[alpinef82]

good morning all. i was sort of curious as to why these machines ( the older models 04-07 ) dont hold their value as well as other branded sport bikes. I picked up my 06 in december AND I LOVE IT (compared to my friends gsxr750, my old 03 r6 and my old 06 hayabusa). I understand that the zx10r's cost less brand new than other branded sport bikes, but why does the resale drop so much. These things are beasts in every way (in my opinion).

 

[alto zx-10]

Aprilias and Kawasakis have poor resale value compared to other brands. No reflection on their performance or quality. Just one of those strange motorcycling anomalies.

 

[ninja_12r2000]

It was something in mentalities. Harley keep their value and are old junk engineered in 1920's. So badly japanese bike don't keep tehir value, why ? Because nobody ask the real value ?

 

[TennisFreak]

Older ones are not the only ones for cheap.

I bought a brand new 2015 in February for 10586 OTD!

 

[renais]

Looking at it another way, you got an ace bike for a bargain price :smile2:

 

[scout]

All bikes have poor resale and ours are worse. Market forces. Plus Kawa has trolls that often pointed out loose triples and bad shocks and crap dampers, etc.

 

[turtle1000]

All bikes have poor resale and ours are worse. Market forces. Plus Kawa has trolls that often pointed out loose triples and bad shocks and crap dampers, etc.

Well they did come with crap shocks a shitty working damper and clunking front ends but that's another story.... My local dealer sells moto guzzi, bmw, Ktm, zero electric, Yamaha, Honda, Ducati, ebr and last but not least Kawi. We have spoken at length about why the low resale. They said its multi faceted but mainly revolves around units. Simply put Kawi imports a shit ton of motorcycles and has a shit ton of dealers even compared to the other big manufacturers. This makes more bikes available, more to sell which makes more bike on rebate which makes more people buy them for 4K off retail which kills the guy who spent full retail. Just my .02

 

[obijack]

The used bike market has no many variables. Chief among those variables is your location. Others include, brand, seller/buyer sophistication levels, market conditions ( economies (nation and local), supply and demand of certain types of used motorcycles, income level of county or city, buying power of people in your location), number of used motorcycle dealers in your area, number of motorcycles for sale in your area, etc. etc. etc. A perfect example is I live in a large urbanized county, with a lot of people and diversity among incomes. That supports a large dealer presence here. I can buy and sell sport bikes all day long here. I was working in one of the much smaller rural surrounding counties (a very poor county), and selling a sport bike there is tuff. Selling a dirt bike/ dual sport is a breeze. In fact, the only Yamaha dealer in the county had only two sport bikes in the whole dealership. A 2015 R1 and a 2014 R6. Both are still sitting there, brand new. There are really so many variables, making a blanket statement like "Kawasaki's do not hold their value" can be problematic.

 

[scout]

Well they did come with crap shocks a shitty working damper and clunking front ends but that's another story.... My local dealer sells moto guzzi, bmw, Ktm, zero electric, Yamaha, Honda, Ducati, ebr and last but not least Kawi. We have spoken at length about why the low resale. They said its multi faceted but mainly revolves around units. Simply put Kawi imports a shit ton of motorcycles and has a shit ton of dealers even compared to the other big manufacturers. This makes more bikes available, more to sell which makes more bike on rebate which makes more people buy them for 4K off retail which kills the guy who spent full retail. Just my .02

I think your point is valid plus Kawa has history way back. My point is that the g4's are solid in every way; trolls mine the environment; don't buy the g4's yet marginalize the best bike ever made. I know first hand as I buy a new super every few years and I run the crap outta of them. Owned all the in line fours except gixxer and several of each.

 

[alpinef82]

those were all very educational answers. i certainly did realize and understand demographics and income levels and all that marketing stuff that goes into reselling to your target audience...i just couldnt understand why (for argument sake) the same year, mileage, condition cbr1000rr, r1, gsxr1000 would fetch (on average in my area) $1000-$1200 more than a zx10 (thats sold; not asking prices). obijack's post certainly makes sense...everyones posts make a lot of sense. thank you. either which way...i love my purchase and i am very happy (for the most part) with my choice to buy the 06 i bought.

 

[TechnologistX]

The Gen 1 04-05 are becoming more difficult to find these days so their price is holding steady and beginning to increase.

 

[Millhouse]

I just sold my 07 with 14k on the clock for $5000 FWIW. Had almost no interest in it at all for a whole month. Then one guy out of nowhere had to have it.

 

[nakedinseattle]

the only people who wanna buy kawi are kawi people, or people like me who want a liter for a deal and end up with a zx10r because they're dirt cheap (i still miss my gen1 to this day). this has been discussed thousands of times on this forum. kawi's build a great engine, that's about it. it's taken them 10 years to make an actual competitive bike yet the build quality is still higher on its competition, as it always has been.