Buying a New Bike - Import Dealers

Import dealers buy their bikes form abroad in bulk to get the best price and have them shipped over to the UK . Most of the bikes that are brought into the country by import dealers are UK spec bikes. It is very important that you check the bikes over before buying to make sure that they conform to UK standards. These standards state that the speedometer must read in mph not in kph and that the lights dip in the right direction.

When looking to buy a new bike form an import dealer there are a few positive and negative points to consider. The positive aspects of buying from an import dealer are as follows:

After sales service - Good after sales service means that these bikes can be a good buy. The show rooms are usually accompanied by a workshop which specialises in the bikes that are sold. This can be a very positive point when buying machines which can be tricky and costly to service like Ducati and Aprilia models.

Parts - these show rooms often have good contacts all over the world and can therefore get hold of parts for bikes that other places can find difficult to locate.

Selection - Bike importers can often supply a range and selection of bikes unique to some of the other main dealers in the country. They often import more specialised bikes from Europe and other places around the world.

With the good points also come the bad points, which some are discussed below:

Costs - Prices of bikes at import dealers can often be high, this is down to the dealers transferring the shipping costs onto the customer. Due to the limited number of these types of dealers in the UK these prices are pretty constant throughout the country and it will be hard to haggle on price.

Part exchange - Part exchange of your old bike can also be difficult as most import dealers trade in the more specialised bike and find it hard to competitively resell these bikes within the industry.

Bike Insurance - The issue of bike insurance when buying an imported bike is also a down side. Because these bikes can be more expensive to repair and replace most motorcycle insurance firms class these bikes as high risk increasing the bike insurance premium for these vehicles.

Although import dealers do seem to have some strong negative points but they are the best place to search for more specialised machinery.