You are an interesting bunch---our customers.  Certainly unlike the customer base of most other motorcycle dealerships.  This was pointed out to us again at the BMW Dealer meeting that was held during the last week of January in Florida.  

A recap was given regarding the plight of the motorcycle industry in this country, and it ain't pretty.  The U.S. market is the largest in the world for motorcycles of 500cc's and up, and consequently is of tremendous importance to those brands that are doing business here.  Last year was disastrous, as the market was down 41%.  Individually, KTM was off 72%; Suzuki 61%; Honda 57%; Kawasaki and Suzuki 47 %; Ducati 31%; Triumph 29%; Harley Davidson 25%, and the winner, BMW was off "only" 22%.  (Wayne Elston says that BMW "sucked less" than the rest of the guys).  One of the reasons that BMW had a better year than most (and profitable) is that what we call "metric brands" buyers had a hard time getting financing for their motorcycles.  Historically, charge type revolving credit cards have been used to purchase many of these units, with low introductory interest rates but increasing to 22% and up after one year.  With the credit crunch, the lenders put a stop to this practice, resulting in tremendous lost sales for these dealerships.  Incidentally, the motorcycle market is not done with the freefall yet.  In 2009, 352,000 units were sold in the U.S. and only 330,000 are being forecast for 2010.  BMW, however, is looking for a 23% increase, primarily as a result of the introduction of the S1000RR.

Now about our interesting customers:  Ride West was up a few percentage points last year and we can attribute this to our wonderful customer base.  Our motorcycle buyers are in a much stronger financial position and either have good credit or pay cash, so we did not experience the credit crunch our competitors faced. Plus, our buyers are committed.  There is a passion among the BMW ranks that exists only among select other brands, and this sometimes results in our customers being more demanding than some other dealers experience.  For instance, often a new bike buyer in our store will have done extensive research and know as much about the model selected as we do, so we have to have knowledgeable staff members at all times.  This is one of the reasons that our employee roster is consistent year after year and employed for the entire year---our customers will settle for little else.  But it is the way we like it and the reason we are in this business.  If this were any other brand of motorcycle we would not be in this business. 

So thank you, not only for your business, but also for making it interesting.