Survey reveals bikes to haggle hardest for

MCN has carried out a survey of dealers to find which bikes from the big four Japanese brands are proving a hit, and which are struggling to meet sales expectations.

It’s useful stuff if you’re hoping to strike a deal – giving you an idea of which bikes it’s realistic to haggle hard for… and which you’d best be grateful for simply getting your hands on…

Kawasaki dealers tell us the ZX-10R, ZX-6R and ZX-12R are going great guns (even so, you should aim for £8700 for the 10R) but the Z750 isn’t getting the interest they had hoped.

Suzuki salesmen say the GSX-R750 is proving their big hit, outselling the 600 by 2:1 and the 1000 by 3:1. A K4 1000 should be yours for close to £7800 while you should aim for £7500 on a K3. But the SV650 and SV1000 aren’t going so well so expect to make savings on the list prices.

At Yamaha dealers the R1 is proving so popular that if you haven’t already got your money down you’ll have to wait until mid-summer for yours. The R6 and Fazer 600 are having a harder time and Yamaha is bringing in cut-price insurance deals to help.

Honda’s hits are the Blade, CBR600RR and CBR125. You’ll be lucky to get £100 off the list price of the new Blade, but if you look at the 03 900RR aim for around £7500.

The Pan European isn’t selling in big numbers, but that’s mostly because stocks of 03 bikes are relatively low and the ’04 bikes aren’t expected until mid May.

But perhaps the cleverest buy right now is of a 1998 S-plate R1 in the original red and white. Laurence Brown, of J&L Motorcycles in Carlisle is predicting they are becoming something of a cult collectors bike.

We found examples from £3999 on sale in our BIKES FOR SALE section today. More are being added all the time. Click on BIKES FOR SALE from our main navigation bar.

Read more about great deals in the Buying & Selling section of MCN every week.