H
HavBlue
I agree with you to a certain extend. You do pay for a brand, and I do not discuss that fact.
I do not think however that you realize how a Ferrari, Rolls, MV etc... are designed and assembled, compared to standard Ford, Gixxer or even Ducatis today.
There is nothing comparable, and saying that you could make a gixxer smoke an MV for less $$ has nothing to do with the topic at hand. You don`t pay to go faster, you pay for quality, brand, "savoir-faire", real customer service, prestige... you know when you buy a Rolls that the car was put together manually by professionals that you can meet if you so desire... and while yamaha, suzuki and all the low priced brands battle to save money on everything they can, from manufacturing processes to choice of parts/material, MV or other high priced manufacturers will simply choose the best out there.
Also, something to consider is that when you build hundreds of thousands of bikes for the general public, you will automatically be able to reduce your costs... which is not the case for their prestigious, high priced, counterparts.
You also have to consider one very important fact. While for us "poor" people it may look completely disproportioned and ridiculous to buy a Ferrari for half a million dollar when you can buy another car with the same performance for 10 times less, it is totally and utterly irrelevant for the millionaires out there.
1) $50k or $500k does not make such a big diff to them (it's equivalent to our $50 and $500 hehe)
2) they have the $$ and want the best of the best
3) they are ready to pay whatever it takes, as long as they are taken care of properly
4) they are proud and want to show off
On a side story, I had a meeting recently with a Sales executive from Embraer (3rd Aircraft Manufacturer in the world after Airbus and Boeing), and we were talking about their latest business jet, the Phenom 100/300 (I sell them an electronic controller for it). After we were done with the usual crap, he explains to me that they had to re-think their whole business strategy, when they decided to enter this "business jet" market. Before, they sold only regional jets, for airlines... so the main goal was to manufacture the cheapest aircraft possible, while meeting safety requirements. Obviously, when airlines need a new aircraft for their fleet, all they care about is price.
Well, they quickly realized that when you sell the very rich individuals (as opposed to airlines), you suddenly DO NOT want to be the cheapest anymore... he explained to me that "the very rich" all know each other more or less... they are part of the same "spheres of society" and so when they talk about their own personal business jet with their rich friends, they certainly don`t want to be the ones owning the "cheap ones"... Embraer actually had to increase their prices, to match the competition more closely!!! Else they wouldn`t sell.
Now again, for these ppl who buy a business jet, what counts the most is not even the aircraft! it`s how the aircraft manufacturer will take care of them... the goodies they will get on the side... how well the salesman gets along with the customer...etc....etc.
It is difficult to grasp, but it`s reality, and I believe it applies to our discussion here... a lot of ppl will buy an MV for $120 because they can, and because they`ll have something that most ppl won`t have. The fact that the MV is not worth $120k does not matter one bit to them ($120k is probably what they spend on the wkd when they fly to London to do some shopping)
lol can you tell I had time to kill this morning? haha
What counts is the tale of the tape, the end result of the manufacturer’s action. In the case of the Roller (folks who 15 years ago I had to deal with on a somewhat regular basis), the pomp and circumstance around owning one is awesome while it is under warranty and when it goes out, stand bye and please do bring some very deep pockets. In the case of the Ferrari, I never owned one but did have a workmate that did (Testarosa) and much like the Ducati, no, worse than the Ducati by a huge margin was the maintenance schedule and again, the pomp and circumstance is there just bring those deep pockets.
In the tale of the tape and with regard to the test of time those of us who are mere mortals, buying a bike from the local (insert cheap bikes name here) manufacturer, that is mass produced to meet the day to day relative demands of actually riding our (same name goes here) based two-wheeler, we find a machine that can take the punishment of the newb (bike is constantly asking what the hell the rider is thinking) to the punishment dished out by the weekend warrior on his/her track day. The bike still comes back for more and while there may be a limited few of the millions of machines manufactured by said piano maker that do fail or malfunction over time, the piano bike offers value as well as performance while the extreme machine becomes the talk of the neighborhood only to be a hanger queen with a limited flight schedule.
Owning the hand built $100,000 plus extreme machine is great and they are truly a work of art. Now, ride or drive the thing on a daily basis putting through everything from California grid-lock traffic to the punishing 270 degree road temperatures of the open California desert and when the tape breaks after years of operation ask yourself which machine broke the tape first as that you will very likely find is the poor little FZ6 or other mass produced machine that simply stated, wanted a good home and somebody to ride it as opposed to staring at it in the garage because it was too precious to be used and abused. I understand your point and it is well taken but in the world of us mere mortals, the MV doesn’t stand a chance of being put through the extremes of general operation and actually being there to see the road 3 decades later to be abused again. They do however make a great conversation piece for the trophy case.
Last edited by a moderator:
