FJR Focus Group

[donaldb]

I don't know which bike is the dominant bike in the market place.

I do and so does BMW, hence the meeting. The FJR is the top selling sporttourer (at least in the U.S.)

Smart move by BMW now if they could just get over themselves and lower the price, fix their ABS, go to one turn signal switch, make the bike better looking....Aahhhh never mind I have a FJR.

Steve

and don't forget fixing the rear drive failure issue

 

[BugR]

I was there also. It was very interesting to go and speak with all there. Great bunch of guys.
I thought it was going to be a Yamaha thing, but I guess in a way it was.

The $300 will come in very handy. Since I got a performance award on the way there.

65 in a 40.

Then I got a ticket this morning for lane splitting.

And to top it all off. Just as I was pulling on to the road my office is on, I hit a patch of antifreeze and lowsided my Buell.

So to say I've had a ****** last 24 hrs. would be an understatement.

You must have really pissed off BMW, they set a hit squad on you.

 

[boogahboogah]

/Rant start

Since they didn't ask me why I didn't buy one

Initial purchase price $$$$$$

Cost of dealer maintenance $$$$$

An ever shrinking number of dealers

Crappy dealer attitude (witnessed multiple locations)

Won't stand behind a faulty product, leave customer to pay the bills (read drive failure, etc, see BMWOA forum)

German styling, yeah they got hit with an ugly stick alright

/rant end

 

[boardsNbikes]

Although the GT came out a year later, when I saw the specs and price I knew they'd be hurtin' come sales time compared to all the great tourers, sport-tourers and I'll allow it, "super" sport-tourers on the market (wink). Frankly, the small tank was the death of it. A good friend, a bonafide BMW aficionado, tried to get me to dump the FJR and get the GT. I repeatedly giggled in his face.

 

[zorkler]

i have no idea whu they picked me but it was a easy 300 bucks and the group was great .And the best thing of all was when i got to my bike there was my key on my tank bag with a note on a bussiness card saying hope this is you key jody . They picked only 9 people and tonight the bmw guys will be there .

 

[madmike2]

Ve arrrh Cherman enchineers und ve vill tell you vhat kind uff moderzykle you vil rhyde und ve alzo vill tell you vhat it vill be lookink like. Ve haff der best stylists und dezignerz und zo ve no vhat you vant before you vant it. Ve builden our zuperior moderzykles mit zertain "perzonalities" because ve noe dis is der bestest vay. You vill modify yer habits und conform to our zuperior dezigns.

You vill ceaze das purchase uff zeeze enferior Chapaneze machinen und zupport der Faderland. Ve arrrh der best at vhat ve do und ve arrrh builden der best moderzykle. Ve vill zoon be finden vhy you rezist und ve vill becausen dis behavior to be shtoppen.

With sincere apologies to my German-immigrant grand parents.

Edited because Zorkler wasn't taught to read phonetically:

We are German engineers and we will tell you what kind of motorcycle you will ride and we also will tell you what it will look like. We have the best stylists and designers and so we know what you want before you want it, We build our superior motorcycles with certain "personalities" because we know this is the best way. YOU will modify your habits and conform to our superior designs.

You will cease the purchase of these inferior Japanese machines and support the Fatherland. We are the best at what we do and we build the best motorcycle. We will soon find why you resist and we will cause this behavior to stop.

Jeez, Louise...the joke looses something when it has to be explained! Are you blonde, or are you married to one? You couldn't read this as if it were being spoken by Col. Klink or Sgt. Schultz?

 

[zorkler]

WHAT

 

[.paul]

I dunno, I kinda like the R1200RT..

*ducks*



*disclaimer*

though I wouldn't give up my FEEJ for it

 

[evil_henchman]

I was there also. It was very interesting to go and speak with all there. Great bunch of guys.
I thought it was going to be a Yamaha thing, but I guess in a way it was.

The $300 will come in very handy. Since I got a performance award on the way there.

65 in a 40.

Then I got a ticket this morning for lane splitting.

And to top it all off. Just as I was pulling on to the road my office is on, I hit a patch of antifreeze and lowsided my Buell.

So to say I've had a ****** last 24 hrs. would be an understatement.

Hey it could have been worse. Your $300 could have been "$300 worth" of Amway dealership materials! :lol:

 

[Dwavey]

I don't know, I kind of like the K1200GT, at least for the comfort and some of the farkles.

