[csdexter]

All three major "dealers" have confirmed special order availability at a guide price of 19kEUR (as you probably know, here in Europe we only get the deluxe model).

ETA seems to be 2-3 weeks from the date a deposit is paid. No bike will make it to the dealer's floor until mid-July so I'll probably have to travel around if I want to see one "in person" before buying.

 

[bob]

welcome to the board!

 

[TwelveBagger]

Welcome, csdexter! Bummer you have to wait so long to see a CTX1300 in the showroom. Hopefully, some of the riders who buy theirs this month in the USA will do some good write-ups and videos for those who are trying to decide or have to wait a while to get their hands on one.

Brian

 

[sleepngbear]

Welcome aboard csdexter! We'll see what we can do about easing your anxiety, although right now it isn't much better for he rest of us, either!

 

[SoCalRyder]

Welcome to the forum.

 

[csdexter]

Thanks for the warm welcome into the gang of nail-biters

I'll try and contact the two "dealers" in Northern Ireland, if they have it now or will have it in the showroom by the end of March, I'll go and see it there first. If not, I'll just order it from one of the local "dealers" and trust Honda on this one ;-)

I'm almost sure I'll go for the white one (though the red is mighty cool, but not my kind of cool) and I'll try and wrestle the salesperson into giving me the high windshield and the topbox in the same price (since they had the nerve to quote me the MSRP).

We'll see.

Oh, you may be asking why do I always put dealers in quotes. Well, because there are no dealers (for motorcycles) in Ireland, except for Harley-Davidson and Triumph. Everybody else doesn't even notice you walked into their shop, let alone treat their customers nice.
H-D and Triumph are run by the same company and they're either very passionate about bikes in general or have received rigorous training by H-D's brand department before being allowed to open the showroom -- either way, they know how to behave themselves, how to treat customers right, how to talk and how to make (and close) a sale.

 

[csdexter]

The dealer got back to me: they could only find one bike in the UK (that they could bring over) and due to the current situation of the exchange rate it would be 1000EUR more expensive than the initial quote, but it would be here in two weeks.

Given that I'm not in that much a hurry (was never the impulse-buy type), I've chosen to wait and get the bike sometime in July at the initially negotiated price.

The "middle-finger" award goes thus to Honda Ireland:

• for bringing shame to the Honda name (Honda Japan uses JIT manufacturing, I could literally show up at the factory and have my bike built "while I wait" -- the ~4 months waiting time is 100% caused by sheer unwillingness to perform on the part of the Irish distributor)
• for enacting a poor PR (if any) strategy and thus undermining most of the revenue opportunity of the CTX1300 as a new model, thus causing considerable losses to the brand
• for creating a situation in which a lower-level dealer acted in a far more professional and dedicated manner than the distributor itself, thus undermining any trust there was in their leadership position as the image of Honda in Ireland

 

[SoCalRyder]

The dealer got back to me: they could only find one bike in the UK (that they could bring over) and due to the current situation of the exchange rate it would be 1000EUR more expensive than the initial quote, but it would be here in two weeks.

Given that I'm not in that much a hurry (was never the impulse-buy type), I've chosen to wait and get the bike sometime in July at the initially negotiated price.

The "middle-finger" award goes thus to Honda Ireland:

• for bringing shame to the Honda name (Honda Japan uses JIT manufacturing, I could literally show up at the factory and have my bike built "while I wait" -- the ~4 months waiting time is 100% caused by sheer unwillingness to perform on the part of the Irish distributor)
• for enacting a poor PR (if any) strategy and thus undermining most of the revenue opportunity of the CTX1300 as a new model, thus causing considerable losses to the brand
• for creating a situation in which a lower-level dealer acted in a far more professional and dedicated manner than the distributor itself, thus undermining any trust there was in their leadership position as the image of Honda in Ireland

Good call on waiting for it, no point paying extra, they know someone will want it ASAP and pay that extra charge just cause they can't wait.

