From: wallich@iti.org (Kenneth Wallich)
Newsgroups: ba.motorcycles
Subject: Re: Where do I buy a CBR900RR?
Date: 26 Aug 92 20:19:16 GMT

woycik@vargas.pa.dec.com (Tommy Woycik) writes:

>So where is the best place in the Bay Area to buy
>a CBR900RR?  The only place I've gone is Peninsula
>Honda, and they want $8300 for one.

>I want a reasonable price, and good service afterwards.

no, No, NO!!!  Don't get it from Peninsula.  They have an ok service
department (not great, mind you, but ok), but their sales department
is just about the worst I've run into.  

Two stories:

Back when I bought my GB500, I looked around and found some pretty
good prices.  Peninsula was closest, so I talked to a couple of the
sales-weenies about what kind of price I'd get.  They wouldn't
actually *give* me a price, but said they could probably discuss
things "around" $2500.  Well, I got a price well below that at Fremont
Honda, the guy had several in stock, and told me what he would sell it
to me for right then and there, standing up next to the bikes on my
first visit.  I stopped by Peninsula again, and told them what Fremont
had offered me, and they whined about how that wasn't possible, and it
was below invoice, and moaned about how they couldn't sell it for that
and pay the rent(they had two of them in stock, the same two that had
been sitting there for 2 months while I shopped around).  I drove over
to Fremont, and bought it from them.

Two other stories, not my own (Bob, if you want to clarify, feel free):

My friend bought an ST1100 a while ago, and shopped a lot trying to
find someone who would offer a reasonable deal.  He was willing to not
pay bottom dollar, if the dealer would just acknowledge what the bikes
were selling for and be reasonable.  They gave him the same treatment
they gave me, not wanting to quote an *exact* price, and repeating "we
can work with you".  Geesh, even Camden Honda has a reasonable sales
force (where my friend ended up buying it.  Horrible service though).
At the time, S.J. Honda (the Sony and Honda dealership) was still
selling bikes, and had a really great price on the ST, and Peninsula
wasn't exactly selling all the ones they got in, but they wouldn't
deal.

Second story via Bob.  When he was checking out the recent sales
prices of NX250's for insurance purposes, he found that Peninsula had
just sold a *used* one for *more* than the original sticker price.
This when you could have driven to Camden, payed several hundred less,
and gotten a brand new bike.

I've come to the conclusion that only people with a lot of money to
burn, and no sense for shopping around will actually *buy* anything
from these guys.  That's just my opinion, of course.

I've had my bikes serviced there (not the GS though :-), and didn't
have any complaints.

Just to fuel the first ba.motorcycles elitist flame fest, I much
prefer all the people who work at any of the local BMW places though.
Between how nice and helpful they all were, and being able to test
drive all their bikes, I decided that although the bikes seemed
overpriced, since they had what I wanted, I'd pay the premium for
keeping alive dealerships that provided good salesmanship *and*
service *and* a place to hang out.  How many Honda dealerships have a
monthly ride, or have folks drop in just to say "hi" to the people who
work there?  I have noticed that the Harley dealers tend to be similar
to the BMW places, but I haven't sampled that many of them.

Anyway, just so I don't sound like a total facist, I owned four Hondas
over a period of 12 years before buying the Beemer and was a Honda
snob during the whole time.  Nice bikes, moronic dealers.  I'd sure
like to have a CBR900RR, or an FJ1200, if I could justify owning *two*
$10k bikes in addition to the the trucks.  Sigh, the plight of the
middle class with too much leisure time, and not quite enough money
:-).

In answer to your question, I'd visit Camden Honda (on Camden avenue),
or mabey Fremont (not really that great of a dealership, but they are
better than Peninsula).  The one in Redwood City sucks Vespas (and
often charges over retail). 

Have fun shopping...

--
Ken Wallich
wallich@ncd.com  
ken@wallich.com
Newsgroups: ba.motorcycles