Re: [ST] Cash purchasers NOW Lengthy Newbie Intro

[Brian Pitman <snowsurfer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello fellow listers,
 
I am a newbie that has been lurking on this Triumph list for the past few months as I have been slowly digesting the 05 & 06 archives before chiming in with my comments and questions(!).
 
In terms of a brief introduction, I live in Ottawa, Canada’s capital city – the most northerly capital in the world.  So when roads are not bike-friendly (i.e. snow-covered!) I spend as much time as humanly possible on my carving snowboard, skis or freeride board (in that order - hence the email address (which also adorns my car plate)) at the local resorts in nearby Quebec. I am also a part-time ski & SB instructor, thus I thoroughly enjoyed the winter “riding” banter in the archives!  In case anyone is mislead about how young I am not by the snowboard comment, my daughter acutely pointed out last Sep that I am 18 with 32 years experience (and gave me the T-shirt prominently saying so).
 
I purchased my first Triumph in the form of an ’06 Caspian Blue Sprint ST from my local dealer during the last week of Dec. 
 
One of the main reasons for buying the Sprint is to make it my regular ride allowing me to “semi-retire” the high-mileage (in my case “high kms”) '93 Yamaha GTS 1000A that resides in my garage.
 
The next best reason was to take advantage of the excellent incentives available.  
Besides being discounted almost $2000, the saddlebags (which are slightly too small, too heavy and have overly complex locking mechanisms) were included gratis and I was able to finance 100% of the purchase price at 2.9% (about half the rate had I gone to my local banker to ask for a loan).  This tidbit tied in very nicely with Nate’s cash versus credit card commentary so I thought it was time to make an appearance on this list.  
 
Since I have worked in finance most of my adult life, and have owned several motorcycles, I have always wanted to go into a dealership, walk up to the nearest sales person, point to the latest sport-tourer on the floor and say, “I want the red one … and put it on my AMEX card, please.”  
 
As several of you have pointed out, that is a bit of a fantasy in most locations since dealers have to pay a significant percentage depending on the card and their sales volumes.  In any event, I was quite happy to take advantage of the low financing rate offered.  I wonder if the dealer received a piece of that small 2.9% pie!  J
 
That’s the good news so far.  In May, Ottawa had some stunningly good spring weather so I hit the back roads for two consecutive weekend days.  In that time I rolled up 800 break-in kms, collected my first speeding ticket of the season (love the motor!), and discovered (to no great surprise) that the bars are too low for serious long distance sport touring and the seat is a PITA – just like my GTS - which has been carrying Heli-bars and a Corbin saddle for many moons now.  Thus, when I bought the bike I realized that the big discount would be largely offset by the cost of new bars and a seat.  What I did not expect is how much heat the underseat exhaust produces on a “normal” day (the mercury was in the mid-20’s that break-in weekend in May.  That is low to mid 80’s for the Fahrenheit folks immediately south of the Great White North).  While I was quite aware that some of the underseat exhaust supersports machinery produce “butt-burning” rides, I had read several test
 reviews of the ST and did not pick up any feedback on the warm seat so I assumed that Triumph had rectified this “minor” technical problem associated with the very cool looking silencers (bad pun intended).
 
At this point I have some Qs and comments, however, being a veteran of the GTS List, I will address each one in detail in separately titled emails so that the thread themes can be maintained.
 
In closing, I would like to note that I do like to ride (I have averaged close to 10,000 kms per year over the last decade, which may not sound like a lot of mileage to some, however, keep in mind that the riding season is somewhat shorter in Canada and all that distance was recreational riding since my daily work commute is done by bicycle during the summer!), so once I get my ST sorted out, it will NOT be a garage queen.  For example, this Sat I am making a 10 hr round trip to Lake George to see some fellow GTSers followed by a six hour ride on Sunday to see the Mosport round of the Cdn SBK series.
 
I hope to rendez-vous with some Triumph rides and riders in the near future, however, the West Virginia ride was just a little too far for a weekend ride this time out!!!
 
Finally, does anyone have any clever suggestions for a personalized plate on an ST?  In Ontario, we have the option of customizing five characters on a motorcycle plate.  TRUMPET would look nice but is unfortunately seven letters long…
 
Cheers,
 
Brian
GWN


----- Original Message ----
From: Nathan Maher nate@xxxxxxxxxx


Sometimes the dealer does have your best interests in mind when offering 
financing options (note, I said *sometimes*).  Example, large car dealers 
often purchase loans in bulk and can therefore get lower interest rates. 
  Granted, they still mark these rates up so that they quite literally 
profit from your loan but in most cases these rates will be lower than if 
you went to the same bank and asked for the same loan.  I actually tried 
this recently, the dealer could offer me a loan through my bank that was 
two percentage points lower!  I called my bank and they actually 
explained the process to me in a pretty transparent manner, I was a bit 
shocked by this.  It is worth noting that I was able to beat both of them 
by using a local credit union.  I don't think I'll ever use anyone else 
for a vehicle loan.

One other finance-related tidbit for anyone who might not know: dealers 
will often not let you pay for vehicles via credit card (even if your 
limit is high enough) because they pay a percentage fee.  It's worth it 
for them to take a down-payment via CC but not pay a fee on the whole 
deal if they aren't handling the financing.

Nate
00SprintRS
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