Goodbye, Mr. Tank

[scooterdog]

Well, the Tank 250 was carried away on a trailer to warmer home in Central Florida. The man was buying it for his wife for their anniversary. She rode a friends 250 and felt that was what she had wanted all along.
So...this chapter dealing with the idiosyncratic behaviour of our much-maligned Chinese scoots...now is a piece of my two-wheeled history . But...it has been a learning experience in both patience and understanding the philosophy of providing a desired product in a ready market at a much lower price than others will (not "can"). And even though it was a 30% loss in 90 days, it was worth it for the education and the cameraderie gained here and at other friendly scooter boards. I hope the Yamaha Majesty will give me good service, it has proven to be a reliable steed so far, and I will come by the Pound regularly to see how the Dawgs are doing.
scooterdog

[gusset]

scooterdog said:

But...it has been a learning experience in both patience and understanding the philosophy of providing a desired product in a ready market at a much lower price than others will (not "can").

Translation, please. Are you saying that you believe Kymco, Daelim, Honda, Yamaha, etc., are price gouging, and could sell at the same pricing level as Tank and Rocketa?

[Aaron]

Gusset I believe many of us have been led to the temptation of suspecting that the big three are gouging a little. Truth is it does cost more to build high quality machines. The big three have taken the time to establish a reliable dealer network and trouble themselves to make parts readily available. Each step in the import business requires some profit or the chain breaks. Manufacturers, distributers, wholesalers, and dealers. I do not begrudge the the profits. This is America after all. My big question though is how is a machine like the Honda Helix esentially unchanged since it's inception 20 years ago still bringing $5299 at the Honda dealership. Surely by now they have recouped development costs.... LOL

[gusset]

Yes, ACD, that was somewhat close to my thoughts.

I had been tempted to interpret the original post's comment as saying that all scoots could be priced like the Chinese models, but that the manufacturers were just being greedy.

I don't know everything about their business models, but I do know a little bit about product development, manufacturing, and quality control. The fact is that in many cases, you really do get what you pay for. There's a reason a Kymco or Daelim costs more than a Rocketa...it costs money to do things right.

There could be some price gouging going on, and I suppose the Japanese bikes could be the first place to look, but then again they do seem to be a cut above even the Kymcos and Daelims when I look at them carefully. A recent vendor trip I took to Japan left a big impression on me about the level of attention they pay to detail over there. There's a reason you sometimes hear people say that the best products in the world come from Japan.

It costs money to do some jobs right.

[WarrenS]

Also the difference in the exchange rate of different money has a big effect on the price of things.

[robbovius]

One of the most important reasons that chinese goods of ALL types are so much cheaper than those manufacturedeslewhere is because the chinese government manipulates the value of the yuan against the other world currencies, to keep it artificially low, so that prices of chinese goods are heavily discounted against goods from other countries whose currency is allowed to float and find it's value on the open market (like the dollar, mark, euro, pound, yen, etc).

The US govm't and others are trying to get the Chinese gov't to value their currency on the open market, but so far they haven't. once they do, the prices of chinese goods will rise to a level more congruent with goods from other countries.

[scooterdog]

gusset said:

scooterdog said:

But...it has been a learning experience in both patience and understanding the philosophy of providing a desired product in a ready market at a much lower price than others will (not "can").

Translation, please. Are you saying that you believe Kymco, Daelim, Honda, Yamaha, etc., are price gouging, and could sell at the same pricing level as Tank and Rocketa?

As I stated, a "much lower price". I did not mean that Japanese or Korean scoots should be priced at the same level as Chinese scoots. The Chinese use cheaper materials and have much lower labor costs. I just meant that SOME price moderating to stay competitive would increase sales and make it possible for more people to afford a better quality ride. The better grade of materials and the attention to fit and finish make the "known" brands less risky to a buyer. Add to that the dealer/parts network and a warranty that might actually be worth the paper it is printed on, and all that computes to a higher cost. BUT...5 Grand for a 250 seems a bit much to me in comparison to what can be had in an import auto for 12-15K. Again, JMHO.
scooterdog