The sale of Husqvarna to KTM has me concerned. I have a price on a 2013 Terra 650 from two dealers. One is a Husqvarna only dealer and is a one man show who has been in business for 15 years. He tells me he still doesnt know what to expect from the sale. The second dealer sells multiple brands including BMW and tells me that he doesnt know if Husky will pull out from his dealership or not. It seems that the dealers are not being told very much yet. I have held out buying for a few weeks hoping I would find out some info before purchasing the bike, but I want to buy it soon. Am I safer buying from the Husky only dealer or the one that sells BMW also. Both say they have the MOSS tool but neither have any idea how this will play out. What do you think? thanks for the help.
Options 1) take the lower price out the door 2) take the one more convenient (closer) 3) take the one from the person you "like" better 4) spin the bottle If its All of the Above, then consider you had a very good day! HF Ps. Any dealer will be happy to service you, no matter where you purchased.
I agree with HF. If it were a new Mercedes S63 then the savings between competing dealers could be a boat load of money...not likely on the TR. Not much margin for profit I wouldn't think? The one you like best seems good to me. I would mention to both that you can buy from KTM-USA parts and save $500 off msrp. Maybe they would approach that? Worth asking. I'd rather buy from the small guy usually if all else is equal. YMMV
Husky dealerships are not necessarily going to get "pulled" out of dealerships. If a dealership opts to not carry the brand, will be up to them. Biggest lament about "losing" BMW ownership by the 2 dealers near me is the loss of BMW financial services as a lender. Seems much easier to deal with etc. The one dealer here is an independent little shop versus the other , multi-line with BMW as one. That being said, I would consider price but also who is the most knowledgeable. Service after the sale to me is paramount. The bikes only have a 500 dollar mark up so not a ton of difference, it has to be so close I would use customer service as the discriminator and ultimately who you want to give money to.
I am mostly worried about service after the sale. The Terra could possibly be a one year model. Will the Husky only dealer have access to the parts that BMW shared on the bike and will the BMW dealer have access to the Husky parts on the bike now that they no longer own them? I guess no one knows yet. Both prices are within a few dollars of each other and both dealers seem very good so its a wash there. The dealers said the same thing Toyboy said about the ease of BMW financing. I passed on the great financing to find out more about what the future holds for the Terra. Now I'm thinking that was a mistake because I still don't know any more than I did 2 weeks ago. thanks for the replies.
I am glad I didn't know about the buy out before I bought my TR. I may have chickened out too. The Internet is good sometimes...and sometimes not so good. The sky is falling doomsday guys would have you believe you'll not be able to buy a spark plug for the Husky in a year or two. The guys who have drank freely from the Husky Kool-Aid jar say it's the best single in the universe! I am somewhere in the middle. I don't know the answers to all the unknowns. What I do know is how I feel every time I throw a leg over the TR. I smile. I am glad I bought it. The aftermarket has already began making farkles. I have wasted more $ on stuff that didn't make me happy as the H does. It's not a flux capacitor after all...so not too hard to work on. My thoughts are if you have access to the Moss your golden. YMMV
I don't know what consumer laws are like over there in the USA, but here in Australia consumer law protects the consumer to the extent that if you buy a vehicle in good faith with the expectation that the importer or brand owner will continue to supply parts as required, then there is a obligation for the brand owner to continue to supply those parts for a reasonable time or to make arrangements. If the Australian importer thought that there was risk to supply of parts, I'm sure they would have suspended the product line by now. I don't know how much inside info he has about the sale, and the direction which Husqvarna will be taken in, but he's still shipping bikes, and still signing off on warranties, and these are the actual people hwo have $$ on the line if things turn sour. Having said that, as per the above, I bought my Terra before the news of the sale, so it's a non-issue to me.
Personally I think the TR650's will have support one way or another. Since I own one, and I am tenacious, something will be figured out - even if I have to travel the west coast of the USA visiting various people and experimenting, especially with regards to the MOSS tool. Whatever connections were made to the bmw mothership should be able to be replicated. In addition to my self, there are a *whole* lot of extremely bright people that own TR650s now... For the record, about 1/3 of the Cafe Husky staff has bought a TR650.
I don't understand the fuss over dealerships. The TR650 is KLR 650 simple and has a time proven mill that parts are ready available for. I doubt mine will ever see a dealership again. I'll change the oil, tires, tighten fasteners, adjust valves an all other maintenance myself thank you.
What you cant do is 'zero' the codes and remove 'service' tag. While the latter is only a nuisance, if the 'code' is serious (like the dreaded 'EWS'), the bike's ECU would block and the bike wont start again until it sees service with computer... Not that I wish you that, I just know that from experience (some 500 miles from home).
I had a Tiger 800 with the constant service reminder light on, annoying yes, but I learned to ignore it. Good point on the error codes, guess I've been lucky and never had a bike that threw a code. What's the dreaded EWS?
Same here with my F800Gs. I serviced the bike in non-BMW shop though. And they got the comp ! EWS = immobiliser (ring antenna) that 'small' GS got loads problems with. And some Terras too: http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/tr650-engine-immobiliser-ews.29727/