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Kawasaki closing dealer showrooms -  Why RevZilla? 30 (youtube.com)
Suzuki closing dealer showrooms -  Suzuki CEO Had Enough! | HUGE News! - YouTube
7-11 and Costco taking over sales, Uncle Ed's will handle any service needs.
Motorcycle Central top dog in fake news !

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Ummmmmmm…..

Kind of a shame it's B.S. I think the dealership model (for bikes and autos) is outdated. If I want to buy a new computer, I get online and select what I want, down to the smallest detail, and then it arrives at my door, and it costs what it costs. But with a car or bike, every option is tied to a whole suite of options you don't want, and a spectrum of colours you don't like, and you just need to live with what the dealership can get hold of anyway.

I'm really not a fan of Elon Musk, but I think the one innovation he really can be credited with is doing away with this outdated model. If you (unlike me) can afford a Tesla, you buy it the same way you would buy a laptop.

If you can't do that, the only way to have the machine you really want is to build it yourself...

Buzz many of the European car manufacturers offer a hybrid of this on-line ordering process now where you can "build" your vehicle on line and order. The one thing which is laughable is that if you chose to collect your vehicle from the factory in Europe there is an additional charge (they have not had to ship the vehicle to the UK !!!) I get that that there is additional prep work to be done but surely the shipping savings should negate this

Fake Kawasaki news. Kawasaki closing dealer showrooms. video linked. 

So, is it fake news that Kawasaki is closing their dealer showrooms? Or is Kawasaki closing dealer showrooms?
I don't use youtube for my news sources >> youtube is one of those places where conspiracy BS proliferates. twitterX same. and FB, same. 

The place where you go to see a Tesla is a "gallery" not a "showroom". You buy a car in a showroom. At a gallery you see the car but there are no salesmen. 
Thats how Musk gets away with factory direct sales. 

Certain Japanese vehicle manufacturers have had this sales model in place for many years. For example, on Guam, the Nissan dealership was owned by Nissan and was not franchised.  When I purchased a Nissan truck in 1988, it was directly from the company, not a franchise.  I suspect in many places, this sales model is already in place for many types of vehicles.    

Wookie,
How common is this in the UK ?
Are you talking about ordering a Jag and picking it up in Coventry or ordering a Beemer and going to Germany to get it ?
My Kawasaki dealer posted a newspaper ad in December 1972, we have a Z1 come see it on a specific date, few days before Christmas.
I rounded up some friends and we went to see it, quite a few people there, it was amazing to see it, like a CB750 (I had one) but obviously faster.
I wondered about reliability cause Kawasaki sold screaming two strokes and I liked my CB750.
Dealer passed away decades ago, shop closed decades ago, building still there, they sell carpet, I've been there a few times and still remember December 72.
 

martin_csr wrote:

Fake Kawasaki news. Kawasaki closing dealer showrooms. video linked. 

So, is it fake news that Kawasaki is closing their dealer showrooms? Or is Kawasaki closing dealer showrooms?
I don't use youtube for my news sources >> youtube is one of those places where conspiracy BS proliferates. twitterX same. and FB, same. 

All the above will take you down if you say what they don't like. 



 

73z1 wrote:

Wookie,How common is this in the UK ?Are you talking about ordering a Jag and picking it up in Coventry or ordering a Beemer and going to Germany to get it ? 

The service is offered by JLR and Bentley in the UK and in Germany by BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and VWG. To be fair most of the German factories are only 4-6 hours drive from the ferry terminals so you could fly out in the morning, collect your car and still make the evening ferry back to the UK   At the VW factory in Wolfsburg there is a building called the "Autostadt" which is like a giant vending machine for cars. Your new car is picked by a robotic arm and brought down into the central lobby area where the "handover" takes place. 

Wookie,
Do you have to tell UK customs you bought a car ?
Do they want money ?
I recently bought a Z1 in Cananda.
I was in the warm usa customs office for 45 minutes.
They asked me a lot of question, I paid $106.
The customs office was full of truckers with all sorts of problems.
I was happy to get home.