I’ve been in Taichung City for a grand total of one month now. I’ve been driving around a junker for the past three weeks and have decided that I’m on my scooter for such a long period of time (relatively speaking) that I need/want to upgrade. (I drive around 45 minutes one way from Taichung City to Ching Shui everyday for work.) After purusing used bikes for sell on tealit and in person at scooter shops, I’ve decided to spend around twice as much and get a brand new one. At this point, I’m leaning heavily towards the SYM GT125.
I’ve been to two shops and both have set the price and refused to budge. I’ve found the scooter listed on momoshop.com.tw for $56,800 NT. That’s basically what both the shops want me to pay. Even when I offer just a few thousand NT less expecting a counter offer, they won’t budge on the price. I had assumed that it was ordinary to haggle over the price of new scooters. Is this not correct?
Any and all tips in addition to my question on haggling would be welcome. I am not opposed to getting a high quality used scooter, but I’ve yet to find one that meet my qualifications. I found this one shop that has super nice used ones, but they’re selling them for $10,000-$15,000 NT less than brand new ones. For those prices, I’ll just buy a new one…
Prices for new are usually pretty well fixed, as you’ve found out. Difficult to get a shop to come down. However, you can usually wangle a few free extras – I recently spent around 100k on a new ride and while the seller wouldn’t come down on the price, I did get a rather nice helmet (around NT$3,000), a pair of Italian armoured gloves (NT$3,000) and a Japanese armoured jacket (around NT$3,000) thrown in, along with two locks – although in my case he was feeling a bit guilty because the bike arrived about 3 weeks later than he promised.
Maybe you should try haggling in that direction instead. You’re unlikely to pay less but you might get a bit more for your money.
Imri -
Ditto on what the Kilted One says. Prices on scoots are pretty much carved in stone. But, here are some tips:
Do you homework - Know exactly what brand, model, color you want.
Get all the info on that in your hands.
Visit 2 or 3 ‘big, clean, factory supported’ shops. Places with a lot of new models on the floor that look like they actually have the right tools & equiptment to service the bikes.
Tell them flat-out you have the money and want to buy.
Compare their prices - if they all are approx the same (and they probably will be) thank them and tell them you will buy in 2-3 days.
Get on the internet and get the scooter manufacturers’ tele #. Contact them and ask for the area rep for where you are. Tell them what you want, model, color, etc. and tell him you want the name, #, etc. of a local factory supported shop who will give you the lowest price.
Hope for the best.
Here, the real deal is in the after sale service. They don’t, well rarely, charge for ‘labor’ when you have work done. Just parts. Its really really cheap. So you make out on the back-end of the deal. Also with this method, you have a bit of guanxi going into the deal by bringing in the manufacturer rep on your side - If you approach it right.
It may be more work than you want to do…but its one way to see if a deal is available.
p.s. - I try to bargain at the local markets - drives my wife crazy.
