if its all exchange rate...why are jap cars not priced out of the market ?
yam managed to do a quite big price reduction this year ...so that throws that argument out for a start.Personally I think its actually pro active marketing , since the recession has killed the mass market ...target the smaller but still cash rich market for quality / niche bikes...bikes like the tenere, ducati diavel for example. All sold out. Gixers by contrast have sold very poorly. Its why so many are in the adventure bike market ...its where the money is...affluent folk who dont " feel the need for speed" so much as touring, the big adventure trip.... or even dare I say it ..posing as such !
I mean just who can afford 14 k bikes for a toy these days.Pricing bikes at this level can only be crass stupidity ...or the realisation that the market has shrunk, and units are priced to make profit at much smaller volumes. Its not necessarily exchange rate.If they had sales volume they could get round that.
Hence the lack of real development for sportsbikes, and hefty prices, since they dont expect to sell many.I call it the " marks and spencer " approach.
I dont know why a company like george white has gone under, but usually its the classic collapse of sales...followed by trying everything to recover market share, diversify etc...but ultimately jap bikes just dont sell in enuff quantity now to turn the margin / profit needed to run such a big business with commensurate overheads.Soon the costs of the business take over, debt rises, and the end is nigh...In a very odd way, jap manufacturers are almost following the doomed course the british bike market did in the 70s...sticking to a declining market instead of innovating their way out of it...
With GW gone...likelihood of big dealers offering good bike prices are even more remote.Manufacturers will call the shots...and we either pay asking price or " sir is free to leave if he wishes"....end result is a very small bike market but with at least machines selling at a profit. We as consumers suffer...
