Well, gang, Mike and I took the plunge today and bought two 2003 Burg 400s. Here's how we ultimately went about it.
We looked on Suzuki's web site for its dealer locator, and took down the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of every dealer within about a 100-mile radius. We then emailed everyone who gave an address, and said that we wanted two 400s, and what could they do for us.
Within 24 hours, we had 3 replies, offering everything from a used 2003 to brand-new 2004s. We did some virtual price haggling, to see who wanted to deal and who didn't really care whether they got our business or not, as well as to see what the going rate is in this neck of the woods.
Today we pulled out a roadmap to lay out a logical route to three dealers located to our south, and hit the road with printed emails in hand for ready reference.
Our first stop was the dealer closest to our home. Although we preferred to do business with this outfit based on proximity, our visit in late Autumn had been an unimpressive experience: A long, crowded wait to get a sales dude's attention, the feeling that said dude didn't really know scooters, and an unwillingness to cut much at all off full retail.
Today was very different. No crowds of ATV or dirtbike shoppers, so we walked right in and immediately were approached by a friendly dude who may have been the owner. We said we wanted to buy two maxi-scooters, Burg 400s for choice. (His business had NOT had an email address for us to write to in advance.) Within moments he had out a list of what he had in stock, and what he was expecting to receive. He had a silver '03 Burg 400 on the floor -- in fact, the same one we'd sized up in the fall. We looked it again, sat on it (singly and together), and asked questions which the owner knowledgeably answered, both about Suzukis and about other makes and models of maxi-scooter. He even took me out back and let me check out an already-sold '04 Honda Reflex, so I was finally able to satisfy my curiosity about it.
In the end, we bought that silver Burg 400, plus another '03 (blue) that came with a free 48-month warranty as part of a special Suzuki program. We showed the guy our emails from the other dealers -- especially one from a shop near my husband's employer that offered two '03 400s at $4,999 apiece -- and he quickly came down to $5100 per machine, plus tax, state inspection and registration. No dealer prep or any other hoo-hah. We chucked in another $360 to buy an extended warranty on the machine that was NOT part of the special Suzuki program, to make the lengths of warranty match.
So ... out-the-door price of the non-program 400 plus the extended warranty was $5,981.95.
Out-the-door price of the "program" 400 which included the extended warranty was $5,592.25. (Too bad the guy didn't have two of these, but oh well.)
Probably could have done a few hundred dollars better overall if we'd shopped aggressively in person. But this dealership is a mere 30 miles away, whereas the guys offering $4,999 bikes are nearly 70 miles away. Biiiiig difference when warranty service is involved. And we were greatly comforted to learn that not everyone at this place is ignorant of maxi-scooters.
Whew! Long post. Sorry if I'm blathering. Sincerest thanks to all of you who posted your experiences and ideas here for my (and others') reference. It clearly helped me and Mike a lot, and we're very grateful.
Now if only the snow & ice would clear out so we could take delivery ....!
--Chris
