Depreciation: An Inconvenient Truth

[outasight20]

Hey All,

I was just wondering what people's opinions were concerning the amount of mileage on a bike vs its value.

My opinion: Mileage by itself is not an indication of the condition of a motorcycle; A younger bike with very low mileage could have been thrashed and rarely maintained, while an older bike with very high mileage may have been ridden gently and meticulously maintained. In this case one might pay more for the older bike, or would they?
At one point do you look at that number on the odometer and subconsciously say: "No way! Way too many miles..." regardless of the condition?

I am interested in hearing your opinions because I plan to keep my FZ6 to at least 50K miles. At that point however, I expect to get very little money (Think less than $1500) for it, even though it will still be in excellent shape with many new parts. For someone who would only ride the bike once in a while, this may be a much better deal than buying a younger bike. However almost no one wants a bike with that many miles on it, simply because of the notion that it is "high mileage" and prone to problems.

Now I just feel like I'm rambling. Your turn, folks!

 

[FinalImpact]

Seems like 10 and 20,xxx is no big deal but past thirty people start to "adjust the price". Just like you said, bikes at 50,XXX go for cheap!

Is this true across the planet? For me a bike (or car) from a beach town its more about the age as salt and/or chemically treated roads take their toll on everything if exposed.

 

[motojoe122]

I think mileage and condition does apply, but the old saying as well...people will pay for what they think it's worth.

 

[fb40dash5]

FZ6s aren't very rare bikes, and from what I've seen, there's not a big range of prices between an older one and newer one. The used prices aren't that high to start with, so there's not much room for dropping the price for higher mileage. Like I've said in other threads, I could go on CL and find an '07-09 with a few thousand miles for $3500, $4k max, usually all day long. That doesn't leave me much incentive to buy one with 50k on it, even if it's only $2k. Sure, it's half the price, but it's only half of $4k, and it's been used 5x as much. Maybe not 5x as hard, but it's still 5x as much. $2k isn't much extra to pay to get most of the better half of its likely useful life back, in the scheme of things.

The bright side I guess is that there's probably a "floor" to the prices, so long as you keep it in good shape, and running. It's still a modern, fuel injected, sporty standard, so if you get a steal on one with midrange miles (say, 25k for $2,000 or something) and ride it for years, you could probably sell it at the end of that time for really close to what you paid. Lots of utility to be had there.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

If its taken care of, I don't put much in the way of mileage on the clock. Many moons ago, I sold my 1989 KLR 250 with 73,000 miles on the clock for more than I paid for it. It was my daily driver, I had been thru the engine twice in 10 years (left main crank bearing let loose every 32,000 miles), 75 MPG. It paid for itself just in fuel... It looked good, ran great..

You also need to realize, if you rode any bike, especially the FZ, at an average of 45 MPG for 50,000 miles, its pretty much paid for itself (fuel saving wise) vs the fuel you WOULD HAVE BURNED IN YOUR CAR..

If you got $2,000 out of it, your still way ahead. Its also alot cheaper than trading in every couple of years...

A friend of mine can't keep a bike in the garage more than 18 months, (closer to an average of 6 months). Every time he trades in, he literally looses thousands of dollars... (He like BMW's, doesn't do any maintainance, so he pays top dollar just for shop maintainance too). Retired PO, but works full time again at another agency...

I bought my '07 FZ off of him (his son's first bike), which was laid down, for $2,000, 4,500 miles... Lots of brand new parts, maintainance by myself, looks and rides better than new.. I've since sold all my other bikes (FJR, Goldwing, etc) just to cut down on maintainance costs. My local bike shop doesn't see me much anymore, pretty much just when I need a tire change.... I plan on keeping this bike way beyond 50,000 miles...

 

[greg]

i think 20k is when people start worrying about it

 

[Sawblade]

My bike might still be worth $2K with the miles and the "mods" I've done to it.

 

[FZ09Bandit]

Mileage is a big misconception about bikes. My brother was looking at a fz1 and wouldn't get it because it had 19k on it. He thinks 10k on a bike is like 100k on a car. Mine has 11 on it and I could sell it for about 4k I couldn't take less than that. But he'll the trade in value is about 3-4 in excellent condition, so that might be the route I go lol. But with the mods it will depreciate the trade on but appreciate the resale value (dealer only) it's gay, but it's the truth.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Mileage is a big misconception about bikes. My brother was looking at a fz1 and wouldn't get it because it had 19k on it. He thinks 10k on a bike is like 100k on a car. Mine has 11 on it and I could sell it for about 4k I couldn't take less than that. But he'll the trade in value is about 3-4 in excellent condition, so that might be the route I go lol. But with the mods it will depreciate the trade on but appreciate the resale value (dealer only) it's gay, but it's the truth.

As a side note, there are MANY FJR's with well over 200,000 miles documented on them and still running strong...

 

[outasight20]

My brother was looking at a fz1 and wouldn't get it because it had 19k on it. He thinks 10k on a bike is like 100k on a car.

No offense to your brother, but that is absurd! A motorcycle should be able to easily last as long as a car, albeit requiring a lot more maintenance along the way. I truly believe my FZ with 25K miles on it runs better than it did new.

 

[pookamatic]

Mileage is a big misconception about bikes.

Absolutely. When I told my dad the bike I was buying had 9,500 miles on it he was like, "Jeesh. That's getting up there. Are you sure? I wouldn't be looking at anything with more than 4k."

