Price: GS500F

[Icesharc]

A good friend of my father's owns the local suzuki dealership.  He was real nice and told me not to worry, they'd help me out with the price and get me a good deal.  Well today I got him to give me a price, it as 5,200 OTD.  And he told me not to worry bout a helmet, they'd get me a great deal on a nice one (if not for free).  

He claimed it was only 100 over his cost.  With the bike at 4400.  I asked him for a breakdown of where the rest of the cost came from and it was something like... 250 shipping from suzuki, 780 putting the bike together, and another 100 for a tag.  He didn't charge me a dealer fee.  5200 seems alot for a starting bike, I cant see spending that much on the GS but is this really a GREAT deal?

[Kerry]

5200 seems alot for a starting bike, I cant see spending that much on the GS but is this really a GREAT deal?

You don't need to listen to me (of course), but since you can get 2 late-model GS500s for that, or 3 older-series ... well, you see where I'm going with this.  If you simply HAVE to have a fairing, get a 2000 for $2600 or so and order the "best of show" fairing from Brazil for ... $800?

:dunno:   :dunno:    :dunno:

[Icesharc]

Is that the fairing I read about in the modifications part of the site? Link?

[JamesG]

If thats one of your Dad's friends I'd hate to see one of his enemys...

Suzuki's Manufacturer's Suggested RETAIL PRICE is $4999, $5K.  Now, if That $5200 is really the OTD price including sales taxes, tag, title etc. then its an ok price, you aren't getting screwed, but its not all that good a deal.
IMO and all that...

[Icesharc]

So.... MSRP is supposed to include putting the bike together and everything except taxes?

[sys49152]

I just bought a 2004 GS500F.  Here are the details of my sale :

Notes :
- all dollars are converted from CDN to US at today's exchange rate (0.7506)
- price is broken down as per the details given by the dealer

Asking Price :
Base : $4578
Freight/PDI : $225
Dealer Processing Charge : $188

Total + Tax (15% in Ontario.. Ouch!) : $5740

I managed to get the final price down to $5480 after an hour and half.  I had a friend who's neighbour bought the same bike for about $150 more.  They're really not moving on the price very much.

Truth be told, if I had the knowledge to do any work myself, I would have bought the GS500E, as Kerry suggested, and put the fairing on afterwards.  I don't have any motorcycle proficient friends that could have helped me shop for a good deal or test drive used bikes, so I didn't want to risk getting something that was not safe.  

That being said, it's only been a week since I've owned my brand-spanking-new bike, and I'm already having fuel leak problems.  So the jokes on me.

[JamesG]

Yeah, but this depends on the dealer. Really the MSRP is just a "ballpark" figure to go by. Dealers usually tack on a couple hundred onto the MSRP to give room to dicker down and THEN try to add on the prep tag and tax on to it. Its real easy to whittle the price down to MSPR only to wind up $1K over by the time the paperwork is done...
:x

Can you tell I don't think much of bike dealers?

[Icesharc]

My dad owns a couple car lots so I've never had to deal with the salespeople when buying a car, its always been my dad goes in talks for a min they come out with a great price and I walk away.  This was the first time that I was like... Wow, do I need to laugh or just walk away.  Weather the 5200 was a good price or not, the owner of the store had been saying 4400 all along so I figured thats what I would pay, then he's like it'll be 5200 after all this stuff and I couldn't beleive it.  Luckly after 40 years of selling cars my dad has alot of friends.  I'll be going by the kawa dealership to see if I can get a ninja 500 for cheap .

[Kerry]

Is that the fairing I read about in the modifications part of the site? Link?

Probably the best thing for you to do is to use the Search link at the top of the page to find "Aluizio" (I just did - it works) and read through the dozen or so threads where this fairing is mentioned.  (It's being sold by Aluizio Motors in Brazil.)

That way you will get a good overall feel for folks' opinion on the look, the quality, the risk of dealing internationally, etc.

[Icesharc]

Yea I tried searching for "Best of Show Fairing" I got a pretty broad span of topics.... thanks for "Aluizio" i'll search for that.

[Icesharc]

OMG... Droolllll......

That fairing looks awsome, better than the gs500F.  I've sent them an email to get some info, thanks a bunch for the advice.

[Kerry]

Yea I tried searching for "Best of Show Fairing" I got a pretty broad span of topics.... thanks for "Aluizio" i'll search for that.

Sorryif I misled you.  The term "best of show" was my own invention - an attempt to express the general opinion around here that the Aluizio Motors fairing  outshines all others....  

[JamesG]

OMG... Droolllll......

That fairing looks awsome, better than the gs500F.  I've sent them an email to get some info, thanks a bunch for the advice.

Don't get to excited its $850 for a fiberglass copy of the old GSXR bodywork...

[Icesharc]

I was exagerating a little .  But Its great looking.  This makes a great opportunity for me... Get a gs500E and start learning on it, that way if/when I drop it I dont do any damage and then after a month or so get the fairings.