Hi everyone,

I've been reading all of you guys for 2 years now. My brother and me bougth are 1 st quad (KVF 650) because of the info given here.

So here is my first post with a letter i just sent to Suzuki Canada. Can't wait to see how long and what kind of answer i'll get.

I have been shopping for your new King Quad for a couple of days now but have found some big differences in the pricing and I’m a little bit confused. I have asked around on the internet quad forums to know why this big of a margin in prices but to no avail. Here is what I found on your Canadian and American sites.

MSRP CAD 11 699.00 (price shown on your press release ATV001-04)
MSRP US 7199.00 or 9275.00 CAD difference of 2424.00 CAD with the current rate of exchange.

Dealers here in Québec (and some of them don’t know) tell me the MSRP is 10 600.00 but they tell me it will go at about 9 600.00.

Two things strike me when you see all this info.

1st and most obvious, is that the KQ is a lot more expensive here in Canada. Someone in the US is getting a price at Honda East of 6268.00 US + tax witch is 8075.00 CAD !

2nd It is well known that Suzuki’s have the reputation of being less expensive that the competition. It is true for the United States where MSRP on the KQ is 7199.00 and the Kawasaki Brute force is 7599.00. But here in Canada the King Quad is as or more expensive than the same Brute Force.

Can you please for the benefit of all explain to us the difference in prices and give us the exact price and also give us a precise date we will see your King Quad in store.

Yours truly and hopefully future KQ owner

E.C.

 

maybe we should buy in the usa? but will we have to pay duty?

 

Here's the quick but very incomplete answer i got from Suzuki this morning.

Take a look a the date they say we will have them!!!


Dear Mr. C,
Thank you for your inquiry. The price of the KingQuad was corrected. It should be listed as $10,699 and not $11,699. We apologize for the error. The KingQuads will be available at dealers in late October / early November.

Thank you for your interest in Suzuki products.

Sasha Francispillai
Coordinator, Corporate Communications Group/
Coordinatrice, Groupe de communication d'entreprise
Suzuki Canada Inc.
Tel: 905 889 2677 x2235
n

Should i ask about the price difference again?

 

bump

 

The KQ's in the US are made there, in Kentuky if i remember right, and should be duty free at the border to bring north. The ones in Canada are made in Japan and shipped over threw B.C. I think id rather a Japan made one personally, no reported reverse gear clips breaking on the ones from there yet. Cant beat those Japaniese when it comes to this stuff!

Can someone look at the plate on the frame and the "Made in" part to confirm this, mine was in fact made in Japan.

The cost gap, is probably for shipping. If someone wanted to save some, could bring it north, warrenty be good only to bring it back down south again, but the odometer can be easly swithed for the metric ppl!

 

It is about time that someone gave vent to the confusion in the prices of quads between the US and Canada, so good for you WazzUp. That said, I think that there will be a less-than-satisfying response from Suzuki Canada. At last count there were 18 reasons for the discrepancies you noted, the major one being the different tax implications existing between countries and even between some Canadian provinces. Of course, every corporation has its own dealer-relationship agreements and cost-accounting policies each of these adds to the complexity of this pricing question. It is clear that doing business in Canada is quite a bit more expensive than in the USA, for mainly demographic and geographic marketing reasons, but the main contributor to these higher prices is tax-related. Dealers in Canada must spread the costs of doing business over fewer customers, and so their unavoidable cost-prices are higher, therefore, so are their retail product prices, especially for parts. Manufacturer's must allow dealers in Canada different latitude for retail pricing policy, or their dealers would just give up and sell another product.

At the end of the game, the letter you wrote should probably also be sent to the Candian Federal government minister of Finance. He will not reply, of course, but the matter needs to be made squeaky, if that wheel is ever to be greased.

In Canada, the federal Government has just racked up an eight BILLION dollar surplus and is expecting another such big surplus next year. Canada is a nation of about 30 million persons, so that surplus amounts to an excess tax burden of about $3000 per person, per year, or, in more realistic terms $8000.00 per wage-earning taxpayer, About 50% of that extra tax must also come from corporations and retailers, and they get their money from us, the customers. Since the amount of retail spending in Canada, per person per year is in the order of 25,000 dollars, the hidden corporate tax-cost transferred to the individual consumer is about 15% his total retail-purchase expenditure. Add the various provincial and Federal sales taxes to that, and the total tax burden is now about 30% of the sticker price.

Is it any wonder that Canadian prices are so much higher than are those in the USA? Is it any wonder that the dealers are so seemingly avaricious?

Meanwhile, I want to get back to drinking away my disgust at the apathy we Candians are known for. Hic! ( Oh, the shame, the shame.) Our booze is too expensive, too. Same reason, dammit.

 

I have a slightly different theory.
Initial list was developed some months ago. Exchange rates changed quite a bit in last few months and their list was not adjusted accordingly until very recently.
Actual prices vary with demand and dealer desire to sell quads. Some dealers know there was a lot of demand in Canada and especially in quebec where there were several favourable articles in the French media, so some dealers decided to extract as much as they could.
I tried to buy one from may favorite dealer in Quebec and initially they wanted 700 more than the Ontario dealer where I bought the machine.
Last year vis a vis the US ,some models were actually cheaper in Canada. Now that has changed for the moment.
Bottom line right now is that there have been relatively few shipped to Can and the demand is high. I doubt there will be many sold for substantially less than the list. At 9600.00, they compare favourable to other similar machines, so it is not just Suzuki.
Also, if you buy in the US the warranty is not applicable in Canada, and the imprt regulations are a bit tricky, but there is no duty. personally Unless cliving close to the US dealer i would buy in Canada.

 

I just payed 9700.00 for my QK plus prep & tax Northern Ontario

 

rapp where abouts are you at? Im in North Bay, best i found was 9700 + tax, noprep, i went for 9900 becausei got a better deal on accessories.

Let me know where abouts your from, maybe get out for a ride.

 

Boy.. i'm suprise people replied to this old topic i posted. And what a reply.

Bogtrotter If you are a accountant i want to be your customenr. You have pretty much answer the questions i had for the next month. (the time it will take me to digest the answer) from all us Canadian tank you for your knoledge.

Arron's...all KQ that are here in america are from Japan. They will be making them soon in USA. Someone posted here or on a other forum the serial # and the origin of the ATV's.

à bientot!