Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: Robenstein
Resale is not an accurate indicator of the quality of the machine.
Agreed.
Originally Posted By: BigCahuna
Resale is the ultimate indicator.
No, resale value is an indicator of the desire of other people to own a particular model. If no body wants brand XYZ, then it's resale will be next to nothing. However, if brand XYZ is HIGHLY coveted, whether artificially inflated through hype or not then it's retail will be correspondingly high.
Neither retail nor resale are indicative of quality.
So you would knowingly buy a motorcycle knowing a) It will shrink in value more then others do? b)People pay for quality, they don't seen to want to pay for cheezy plastic over hyped bikes after a couple of years.C) If there's no quality in a Harley, why do they sell so many of them? Surely a percentage of their buyer would realize that and run to but a metric bike, wouldn't they?.D) owning a metric bike for a long time isn't a choice, it's a result of being stuck with a bike nobody wants to buy. There's a brand new '09 Yamaha road star on Craigs list in Texas still for sale from a dealer. How Can you explain that?.Too much quality? Too much technology? Too much value? Too much artificial inflation?.,,
I would knowingly buy a bike or car even if the resale was low. Why? Because I don't care! When I by something, I buy it because it's either something that I really want or is very practical. I don't buy as an investment, because when I'm done with it, nobody will want it anyway.
You're right, many people will pay for quality, but the retail price reflects the costs the manufacturer and dealer have in the product (can be raised by an abundance of quality parts/workmanship or even artificially inflated) and resale is driven by how how desired the item is on the used market.
Lastly, I think you should re-read my post, as nowhere did I mention a preference to one brand of bike or another. In fact, I specifically left names out, so as to better illustrate my point, but obviously it was lost.