Some of you may be familar with what honda has been trying to do for the past two years, but some you may not, so here's my thoughts on the situation.

Honda has been trying to do the exact same thing that Ford has been doing in their automotive dealer network. They want to make "Honda Exclusive" dealerships and Honda "malls" much like Ford is trying to do. Alot of legal issues come into this as far as making it a final deal, but they are close. Word amongst dealers is that jhonda is waiting to see how the lawsuits against Ford turnout before they go any further.

Honda Motorcycle/ATV sales were down for the first half of this year compared to last year.....and so were the other manufacturers. This is due to many different reasons, one being the current economy. However,..Honda sales fell below that of Yamaha. this hasn't happened since the early 1990s.

Honda will announce a snowmobile next month at the dealer show. This is another product that is designed to help benefit the "malls" if it happens.

Honda's first ever watercraft was designed for the same reasons.

Honda knows that alot of the multi-line dealers carry more than Honda because the "other guys" carry products that serve as the dealer's income throughout the year.

A current "Honda-Only" dealer has only two seasons...summer for streetbikes and Fall for ATVs.....and that's it. If this dealer was to take on Yamaha for examble, he could sell watercraft and streetbikes during the Summer and then sell snowmobiles and ATVs during the Fall and Winter.

This makes sense to dealers in the northern states, but no where else. The "seasonal" thing is just their excuse for wanting this to happen. Can you see a dealer in Miaimi stocking snowmobiles, just because Honda says that it's in his best interest??

Honda will be addressing these issues at the dealer show in September.

For the sake of current multi-line dealers, and for the sake of the sport [lawsuits], let's hope this idea of "exclusive Honda dealers" gets flushed down the drain quickly.

 

thanks for the info,kinda wondered about that

 

I hear the part number for an '04 frame for the 400?(or whatever it is) is different than the current part number. This would explain a differnt motor/setup of for the following year. Anyone else hear of this? How do you look this up?

 

I doubt that Ford or Honda can force a dealership to drop other product lines that they are currently offering. The one thing they can do is when they establish a new store they can put in the contract that their product will be the only one sold. I'm sure that dealer would have an exclusive geograghic area that would keep any competing dealers at a distance. I have a feeling that most dealers would be against all this, unless it was exclusive rights to all Honda products not just ATV's, watercraft and snowmobiles.

 

Harley has this one line dealer type thing in place now. A major Harley dealer in the St. Louis area lost the Harley line this past winter. If you notice that all of the Harley dealers in your area must hast the bikes ina show room by them selves and it must be of a certian size. Harley came in and said that you have 60 days to correct this or you lose Harley. They are just a suzuki dealer only now, could not get it done in time.

 

What Honda should be concentrating on is upgrading their machines to catch up with the competition!

 

<< Harley has this one line dealer type thing in place now. A major Harley dealer in the St. Louis area lost the Harley line this past winter. If you notice that all of the Harley dealers in your area must hast the bikes ina show room by them selves and it must be of a certian size. Harley came in and said that you have 60 days to correct this or you lose Harley. They are just a suzuki dealer only now, could not get it done in time. >>



Same thing happened here. except they made this huge harley dealer. If honda approached me and said &quot;hey, you carry honda and nothing else I would tell em to pound sand.&quot;

 

Yes, the watercraft and snowmobile ventures are the foundation on this idea.

There is no way Honda could get dealers to go along with this without other powersport categories to keep the revenues up year round...but it's still going to be a tough sell even with the extra categories.

Honda can ask NEW dealers not to carry other products, however they can't enforce it if the other brand is being sold in what is considered a difffernt building,...even if it's on the same property.

It's one thing to go back on your word, but another thing entirely when you have been selling Hondas, Yamahas, Kawasakis, and Suzukis under the same roof for over 25 years.

These are the dealers Honda should be on the lookmout for.

The dealer show will most likely turn into a shoutfest like last year if they still insist on pressing this &quot;idea&quot; to it's dealers.

 

It seems to me like Honda has always been pretty high minded. I have heard from a couple different people who used to be Honda dealers back in the day who couldn't keep their dealership once Honda changed some of their requirements in the mid 80's.

In smaller towns like the ones I have lived in it is usually one dealership for almost all makes. Right now, in both cities north and south of me it is one dealer for all of the japanese makes. When I lived in Maine it was only two dealers who each had 2 of the big 4. When I went to Richfield, UT one dealer in that town had every brand including Bombardier and Cannondale.

If this is really Honda's plan they should rethink it. I just think they are going to make it harder to buy Honda if they limit themselves in this way. How can a dealer expand his store to accomadate their new needs in small towns where they need all those brands just to keep sales up?

 

all the dealers around me that sell hondas, sell only hondas and nothing else. the only one i can think of that doesn't is Toys for Big Boys, they sell honda, harley, and KTM. polaris wanted them to sell their atv's, but they said they'd have to expand their store, and pay for it themselves. i don't think this idea of honda is good either, it's like IRVING (very rich company) they tell all of the small garages what to do, when, how much.......... they even took the pumps out at some garages. in the end the owner tells them to shove it and opens their own garage.