mean c'mon, $239 for a seat on a motorcycle that's only worth
$1000, and that's on a sunny day). The dealers certainly aren't getting rich by
selling parts. They're merely passing along Honda's prices to the consumer. And
yes, they are doing us a favor by carrying parts. I'm sure most of them would
just as soon get rid of the parts end of their business.
And now I hope I haven't opened up a can of worms by slamming Honda. D'oh.
Once again, I apologize.
- Steve


--- In CB250_Nighthawk@yahoogroups.com, "Terry Sanderson" <tguitar@...> wrote:
>
> > > Well, I finally got a rip in the original factory seat cover on my '94
Nighthawk. So rather than go to the stealership and part with
>
>
> I resent comments like this, I work at Oklahoma Honda-Suzuki, currently ranked
in the top 10 Honda dealers in the US. I know what the store makes, I know what
the overhead is. If we made remotely as much money as you seem to think we do
we'd all be rich.
>
> If the owner of Oklahoma Honda-Suzuki didn't love motorcycle so much, we would
have closed years ago, there are lots better ways to make money than having a
motocycle dealership with the kind of investment he has. It takes millions of
dollars to set up a dealership, ours is 33 years old, if we were as you say a
"stealership" we would not still be around.
>
> Sure you can beat our prices on ebay and mailorder, but not from legitimate
sources. Dennis Kirk, Chaparral, and others are usually the same price we have
on the same products. A lot of the stuff on ebay is Chinese counterfits, I have
a Mikuni carb that was bought off ebay for about one forth what it would sell
for from our shop and it looks very authentic, but you can't make it run right
and when you compare it to the real thing. it just doesn't look right. Also
theft is huge, in 2007 Tourmaster/Cortech had an entire shipping container
stolen, jackets and gloves were poping up all over the place cheap.
>
> Right now the all dealerships are hurting, remember we are one of the top ten
and we're barely keeping the doors open, many dealships have already folded this
year. We laid off two people, that is the first time that has happened in the 33
year history of Oklahoma Honda-Suzuki and the owner had tears in his eyes whe he
did it.
>
> Please realize there are good and bad dealers for every product, but
motorcycle sales is still dominated by mom and pop operations. You want to see
the word stealership become real, wait until all the dealers are owned by big
coporations.
>
> Here's something for you to think about, what will you do if all the dealers
are gone?
>
> Sorry for the rant, comments like this set my blood boiling. I could go on all
night about things people outside the industry don't know.
>
> Terry Sanderson
> Del City, Oklahoma
>