 

[Gizmo]

Good call on waiting for it, no point paying extra, they know someone will want it ASAP and pay that extra charge just cause they can't wait.

Personally, I think waiting is the right choice. 1st year models usually have recalls and/or "reviews" that need to be done that the rest of the CTX 1300 buying world can benefit from. Dealerships need more CTX 1300s on hand to demo, not just a few here and there that buyers "scoop up" as soon as they come in AND then find that it wasn't "exactly" as they thought the bike would be. Oh course, these ARE the bikes that I'll be interested in, a used "new" CTX 1300 that I can get at a VERY decent price!

 

[csdexter]

Maybe the US is culturally more tolerant of having (or displaying) the wrong attitude to business, but I find it absolutely unacceptable to send a customer waving a five-figure cheque away.

 

[csdexter]

Dealer confirmed the order has gone through, counting the days till July :|

 

[csdexter]

Dealer just called, July has become September. More middle-finger awards awarded We agreed to ditch Honda Ireland and return to watching the EUR/GBP exchange rate (since the UK appears to have plenty stock) -- when and if the numbers (and planets!) align, we'll make the move and get the bike from the UK instead.

The relentlessness of this guy in wanting to do everything and anything to close the sale is amazing (for the Irish business climate, at least). Assuming this does eventually go through and I do get the bike this year, I should get him a bottle of the finest whiskey I can get my hands on for pulling this off

 

[sleepngbear]

A bottle of whiskey for the dealer -- I should have thought of that!!

Well good luck -- hope they can work.someyhing out for you sooner than July.

 

[csdexter]

I'm old fashioned and come from a culture that only tips (with money) waiters and shoe-shine boys -- the rest get gifts like fine liquor, fine cigars or things along that line; especially when there is a business context.

 

[csdexter]

Got an update from the dealer: he can get me a black one for the initially agreed price. Time to boil in my own sauce: wait for white which may not make it this summer but maybe (wishful thinking) at a better price or get the black which is available right now. Dammit!

 

[sleepngbear]

Flip a coin.

 

[GermanMike]

I got mine in a matter of 4 days (it was the first one my dealer ordered for his showroom and thought, never ever will sell ). Initially I wanted a red one, but I changed my mind when I heard of the immense time I would have to wait. And, to be honest, black is a beautiful color, you can do nothing wrong with your clothes .

 

[csdexter]

The coin said Black, I went over and struck the deal today. Next step is going to the bank on Tuesday and getting a bank draft.

How so? Because that's what we do in Europe: after some people spent a decade building a state-of-the-art electronic payment system (SEPA) and getting everybody to agree on it, somebody in Ireland will show up and piss on it by asking for a bank draft for the full amount. And if you think it's just this one dealer, think again: the US Embassy in Dublin will also ask you to pay the visa fee with a bank draft.

Oh well, time to give the old bike a wash and prepare it for trade-in and time to go shopping (service manual, GPS tracker etc.).

 

[sleepngbear]

Awesome, Dexter. So will you be picking it up on Tuesday?

 

[csdexter]

If this were a fairytale, yes, I would Since it's not, I'll just pay 1/2 on Tuesday and the rest in ~2 weeks' time when the bike physically makes it here. 2 weeks is what I waited for the Sportster too and it's OK, given the circumstances.

In the mean time, I ticked the service manual and GPS tracker TODO items. I really really wanted to be a good citizen this time and buy the real and original service manual but Helm's site crapped out on me (apparently their FedEx integration chokes on Ireland). Therefore, I took my business elsewhere (link is already on this forum, somebody else posted it before) and I got the same price as (OEM + free shipping).
Similar thing with the GPS trackers: there's people around here (i.e. Irish companies) selling the exact same Chinese models for 150EUR when they're 35EUR on eBay. Since I refuse to pay any tax on stupidity, I got mine from eBay and look forward to counting yet another successful business with the far east

And now we wait ...