Ducati pushing for dealer exclusivity?

I went in to pick up my panigale from winter storage and found of that my local dealer, TT motorcycles, and Ducati are at an 'impasse' and they've stopped selling Ducatis due to this new exclusivity rule. The dealer's been around for 9 years selling them and its very unusual to hear this. They sell Aprillia, MV, and couple other scooter brands and the owner's like michigan is not a good market for exclusivity. I guess they'll still service all ducatis, but no more warranty work. Anyone has heard of something similar story?


A brand new dealer exclusive Ducati dealer opened up in last fall quite a distance away, so I guess I'll have to drive the distance to check out any new ducatis in the future.

On a side note, the owner was also venting about Claudio Domenicali and Ducati politics, when he sat down with him few times in last couple years. Apparently, the atmosphere is not nice when bring up problems like the our panigale's heat as well as prior Ducatis' tank expansion problems. He also thinks Ducati's failures in motogp and wsbk also rise from similar issues.

Relocate to a more civilized part of town?

You wanna .... on me, Ducati? I'll show you!

Oh the joys of owning an exotic!

Yes i hear there's a push in that direction.
It seems as though there's been quite a corporate cultural change since the Germans got involved.

It's not good that some long standing and passionate dealer principals are being marginalized on various levels without consideration for their commercial realities.

I'm glad I got one of the last "Real Italian DUCATI Motorcycles".

H.-D implemented that years ago.

All depends on volume. You move enough bikes they don't really care. You don't move enough then they start pushing the exclusive ducati dealer to get you to move more ducati bikes. It won't be long before all dealers have to have a certain look and feel to them ( similar to car dealerships and HD does as well). In all honesty it might be a good thing. If you are pushing ducati as a premium brand - it can't look like a mechanics shop as that doesn't convey the proper exclusivity to new potential buyers.

I think H-D has a much broader appeal and probably moves lot more bikes.
Ducati is already an exotic brand and the proper dealership may be good in some areas, but i'm not sure if it'll be right direction overall. As its been said that above that marginalizing current dealers may not be the right move.

These fucktards need to focus on what counts: motorcycles

All that new age superbranding and walking billboard .... (apparel) , CI, exclusivity.... Pffft...

Buying an image, hm?

Keep it real ducati and leave the douchery to BMW...

The odds of a dealer surviving on just the Ducati brand are slim and none. Simply not enough volume. I would not buy from a dealer that only has Ducati as I would not have any faith at all that they would be around in a year. I even saw that happen to a BMW dealer a few years ago in a major suburban area of Houston. It's also a reason I would not consider an Aprilia in Houston. I went to the dealer once and concluded it was not a risk I was willing to take.

akdave8 said:

I think H-D has a much broader appeal and probably moves lot more bikes.
Ducati is already an exotic brand and the proper dealership may be good in some areas, but i'm not sure if it'll be right direction overall. As its been said that above that marginalizing current dealers may not be the right move.

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H-D sold 40,300 bikes in 2012 in USA, 230,000+ worldwide.
Ducati sold 44,000 worldwide in 2013.

That means every street corner has a H-D, not a Ducati

NOLA

jjsC6 said:

The odds of a dealer surviving on just the Ducati brand are slim and none. Simply not enough volume. I would not buy from a dealer that only has Ducati as I would not have any faith at all that they would be around in a year. I even saw that happen to a BMW dealer a few years ago in a major suburban area of Houston. It's also a reason I would not consider an Aprilia in Houston. I went to the dealer once and concluded it was not a risk I was willing to take.

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Yes, my thoughts exactly when I first read this thread. As a dealer you need to be able to appeal to a broader range of customers which means carrying one, two or even three brands of bikes. My dealer does and I'm pleased he is still in business.

Phl said:

These fucktards need to focus on what counts: motorcycles

All that new age superbranding and walking billboard .... (apparel) , CI, exclusivity.... Pffft...

Buying an image, hm?

Keep it real ducati and leave the douchery to BMW...

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I agree.
It's all about image these days.
That's what they think will get them more sales.

They should be improving/developing the product to the point where it already sells itself.

This business of squeezing the honest/loyal dealers like they're trying to get blood out of a stone business, is bad business.
Instead they should be helping the dealers to help them in return as a partnership.
Not working against the dealers.

Instead of hurting the dealers, they should offer to buy them out and take over the full responsibility of the supply chain to the public.

As mentioned before Harley has somewhat gone down this route.
In OZ they've taken over the importation and distributorship.
But they don't have the guts to go all the way and expose themselves to the fullest extent to the public by buying up the dealerships and selling direct.

Tesla will be interesting to watch.
It looks like they're trying to go direct to the public.
Of course their electric cars won't need servicing like a normal car, so servicing will be much less.
Warranty will be another issue though, because they will need properly trained techs.
Unless they think they can do it all through the internet.
Just look at the latest update for the 1199 for example.
Plug it in and away you go. Just like installing software onto your own laptop.
I suppose Tuneboy is a similar thing when you think about it as well.

I would tend to agree but my ducati dealer in indy has been around for almost 10 years now.. I know int he grand scheme of things that not a long time.. but in the motosports world it really is... they deal specifically with ducati and a focus on racing.. just last year they had their best year ever. as far as I have heard..

anthem said:

All depends on volume. You move enough bikes they don't really care. You don't move enough then they start pushing the exclusive ducati dealer to get you to move more ducati bikes. It won't be long before all dealers have to have a certain look and feel to them ( similar to car dealerships and HD does as well). In all honesty it might be a good thing. If you are pushing ducati as a premium brand - it can't look like a mechanics shop as that doesn't convey the proper exclusivity to new potential buyers.

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Agreed.
But the problem is, they start changing the volume required to be in the loop.
It's like moving the goal posts.
They're corporate maggots.

Welcome to the corporate world. This is just the beginning of what we feared would happen when the acquisition was announced. MV Agusta is doing it right and focusing on the product, and have done an amazing turn-around job in a short period. If Giovanni can keep the company private they might out-passion Ducati eventually if the Germans don't keep the core culture of Ducati intact.

Agreed

Actually MV agusta is doing better than ducati as far taking care their dealer if you are a dealer you can order MV every month depending how you doing not like Ducati that force you to order the bike almost a years in advanced. MV it getting ready to go face to face again ducati they are expanding they bike line up and the most important part is that they are going to stock part in the USA.

It was such a beautiful bridge too

esmirna8261980 said:

Actually MV agusta is doing better than ducati as far taking care their dealer if you are a dealer you can order MV every month depending how you doing not like Ducati that force you to order the bike almost a years in advanced. MV it getting ready to go face to face again ducati they are expanding they bike line up and the most important part is that they are going to stock part in the USA.

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Its going to take me a while to be convinced MV have their act together...

This is some darn good entertainment, please keep this thread going!