Buying from a dealer.

[solman]

1. Check the internet for dealers in the state and maybe a neighboring one too.  
2.  Tell them that you are ready to buy and are serious.
3.  Telling them that you have cash in hand can be good or bad.  They want you to finance with them so they can get more of a cut on profits.  When I bought my B12, they asked about 6 times about financing.  That is after I told them the previous five times that I am paying cash.
4.  Don't buy on the first visit.  All too many times people impulse buy and lose the prospect of any possibility of haggling.

When I bought my bike, I already had a set price from another dealer and I was going to deal with them.  I told my local dealership about it and they told me that they would match the $6400 out the door price.  I don't know how much they actually made off the bike, but they were happy to do it because it went on their records as a sale.  It also cost me an extra $50 for them to go pick it up.  No problem for me, it would've cost me more to go get it.

[PaulVS]

Dealers is weird.  

When I bought my '03 1200s new in March of '04... I got it for $6500 OTD.  Another dealer (Otto Brothers) in my area had the same bike sitting on the showroom floor for a long time and still wanted full list price + tax for the thing.  ($7300+)

I saw the bike STILL on the showroom floor at Otto Brothers a YEAR LATER when I was in just getting some other stuff.  I asked the salesman how much they wanted for it and he said the same thing... full list price... $7300.  Plus tax.

They finally sold it (to someone on this board I believe) just within the last few months for a lot less... but jeeesh... what took 'em so long to drop the price?

One thing I will never do again is buy a showroom model.  I bought a black CB750F off the floor at the dealership where I worked... then got it outside in the daylight and discovered it was lightly scratched all over where the sales people had used an old towel to 'dust it off' everyday.

Since I worked there they replaced the tank, side panels, front fender and rear cowl at no charge, but I'm sure an average joe off the street wouldn't have gotten the same consideration.

My '03 Bandit was still in the crate when I bought it.

[solman]

It is strange how some dealers would rather have a bike sit for a few years than to drop the price to sit on it.  Before our local Suzuki dealership got sold, they have a couple of 2000 B12's  sitting on the floor and they still wanted full price.  I didn't even haggle, it wasn't even worth my time.  BTW, this was back around the 02-03 time frame.