The dealers quick reply to my inquiry about price - They offered it to me at $13,500. So my neighbor went in a couple of weeks later and they told him $14,000...
Clearly they aren't tuned in to market pricing :blink: At that price, it's going to sit there for another two years...
It just depends on who comes along. Everyone doesn't make their buying decisions based on national studies of pricing, and there are some folks who actually want to have a local dealer.
We get back to the idea that some folks know the price of everything and the value of nothing. An AE's list price is up close to $16K. Anyone who's discounted it by several thou probably figures that someone will go for it. From my view, unless you specifically want the paddleshifter, I don't know why you'd pick an AE at the price differential compared to the A. I think the big problem for the AE is that the magazine reviewers panned the YCC-S feature, and no one wants to pay extra for what the magazine guys think is a negative. There just aren't enough of us out there who have an off and on gimpy left foot or hand.
I've heard that Yamaha will only be shipping AE's to order and that they won't be making dealers take them as part of the floor plan, but I don't know if this is true. I think there were a lot of AEs left over in comparison to the number that were shipped in 06 and 07. Anyone ever seen an 08 on a dealer's floor? I haven't.
I picked up my 06 AE leftover for very little (just over $10K), but it was through serendipity. The internet pricing at the dealer was over $2000 less than the "on the floor" pricing. Had I just walked in and seen the bike without having seen the internet first, I would have probably paid the extra $2K+ and been blissfully happy.
Meanwhile, regarding the idea that the real price for Y.E.S. is what D&H charges... that's another one subject to perspective. D&H is selling the Y.E.S. plan at some pittance over its cost. He makes a little money, he has very little overhead, and he's happy. Another dealer will probably have more overhead, and may use the extended warranty idea as a profit center. Many of them use pre-paid service, extended warranty from third parties, financing deals, and other peripheral items as significant profit generators. My dealer pitched me a third party extended service agreement for $700 for 2 extra years, and I said no, just because I never buy extended warranties. Then when I found out about Y.E.S. through D&H, I bought it because it seemed like such a good deal.... so go figure. D&H made some money, and I bought an insurance policy that I would normally never buy.
Meanwhile, you can't ride a bike that you haven't bought, and you can't buy a bike for less than the best price you can find/negotiate, so you can either buy one and start ridin', or you can keep lookin' for a better deal. Its not free to look, and its not free to fly and ride.
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