Customs R18

I could easily beleive that they made more than they could sell - seems the obvious reason for the big discounts seen at dealers for demo models.

I'm ok with that. I like the bike for what it is, and a bit of rarity never hurts.
 
UK_r18_Classic said:
I could easily beleive that they made more than they could sell - seems the obvious reason for the big discounts seen at dealers for demo models.

I'm ok with that. I like the bike for what it is, and a bit of rarity never hurts.
Click to expand...
I think BMW is smart with the way they handled the excess inventory. Having one and two year old bikes on showroom floors is what kills any chance a bike has of making inroads into the marketplace.

Who knows what level of success the R18 will eventually have. But anyone that got a great deal this year certainly benefited from the spot BMW found themselves in.
 
I had absolutely no interest in the R18 First Edition when it came out and especially at MSRP. When BMW slashed the price in half with deep discounts, I became very seriously interested... I have other nice bikes and the only reason I bought it was that I got it new for $11K after the financing incentive. A friend who had been looking at one for awhile jumped on the same sweet deal when it became available.

The way BMW very significantly reduced the price to move a slow selling bike reminds me of Honda doing the same on the 1982 CBX. They didn't sell well and were in large numbers in warehouses for a couple years and then Honda really dumped the price. They suddenly FLEW out of Honda dealerships and I got one myself and wish I still had it...
 
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BMW has often had winter in northern hemisphere incentives on bikes. At least here in the US, BMW has 2 current incentives running. One is for $1000 off 2021 F750GS, F850GS & F850GS Adventure. The other is 0.9% financing with 6 months no payments or 0.9% financing & $3000 off 2021 R18 & R18 Classic. If we just use the factory discounts and look at base price of each, the F750GS is ~ 10% off, while the base R18 is ~ 17% and base R18 Classic is ~15%. If you look at the MSRP of First Edition versions of the base R18 & R18 classic, the discount is 14-15%.

So definitely a more significant savings on the R18, but perhaps not quite as dire as to suggest disappointing sales especially given the new category and how the initial pricing and content was toward the higher end of the market. Interesting is that for 2022, BMW has pushed the pricing on the base R18 & R18 classic lower. Especially on the base R18, which removes the fork slider covers and the wired wheels to get to a $15995 base price. It starts to look pretty close to the Indian Chief (ABS) at $15299 and the now discontinued Harley Softail Slim at $15999.
 
I dunno.

In the UK, I managed to get a brand new r18 classic, with every single option ticked. List price in the UK was £25k (approx).

This was discounted to £20k, with no deposit finance at £150 a month for 36 months, 0% interest.

So that's my total payment - £150 a month with nothing down.

It's less than half the amount it would normally be for a similar bike.
 
nielsm said:
Comparing bikes in stock isn’t the whole story. Harley’s 2021 sales were down about 9% first 9 months of 2021 vs 2019. 2020 was worse due to pandemic. Harley intentionally has restricted supply to keep prices higher and focused on more expensive models.

Indian’s sales in first 9 months were up 47% vs 2019. Likely driven by the new Chief which has many cheaper models.

Both Harley & Indian are predominantly cruiser models. Only Pan America and FTR aren’t. BMW is mostly everything but cruisers. The R18 was launched in the middle of the Pandemic and most of the units built were the higher trim First Edition.

I don’t know what BMW had hoped for sales, but I see about 10x as many GS still on the floor this December compared to R18 at my dealer. But likely the margins on the R18, especially First Edition trims are more than the GS which explains the difference in incentives.
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BMW had it's best ever sales volume in 2021, it just wasn't R18's.
www.press.bmwgroup.com

In 2021 BMW Motorrad achieves the best sales result in its history with an increase of 14.8 percent.

194.261 BMW motorcycles and scooters were delivered to customers worldwide.
www.press.bmwgroup.com www.press.bmwgroup.com

They were up 14% year over year, and 2020 was their second best sales year ever.
www.rideapart.com

BMW Motorrad Hits Second Best Sales Record In 2020

BMW Motorrad has posted successful sales figures in 2020. The German motorcycle manufacturer sold a total of 169,272 motorcycles across the globe.
www.rideapart.com www.rideapart.com

My local dealer had more than 30 2021 R18's in stock when I spoke to them in early January, but only has a few out on the floor since there are few variations / colors and he has limited floor space. He has more R1250GS's, because of the myriad ways they can be configured. I would also guess he is making more profit per unit on the GS models as well. Overall inventory he has more R18's than any other model, but most of them are packed in his secondary warehouse and not in display on the showroom.

I think one of the reason BMW was able to sell more bikes in 2021, during which Harley had a significant sales drop, is mastery of the supply chain. Harley could have sold more bikes if they built them, showroom floors were pretty empty all summer and fall. As well, both Harley and Indian started adding surcharges to their bikes last year, ranging from $600 - $900. This is in addition to freight and setup. The closest Indian dealer to me charges $1,600 freight and setup, plus the $600 surcharge *and* you had to put a deposit down on an incoming bike a couple months ahead of time.

At the same time, I could walk into the BMW dealer and get a bike with no surcharge, freight or setup cost and at several thousand under msrp. That speaks to a different supply / demand ratio than Indian was experiencing at the time. Did BMW make too many R18's or did Indian make too few bikes? Or perhaps both? I know Harley and Indian were (are) hampered by supply chain issues, maybe BMW thought they could snag some of those sales and made extra R18s? Only the brass at BMW knows, I guess.

Whatever the cause, I got an amazing, gorgeous full size cruiser for less than it would have cost to buy a Sportster or Scout. I feel like I came out way ahead in this market.
 

