SUZ. in $ Trouble?

Don't want to start a nasty rumor, but i did read with interest that Suzuki in U.K. are doing it exceptionally hard.They have closed 35%
of their dealerships.Apart from the global downturn the author (AMCN ) was saying that they had too many bikes that were the same.
Four cylinder in line ,when you think about it, he has a point ,i might try and work it out (how many) and post it up.
There's nothing in the line up out of the ordinary,B-king in line 4, busa in line 4 ,new 800 in line 4 ,Bandits (SEVEN of those ) the list goes on.
The Bandits are the exception and selling o.k..There is the V-twin cruiser range,but they all look the same as all the other brands to me.
Did anybody else read this article .I failed economics at school so i'm hoping someone else will pick this up and run with it.
One bike in moto GP which none of us want to talk about .The last thing we want is Suzuki to join Buell .
Can someone cheer me up and tell me i'v got it all wrong and everything is going to be o.k.

buy my count 14 off inline fours

If you count 650s as bandits which we seam to here ,we end up with 7 -bandits (abs,lams )

FOURTEEN IN LINE FOUR

Suzuki are a world wide company. Each bike model is pitched at a particular market segment. I don’t know the total volume of bikes produced in Japan every year but its still small compared to the car market and may even be smaller than the truck market. The beauty of building bikes especially ones that share designs is production cat be ramped up or down depending on demand without huge tooling costs.

I don’t know why the Bandit has a Bandit only engine. That never made sense to me but they're selling in sufficient numbers to prove I'd be a crap market analyst!

I think Australian dealers are about the only ones allowed to sell multiple brands out of the one shop. They cant in the US and maybe they cant in the UK too. I'm sure Suzuki will continue to sell motorbikes (don’t forget they're in bed with Kawasaki too) Maybe it’s a company chain that has hit hard times and closing dealerships?

I haven't read the article though.

A bit more info sucked off
THIS SITE Gotta love Google

Did I read Suzuki are tied in with VW or someone like that?

gus wrote:the author (AMCN ) was saying that they had too many bikes that were the same Four cylinder in line

that's like saying the horizontally opposed design will see Subaru hit hard times and go bankrupt or that the humble Holden red/blue/black was a bad idea.
IMO saying that suzuki having a hole bunch of 4 cyl bikes is part of the cause for them going bust is poppycock.

gus wrote:There's nothing in the line up out of the ordinary

Does there need to be?

gus wrote:B-king in line 4, busa in line 4

Surely you are not going to call these ordinary

gus wrote:Bandits (SEVEN of those )

IMO there is really only one bandit and then there are the extras that are added to the basic model. Kinda like there are several spec levels of Commonwhore Exec, Berlina, Calais etc and you can add to this to get what you want. You don't count the 12 or so model variants that Holden have, there is but one Crumbledoor

gus wrote:The Bandits are the exception and selling o.k.

probably something to do with great value for money and having a good pedigree

I dont see why suzuki would close dealers here, as the dealers own there shops here, not suzuki. I cant see suzuki losing money if the dealer buys a franchise and buys bikes, I dont think a dealer will cost suzuki money.

I was on the piss with the suz shop owner here, and he said the problem with suz is finance. U can get a Yamaha with finance at 2.9%'
where suz finance is somethink like 13%.

But in saying that, the Yamaha, KTM shop just closed the doors.

I wish i had a copy of the article. I just picked the eyes out of it ,with hindsight was not a good idea.May be someone could download it
(i dont know how ) it was in AMCN about 3 issues ago.It was an interesting article and in no way degraded Suzuki more or a marketing thing
I think someone got it right about its a Suzuki fran. only in the u.k. unlike here.
A dealers up here sell something like 7 different brands with some big brands Suzuki ,Triumph ,Arillia, M.V.
Trouble is the last time i went in for 4 sparkplugs for the bandit they only had 3.

Maybe it was 2 wheels i'm trying to find it.

FOUND IT .2 wheels 11\10 black Norton on cover. article called image change by Kash.Sales in2007-20,000 to a projected 7,000 in 2011.
If any one is interested i'll figure out how to post it up.If not i'll let this one die a natural death.

Reardo wrote:

I was on the piss with the suz shop owner here, and he said the problem with suz is finance. U can get a Yamaha with finance at 2.9%'
where suz finance is somethink like 13%.

When I bought my Bandit 14 months ago I got finance through Yamaha Finance because of the good deals they were doing. I think it was 7% or something, but if you bought a Yamaha it was heaps better

Found the article so i may as well print it up.