Any advise for new buyer?

[PunchBuggy]

I live in the Bay Area (SF, San Jose, etc). I am lucky to have my choice of 4 dealerships to choose from.

SF BMW
San Jose BMW
Mountain View BMW
Santa Cruz BMW

Does anyone have a recommendation for any of these?

Bill

[marc]

You forgot Tri Valley Motors in Livermore and A&S if you don't mind a slightly longer drive (Sacramento area).

I've bought stuff from all of them. I've only purchased bikes, however, from CalBMW (Mountain View) so can't compare them to the others.

[PunchBuggy]

Do you like Cal BMW?

I also wonder what a good price would be. Seems odd this information isn't available online.

[marc]

I must. I keep going back when it is time to buy a new bike.

As for price... if you want to save a buck buy a used bike from an individual. Craigslist is full of them.

[cug]

I have bought stuff at CalMoto (Mountain View), been to Tri Valley. Bought lots of stuff at San Jose BMW.

Tri Valley - when I was interested in a Tiger, they quoted me a completely ridiculous trade value for my F800GS which was worth quite a bit more than the service loaner Tiger they wanted to sell. I should have paid $5000 on top of a one year old F800GS with Adventure Panniers, Aeroflow Windshield, Adventure Spec engine guards, Givi topcase, and some other stuff. All original parts included, too, of course, to get a one year old Tiger 1050 without any goodies and more miles (service loaner miles!!!!!) than my F8. I laughed and left. Not looking back to them.

At CalMoto, in summer 2009, I ordered / bought some gear (more than $1500) and on pickup when asking whether a discount is possible on that large sale I was completely put off by an incredibly unfriendly response from a sales person that was just plain an asshole. He should rather work for the TSA than as a parts sales person given his attitude.

A day later I called the guy I actually ordered the stuff from, telling him the story and that I will not buy gear from them again, that I only bought it this time because he was friendly and competent, not so his colleague.

Please understand that I was not complaining about not getting a discount, I was complaining about that person.

A year later, I was there again, cash basically in hand (okay, not quite, it was still sitting in the bank account), ready to buy either a Triumph Tiger 1050 or a 30 anniversary R1200GS. They quoted me MSRP on the GS (which I kind of understand for an anniversary model), no discount on setup / other fees. Okay ... then, they quoted me MSRP and full fees on a 2009 Tiger (it was August 2010!) that was sitting in their showroom for more than a year. It had scratches in the paint, was dusty, grabbed and played with probably by everybody who went in that shop during the 12 months before (me included). I told them, friendly of course, that I would not pay MSRP on a floor model from the year before that had scratches and wasn't really "new" anymore - no reaction.

As the Tiger was my main target there, I told them that I was done with their shop after being treated pretty badly two times now and went straight to San Jose BMW where I had bought my F800GS the year before.

The story there was quite different:

They took the F800GS on the floor with zero commission, sold it within a week (for $5000 more than what Tri Valley quoted me), gave me an okay price on a 2010 R1200GS that was build 8 weeks earlier and sitting in the shop for just two weeks or so, added some farkles free, and gave me discounts on gear. Also, the mechanics there are pretty decent, the service guy is good to work with, and sales guys are all always friendly, helpful, knowledgable (no experience with service at CalMoto obvioulsy, might be that only their sales staff sucks).

I have no affiliation with SJ BMW, but I'm a very happy customer of theirs, having bought a F800GS (2009) and a R1200GS (2010), had them sell my F800GS. I like how they treat every customer because when I bought my first bike there, they handled it the exact same way as if I were a customer who had bought several bikes there before.

[PunchBuggy]

I have been to all the dealerships and have felt the best about SJBMW. Good to hear the feedback.

One question though, I was thinking of saving money and getting a 800GS but I see you have traded yours in for a 1200GS. I was mostly going to do highway miles but kind of balked at the price of 1200GS. Is there a reason you traded up?