But now that mamayama is making heated grips standard on the A's, if they could add factory cruise and a AM/FM stereo it'd be perfect and send the BMW packing back to der Vaterland. :assassin:

 

[2006FJR]

I would be happy with the RT or the GT, but the FJR was cheaper or I would have bought one. Having said that, it has been one of the best purchases I have ever made. I am being paid $300 to one of those this week too? Must be the time of year. :yahoo:

 

[Graham Downunder]

They are getting serious about finding why they can not sell more k1200gt and to a leeser extent the R1200RT.

In Australia they sell FAR more GS than any other model ,it must be a worry to have so much invested in development of K1200GT and not have it sell well.

The problem I see is that every BMW is 30%-50% overpriced .If they lower the price of the K1200gt they will piss of existing owners and possibly eat into sales of the GS ( higher profit and bigger volume) .

BMW top managment are hearing load and clear about rear end problems,etc. If I had been affected by there lack of warranty and "attitude " they would not only, not sell me another bike but they would find a pissed of customer tells EVERYONE so any potential customer would be less likely to buy a BMW.

If let's say there was say 2,000 bikes affected with the rear end problem it would have only cost about $1,000,000 to fix them all and I doubt if it was that many. $ 1 million seams cheap today compared to what they now face.The internet has made it easy for people to inform others of there problems ,the days of a customer staying quite are OVER.

Today they are hearing it is affecting sales tommorow they will feal the pain of pissing of customers as they do not return.People who own a bike with problems or potential problem do not "bag it " they quite often keep quite, sell it and move to another brand.This is VERY common with upper middle class middle age people who are the customers BMW want.You may see substanial changes at BMW middle management ,this can be because senor managment did not like the message so they " shoot the messager or they did not like the way they handled the problem.It could even be possible that they discontinue the K1200GT ( pitty it is a good bike ) . This reminds me of when Porshe made the 928 and 924/944 ,they did not sell well and were dropped after many years ,it nearly bought down Porshe .

If you could buy a K1200GT for about 15% more than a Yamaha would you ???

They have to do something as the Kawasaki Concourse is coming and if it is as good as the Yamaha they will have trouble selling any K1200GT.Honda is also due to replace the ST1300 in the next 2 years so another problem for BMW . The problems will realy come about when the sales of 1200GS Adventures slows ( inevertable ).

 

[designeraccd]

I haven't owned either of those 2 BMWs, but I've had 4 beemers and while I rather liked them all, I much prefer my FJR. OTOH the old R75/6 airhead was in a class by itself; not comparable to the FJR. It was a "charming" back road bike tho...@ 30-40mph slower than the FJR of course!!!

The "attitude" I got from BMWNA on my R1100RS left a really bad taste; given their self proclaimed Jhurmunn eggineerinn prowess, rather like Porsches...always some oops to spoil things at some point, an $$$$ oops, too!

I'll keep my FJR thankyou! DFO :yahoo:

 

[BobG]

The German engineers can't understand the US market. They never have and never will.

Look how Daimler ran Dodge into the ground.

With comments the German Engineers said about about jeep buyers " give them the round lights and you can sell them anything".

The arrogance of these engineers and corporate managers from bmw will be the cause of their own down fall. One of the ex-sales people from our local Honda/ bmw dealership was present, he was reportedly agitated at the dealer for having Hondas and bmw in the same room. He also couldn't understand why anyone would buy a Goldwing over a LT. When he was asked why bmw keeps sending bikes to the dealers that they can't sell, the Corporate bmw dork just answered "they sell in Europe".

 

[git-r-dan]

FWIW - When I purchased the fjr last year, looked up the local (FL) autocom dealer which happened to be a BMW dealer. Sales dude that I talked to was really very cool and asked me a lot of questions about my bike. Finding out I had the fjr, he let me know he had just purchased an '05 fjr for himself and loved it. That says a lot.

 

[2006FJR]

I went down to test drive the BMW GT on a busy day and when I told them I was interested in taking the bike out for a ride they asked me if I would be buying it today? I walked out and drove over to Yamaha where I had about an hour of riding before I bought it on the spot. I guess I am starting to see what you'll mean about their attitude now that I think back...