Clearly, he's not up to date with engine technology. Maybe 30-40 years ago when he was young, that would have been true.

 

[Randomchaos]

For me, mileage is not an issue when looking at a bike. I look for indications of a wreck, or mistreatment, before I look at the mileage.

 

[fb40dash5]

As a side note, there are MANY FJR's with well over 200,000 miles documented on them and still running strong...

And honestly, if you keep the engine/trans going, there's not a whole bunch more that'll go wrong with age and mileage. Tires are a wear item, just like a car. The seat and grips can be replaced easy. Bearings, sprockets, chains, bushings are usually pretty easy and cheap, forks can be rebuilt, and shocks can be rebuilt or replaced.

There's not really a million little things that add up like a car. I see plenty of cars at work that aren't really worth fixing... either they're old and the interior is shot, bushings dry rotted, brakes and hard lines rusted, etc; or they're newer but high mileage and bearings are shot, suspension parts are worn out, blah blah blah. That little stuff can add up real fast to more than it's worth.

Unfortunately, none of that means people want to deal with it when there's still a decent supply of relatively cheap lower mileage examples. Now, when almost every one for sale has tens of thousands of miles on it, that'll change the landscape.

 

[PPieter]

I bought my bike just under 50K (kilometres, so 30k miles) as I don't really care about mileage. Bike was clean, well maintained, regularly been driven for commuting and never laid down. Those are the things I care about.

The guy did his maintenance at the official dealer and even mailed me all the maintenance bills. So when I bought it, I knew it there were no 'hidden costs' and the bike was in good condition (except for a small leak at the front suspension but we agreed on it on beforehand). And I paid less than I got as insurance money for my old FZ6 I'm having the bike for almost a year now, put some 10k on it myself and absolutely love it.

So I don't really get the mileage problem, as people should preferably look at mileage/years used and the reason why the seller bought it (commuting? track racing? summer riding?) and is selling it of course. But this 'weird logic' of others means you can have a well maintained, young bike for almost free

 

[regder]

I bought my '06 in '07, one year old with 4k KM on it for $6k. Five and a half years later it has 95k km on it, if I were to sell it today I don't think I'll have any problem selling it for $2k. Might even get as high as $3k (bike prices are insane here in the great white north) if I sell it in the spring. Best $4k I've ever spent.

These bikes are so cheap that even if you sell them for next to nothing, you're still not out all that much.

 

[deeptekkie]

I too, plan on keepng my bike. IF I get a bigger one or I get where I cannot ride it the way that it deserves be ridden, I will pass it on to my son. My bike, (though it has seen 100 mph or more every single day that it has ever been ridden), has been lovingly maintained thoroughly, had frequent oil changes with synthetic, has never been ridden hard while cold, and has never been free-revved.
IF I were looking for a used bike, either for myself or my son, knowing this bike as I do I would not hesitate to pay top dollar for it even with 50,000 miles on the clock.
With that said, how often do we have that advantage of knowing how well a bike has been maintained - or abused? (Who can you believe nowadays?) One advanatage to buying an FZ6 is that the darned things are nearly bulletproof and I suspect that even with a reasonable amount of abuse, ("reasonable abuse" ?), they would still be fantastic bikes.
Bikes today are so much better than they have ever been before, (well, the ones that come across the water to get here anyway), and like cars of today, mileage is not nearly the factor that it used to be. In the old days 100,000 miles on a car = worn out. Today, it's not unreasonable to expect as much as 300,000 out of a car if it is maintained and not abused. With the prices on anything now, (cars or bikes), you have to keep to keep them to get your money's worth out of them, (despite the manufacturer's attempt to keep you upgrading, by their continual dropping/discontinuing models - even great models that are best sellers)
I seriously doubt that I will ever buy a "new" car again and the last bike I bought, a Ninja for my son, was used. I have never regretting buying that bike as it is still like new and performs perfectly.
I feel like I too have really rambled here but I have attempted to relate to your question. It was a good one and one I can certainly identify with. Good luck with your bike. I love my Fazer and I intend to keep it for a long, long time. Safe riding and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

The key is how well its been maintained/taken care of.

When a friend of mine was looking to purchase his first, new to him, bike, we looked at (I believe it was) a 500cc Honda Shadow. Maybe 7,000 miles on the clock. I don't think it ever saw a garage and had an engine knock that was really bad, noticable misfire too... The price was around $1,500. My friends asking me, what would it cost for you to fix it(as he was very interested in it)? "More than than the bike is worth", its a complete motor tear down. If you want it, (which I strongly urged he run away from), I'm not doing the tear down, count on another $1,500 at the shop. That bike looked/ran like it had 150,000 miles on it, NOT 7,000...

We eventually found an 1100 Shadow for him, in very good shape, ran real strong, fair price. The owner rode with a group of Harley guys and finally relented to getting a Harley due to peer pressure and sold the Shadow....

 

[KnuckleBallz]

The problem is most sportbikes get wrecked way before they come close to hitting high mileage or are rode sparingly so even though they're designed to last that long, they end up looking like outliers. Really you gotta figure that someone who has one that gets that high must be taking better care of it than the average owner.

 

[outasight20]

The problem is most sportbikes get wrecked way before they come close to hitting high mileage or are rode sparingly so even though they're designed to last that long, they end up looking like outliers. Really you gotta figure that someone who has one that gets that high must be taking better care of it than the average owner.

Completely agree