R18 SALES,PRICES & INCENTIVE PROGRAM DISCUSSION

https://www.r18forums.com/threads/customs-r18.144/page-19#post-11304 Thought this might be a better venue to free up the Customs thread. My expierence and thoughts as I got this bike speciffically to add a sidecar.So,yeah,the price incentives and reverse gear definitely key in the purchase.The...
www.r18forums.com
 
PistolPeteSTL said:
BMW had it's best ever sales volume in 2021, it just wasn't R18's.
www.press.bmwgroup.com

In 2021 BMW Motorrad achieves the best sales result in its history with an increase of 14.8 percent.

194.261 BMW motorcycles and scooters were delivered to customers worldwide.
www.press.bmwgroup.com www.press.bmwgroup.com

They were up 14% year over year, and 2020 was their second best sales year ever.
www.rideapart.com

BMW Motorrad Hits Second Best Sales Record In 2020

BMW Motorrad has posted successful sales figures in 2020. The German motorcycle manufacturer sold a total of 169,272 motorcycles across the globe.
www.rideapart.com www.rideapart.com

My local dealer had more than 30 2021 R18's in stock when I spoke to them in early January, but only has a few out on the floor since there are few variations / colors and he has limited floor space. He has more R1250GS's, because of the myriad ways they can be configured. I would also guess he is making more profit per unit on the GS models as well. Overall inventory he has more R18's than any other model, but most of them are packed in his secondary warehouse and not in display on the showroom.

I think one of the reason BMW was able to sell more bikes in 2021, during which Harley had a significant sales drop, is mastery of the supply chain. Harley could have sold more bikes if they built them, showroom floors were pretty empty all summer and fall. As well, both Harley and Indian started adding surcharges to their bikes last year, ranging from $600 - $900. This is in addition to freight and setup. The closest Indian dealer to me charges $1,600 freight and setup, plus the $600 surcharge *and* you had to put a deposit down on an incoming bike a couple months ahead of time.

At the same time, I could walk into the BMW dealer and get a bike with no surcharge, freight or setup cost and at several thousand under msrp. That speaks to a different supply / demand ratio than Indian was experiencing at the time. Did BMW make too many R18's or did Indian make too few bikes? Or perhaps both? I know Harley and Indian were (are) hampered by supply chain issues, maybe BMW thought they could snag some of those sales and made extra R18s? Only the brass at BMW knows, I guess.

Whatever the cause, I got an amazing, gorgeous full size cruiser for less than it would have cost to buy a Sportster or Scout. I feel like I came out way ahead in this market.
Click to expand...
While I don't resent any of you guys who got a fantastic deal and there seems to be a growing contingent on this forum, us original guys are still licking our wounds a bit for paying full boat MSRP. I don't regret my purchase for one minute, but I won't lie.......it hurts to see guys grabbing the same bike for almost 10k less.
 
nielsm said:
BMW has often had winter in northern hemisphere incentives on bikes. At least here in the US, BMW has 2 current incentives running. One is for $1000 off 2021 F750GS, F850GS & F850GS Adventure. The other is 0.9% financing with 6 months no payments or 0.9% financing & $3000 off 2021 R18 & R18 Classic. If we just use the factory discounts and look at base price of each, the F750GS is ~ 10% off, while the base R18 is ~ 17% and base R18 Classic is ~15%. If you look at the MSRP of First Edition versions of the base R18 & R18 classic, the discount is 14-15%.

So definitely a more significant savings on the R18, but perhaps not quite as dire as to suggest disappointing sales especially given the new category and how the initial pricing and content was toward the higher end of the market. Interesting is that for 2022, BMW has pushed the pricing on the base R18 & R18 classic lower. Especially on the base R18, which removes the fork slider covers and the wired wheels to get to a $15995 base price. It starts to look pretty close to the Indian Chief (ABS) at $15299 and the now discontinued Harley Softail Slim at $15999.
Click to expand...
these off season specials are only part of the story for the R18. Dealers are offering new bikes at demo prices PLUS the off season financing specials.
 
Michigan Tim said:
While I don't resent any of you guys who got a fantastic deal and there seems to be a growing contingent on this forum, us original guys are still licking our wounds a bit for paying full boat MSRP. I don't regret my purchase for one minute, but I won't lie.......it hurts to see guys grabbing the same bike for almost 10k less.
Click to expand...
But, from the BMW press release, I'd again argue that the R18 hasn't been a flop as some make it out to be. 2021 was BMW's best ever year, delivering nearly 20K more bikes than the previous best year in 2019 . These snippets from the BMW press release tells an interesting story:

"A total of over 60,000 units of the two touring enduros R 1250 GS and GS Adventure alone, were delivered to customers in 2021. Sales of the traditionally strong R Series increased significantly overall. Thanks to the new top-of-the-line R 1250 RT tourer and the four emotional BMW cruisers from the R18 model family, sales figures in the flat-twin boxer segment once again grew strongly, accounting for around half of the total 194,261 vehicles sold." "BMW Motorrad achieved an impressive +32.1% growth in the USA."

So roughly 95K boxer bikes were sold and about 60K of those were GS versions (best selling model) which is similar to the 59K number of GS in 2019 when the shift cam was released. Since the GS sales were nearly flat and overall sales increased 20K over 2019, and a significant growth of 32% in USA (typical cruiser market), it's not unrealistic to think based on the call out that most of the 20K extra sales came from the new RT & R18 line. Even if only 10K was across the R18 line, that's still 5% of overall sales for a new segment in the first full model year in the middle of a pandemic.
 
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