Bike Sales Up In October?
Added on Friday, November 21st, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor | No Comments
Bike Sales Up In October?
UK industry association, the MCI, have released figures on new motorcycle and scooter sales for October 2008, which show a 4% increase in motorcycle and scooter sales above 50cc.
Whilst the sub-50cc moped/scooter category showed a 7% drop in October, the bigger classes seemed to show a healthy rise in demand.
According to the MCI, supersports bike sales rose by 13% in October, with the GSXR1000 being the top selling machine in its category. Meanwhile, tourers were up by a massive 50%, unspecified class machines jumped 89% and sports-tourers rose by 15%. However, custom bikes, naked roadsters and trail bikes all posted drops of between 5%-12%.
But do the MCI stats tell the full story? Insidebikes spoke to a small bike importer, Norton Villiers based in Manchester, who said things are bad at present;
“We considered bringing in more Norton-Villiers badged Chinese machines this autumn, but things are dead flat, even on small bike sales. As for next year, I don’t want to be gloomy but it looks bad all round. If the MCI are saying new bike sales up I’d like to know where the buyers are.”
On the upside, Triumph dealers BS Bikes in Stafford have found 2008 to be OK, up until September;
“We have had a good year generally,” said BS Bikes salesman Bob, “ with Triumph sales up overall, but October was pretty quiet. We feel people are waiting to see what happens with their jobs before buying new bikes at present.”
Multi-franchise dealers Earnshaws in Huddersfield attended an MRA association meeting recently and took the temperature from several dealers. An Earnshaws spokesman told Insidebikes;
“Many dealers are saying sportbikes sales are actually down, not up. When you subtract the 125cc ’sportbikes’ like say a CBR125, that the MCI include in their figures, I think you would see a drop of about 15-20% last month in sportbikes. Generally, I think buyers want clean used bikes, 2-3 years old at the moment, not the new stuff.”
He added; “I think on the commuter side, the Chinese brands are getting better and people are starting to give them a chance, but it’s depressing to see so many internet retailers selling cheap Chinese bikes and scooters, packed in crates and then dumping them on people’s doorsteps to assemble themselves - how can that be safe, especially for novice 125 riders?”
Good question, maybe the MCI can lobby MPs to make that practice illegal on health and safety grounds, which will help genuine dealers offering parts back-up and trained mechanics, to survive this recession?
No Comments