Here in WI there used to be about 8 dealers. I was going to pick up a cannibal but missed my chance due to the dealer not holding it for me. Since he pizzed me off i went and bought the wife a Z400. Now i have my raptor on its way out and all the dealers are gone? There is only 2 left out of 8? And they are all way out of the way. Like 5+ Hours. One of them is on its way out too. I dont think its a good idea to be buying a dale now that all the dealerships are going under from no sales. Is everyone else noticing the same thing?

 

Cannondale has more dealers than ever. Perhaps in your area they don't but over all they are growing faster than ever. New dealers don't always work out and that is all that you are seeing. Since the Quad has been such a success I think Cannondale is also starting to get picky with the dealers that are not up to their standards and droping them. Hell they are starting to sell in europe and have just added new reps in the USA.

 

I agree. There have been a few dealers in my area that were "dropped" or decided to quit selling Cannondales for some reason. I have also found that these were the dealers that had NO clue about Cannondales in the first place. I look at it as, "out with the bad, in with the good." I don't know about you, but I want my dealer to be as passionate about Cannondales (and about seeing them grow and succeed) as I am. I also want my local dealer to know as much or more about the quads than I do (which I haven't found yet!) Am I asking too much???? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

 

the one dealer i went to said that cannondale wants them to purchase twenty atvs and twenty bikes a year and they said they only sold 5 in the last year so they were dropping them. i don't believe the dealer gave them a chance because everyone thats ridden my dale loves it and wants one [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

we have a great dealer in brookhaven mississippi called ez-ride owned by Kip Allen. my son rides for him. he carries 3 or 4 atv's and 1 bike to every race and lets people test ride them. a couple weeks ago a guy showed up at the track with a speed that wouldnt start and kip worked on it for 2 hours and finally took an ecu off one of the brand new quads he had with him and put it on the guys speed so he could race that night. the quad still didnt run right so he loaded it in his trailer and took it to his shop. he not only fixed the quad he delivered it back to the track to the guy three days later so he could practice that night. the kicker is that the guy bought the speed from a different dealer who told him it would take them a week to get to his quad. there are good dealers out there you just have to be carefull. my advice is before you buy a quad from a dealer is to talk to others that have bought there and find out all you can before you buy.if you live anywhere in mississippi or louisiana and plan on buying a dale it would be worth your while to check out ez-ride in brookhaven mississippi.

 

Yep,listen to Mark.That was my speed he is talking about.

 

special, you racing gonzales this weekend ? looks like i'm going fishing, kip is going to tennessee to visit his wifes family. i guess we will race rock hill the next weekend and then fernwood the next. i hated josh didnt get to race last weekend, he was looking pretty good at practice but you defended our honor and done a hell of a job. josh was out on the track at 1:00 am after eveyone left riding my warrior. he came in and told me that it handled pretty good. i told him he should have raced it, i know he could have at least smoked that raptor but not because of my quad, it would have been all rider ability there. may go to wiggins sunday for a little trail riding, first gotta put the blaster back together and fix a flat on the e-ton. painted my rack blue, dont look to bad and went and looked for a toolbox for my truck today. its a pain not having all my tools with me. i guess we will see you at rock hill next week. later

 

The reason so many Cannondale dealers go away is due to the fact that it takes them time to realize that it takes a bit more than they thought to carry a product line in the power sports industry.

Most are first time dealers of anything. The only ones to make it are those who have an aftermarket accessory business or other source of income.

No one out there without a sizable and knowledgable staff can be successful with the Cannondale product alone.

It will be even more interesting to see how long these "first timers" last over the long haul.

From what I understood earlier this spring, they still had over 80 of their original 100 dealers. We are among those 100.

That's not bad considering that Yamaha actually has the biggest dealer problem in the US and have for years. Yamaha wants to become the leader, but it isn't going to happen overnight by just giving any "Joe Blow" a dealership.

Cannondale has realized this lately with the "aftermarket companies" wanting to become dealers.

Cannondale is getting their name out there by distributing through these companies, but they don't know their $%#$ from a hole in ground on how to run a dealership and know even less about the product.

I'm no expert by a long shot...there are none with this line. It hasn't been out long enough, but if you see some of the e-mail quotes from some of these "wanna-be" dealers, you would see what I mean.

What's a Cannondale Cannonball with Olenes shocks and cable clutch??

Would you buy from a guy like this?????

Before you answer that, remember who watching.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]