variance in retail price

[CO Dan]

I recently looked into a part for my KTM.

I got 3 price quotes133, $118 and $80.

The dealer quoting me $80 said that this is the suggested KTM retail price. I would assume that the SR has a reasonable amount of dealer profit built in. Am I wrong?

20+ years ago I worked in a Suzuki/KTM/BMW shop. We sold everything at suggested retail, occassionally adding 10% if shipping was expensive - like a metal gas tank for instance.

I don't shop just on price, preferring to support my local dealer. But sometimes his retail prices are 50% to 70% more than SR.

Doesn't suggested retail price mean anything anymore?
Thoughts?

 

[jeb]

Dan,
The two things that come to mind are that the $80 price was for the wrong item or it was for a repriced item. KTM is trying to bring their prices down on a lot of stuff. Heim joint kits, for instance, used to be about $70 and now they're about $40.

It's nice of KTM to do that but sometimes dealers get screwed. If a good dealer stocked up on heim joint kits at the old price, he's going to have a heck of a time getting rid of them when everyone else is selling them for a lot less.

 

[CO Dan]

old vs. new price...

Maybe that's it, but the item in questions was something that I wouldn't expect any dealer to have in stock. But maybe they have an old price listing.

It wasn't the wrong part - I quoted the dealer the part number and he gave me the price and description back. So I knew what he was talking about.