I can't believe the agro I have had trying to get a test ride on the Honda Forza.

All the local dealers 'Have just sold their demo'

I called evey dealer in Essex and London and was told the same. ?

I eventually found one in the Kent area, so test ride arranged.

It had better be worth it

Neil (welcome back)
Kent has some very good Honda dealers, the new one in Maidstone (Laguna Aylesford), is trying hard for new customers, there is a good cafe in the park opposite the shop BTW. I use Kent Motorcycles.
Dave
Spanners X9 site.

When I was considering buying a Silverwing I asked the Honda man at the Excel Motorcycle Show about getting a test ride. After letting me sit on his new Silverwing which was parked in the car-park - there wasn't one on the stand - he told me that Honda keep a demo-bike in London (in this case) and took it to dealers who needed a demonstrator. Of course it all had to be arranged but it made sense.
I suspect that if the system is still in place the dealers can't be bothered to make the arrangements.
Worth giving head office a ring perhaps.

You see its not just SYM its a nightmare with any brand getting a demo bike unless you are in the right place at the right time.

Spacey i was at the local dealers yesterday and he lost a sale of a sym 600i just because he had no demo available ,in fact i stood more chance of selling him my srv parked outside . We got chatting and he said he was really struggling to get a demo on anything from a 400 upwards on most brands . He did say piaggio had been the most accommodating .He also said those that had had demos suggested that they will not be getting new demos in stock as they found that it was costing them too much when selling them on .

It's just so difficult I have posted in other places that my dealer decided to get a Burg 400/650 demo in. It has paid off since this month he had sold 3 650. Given the interest on big engine scoots they are going to get a 600 SYM demo in. But he said having all these demo ties up a lot of their capital.

spaceprobe wrote:You see its not just SYM its a nightmare with any brand getting a demo bike unless you are in the right place at the right time.

Not really, it depends on what brand and what model and how close to launch.
When the Forza was launched almost a year ago Honda made sure there were lots of demonstrators available throughout the UK.
I had no trouble getting a demo, quite the reverse, I was invited to take the demo out.
Same with the Kymasaki.
Currently all you need to do to get a Honda demo is find a dealer with a used one and test that.
Completely different situation regarding the launch of both the Sym Joymax 300 and Maxsym 600, no demonstrators anywhere to be found, very few dealers and there will be very few used ones in the months to come because unless MotoGB extract the digit, sales of new ones will continue to be poor.

As for tying up capital, yes the dealer has to invest but that investment will be recouped with interest when the demonstrator is sold on after it has done its job of attracting sales.
Dealers have to have confidence that the model will attract sales though to make the jump and get a demo in, if there are no Joymax/Maxsym demos at Sym dealers it indicates to me that the dealers do not have confidence of attracting sales.

spaceprobe wrote:You see its not just SYM its a nightmare with any brand getting a demo bike unless you are in the right place at the right time.

Unless you want to test a BMW, in which case most dealers have demos of most models! I understand that BMW's relationship with their dealers is somewhat different to most brands, but don't know the detail.

I think you are right in that BMW provide the demo. I read somewhere that the bulk of BMW scooter registrations were their demos. Having said that when I wanted to check one out my large local dealer did not have a demo but did say they might in a few weeks.

Looks like they can't win
Dealers are crap because they don't provide demos
Dealers are devious because they do provide demos to make their sales figures look good

Gotta love the Interweb