Ordering a Trek 5200

Yes you would be pushing your luck. It's a new bike. Don't push your luck with the sales guys and
usually you get taken care of better by the service guys.

-kurd

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

You never know with the new Madone coming...

I wouldn't haggle too much but maybe there might be a sale around the corner. You can also offer to
pay cash and ask for the 2% discount that would have gone to the credit card company. Doesn't seem
like much but that 2% might just cover pedals at cost.

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

I don't know if I buy that they can't come up with a 2003 in your size. They have little incentive
to if they can get you to pay a few hundred bucks more for a 2004. I was ordering a new Trek 5500
towards the end of last year and got caught in this little game for a while, too. I made it clear I
was also looking at other bikes at other dealers and that it made little difference to me if I had
to take a walk to the other store and get the other bike. And the bike I wanted magically
materialized from somewhere.

I don't normally like to deal with my LBS that way, but they've been a revolving door for personnel
lately and my years of loyalty have come to mean nothing to the bubble-headed kids they try to run
the place with now.

Bob C.

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

I got the dealer to throw in a computer and give me an upgraded helmet for price of lesser model. He
also knew I was deciding between his brand and that at another dealer. If you don't ask, you'll
never know what you left on the table.

Ed

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

Quoted message said:

I don't know if I buy that they can't come up with a 2003 in your size. They have little incentive
to if they can get you to pay a few hundred

bucks

Quoted message said:

more for a 2004. I was ordering a new Trek 5500 towards the end of last year and got caught in
this little game for a while, too. I made it clear

I

Quoted message said:

was also looking at other bikes at other dealers and that it made little difference to me if I had
to take a walk to the other store and get the other bike. And the bike I wanted magically
materialized from somewhere.

Might have been the case with your 5500, but '03 5200s most assuredly do not exist in any of the
TREK warehouses, in any size. TREK made the model year transition very early this year on the 5200,
so they were shipping '04s in mid-June, and had already run out of most '03 sizes at that time (and
completely ran out within a couple weeks after that, without *ever* putting them on sale to the
dealer... in other words, any lower pricing you saw at a dealer on an '03 was the dealer eating it,
not the manufacturer).

In our case, if a customer is looking at bikes at other dealers, that makes little difference in
what price we'd sell the bike for. The combination of goods & services we offer with our bikes
(quality of assembly, fit expertise, and a continuing obligation to keep that bike on the road
*and* the rider comfortable, which often means further adjustments and changes of stems many months
after purchase, typically at no charge) is either worth it or it's not, and it's not really for us
to decide that, it's for the customer. That's just the way we do business, and it's worked great
for us for 24 years, but that doesn't mean it's the only reasonable way to do business (which is
why people have a choice of many places to get a bike, or anything else for that matter). If
customers decide we're not worth it, then we go out of business... so the incentive is very much
for us to be worth it!

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

Robert Chambers said:

I don't know if I buy that they can't come up with a 2003 in your size. They have little incentive
to if they can get you to pay a few hundred bucks more for a 2004. I was ordering a new Trek 5500
towards the end of last year and got caught in this little game for a while, too. I made it clear
I was also looking at other bikes at other dealers and that it made little difference to me if I
had to take a walk to the other store and get the other bike. And the bike I wanted magically
materialized from somewhere.

I don't normally like to deal with my LBS that way, but they've been a revolving door for
personnel lately and my years of loyalty have come to mean nothing to the bubble-headed kids they
try to run the place with now.

Bob C.

They checked with their computer and they had no 2003 5200's left. They did have a 2003 5900 on
display that I took for a test ride, but it was too small for me and even with an end of the season
discount it would've been out of my price range. So my only option was to order a 2004 5200 if I
wanted a Trek in my size.

The Trek web site lists the 2004 5200 as having a suggested retail price of $2749.99 US. Which comes
out to about $3735.42 Cdn. Do dealers follow the suggested retail prices all that much, or do they
tend to price items lower?

J. Spaceman

jason-<< After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my
LBS (they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? >><BR><BR>

This bike is in demand, bike shops work on a very low margin w/o factory kickbacks ala the car
inductry. I would be happy to say no to you and just sell it to the next guy.

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 vecchios.comvecchios.comOpen ↗ "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

CL-<< You can also offer to pay cash and ask for the 2% discount that would have gone to the credit
card company. Doesn't seem like much but that 2% might just cover pedals at cost. >><BR><BR>

Ya think that bike dealers add that 2% to cover each credit card sale? Nope, it comes out of
their margin.

Give the bike shop a break, pay what they ask, it isn't a car lot, with all the factory kickbacks.

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 vecchios.comvecchios.comOpen ↗ "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Might have been the case with your 5500, but '03 5200s most assuredly do not exist in any of the
TREK warehouses, in any size.

5900's are on sale. <G>

Barry

Quoted message said:

The Trek web site lists the 2004 5200 as having a suggested retail price

of

Quoted message said:

$2749.99 US. Which comes out to about $3735.42 Cdn. Do dealers follow

the

Quoted message said:

suggested retail prices all that much, or do they tend to price items lower?

It depends upon location; there are parts of the US where dealers charge considerably more than the
suggested retail, and other parts where it's closer to the norm. Our shop is in a pretty competitive
area, with many shops going out of business (due to high rents and labor costs, plus a bunch of
things covered in other threads) so the pricing is closer to $2500US.

Still, a difference of a couple hundred dollars may not be as significant as the difference between
dealers. Expertise in sizing is worth a lot, as well as the quality of assembly and after-sale
service. A really good shop *wants* to see you come in the door if you have a problem... because
they want that bike under your tail end, not sitting in the garage. That's worth quite a bit.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles chainreactionbicycles.comchainreactionbicycles.comOpen ↗

exactly,

so if the customer is willing to pay cash, why not kick it back to him/her? In the end the bike shop
is out the same 2% if the customer decides to use his/her credit card for points or miles. If I were
a shop owner I'd rather give that money to the customer than Visa or Matercard...especially if s/he
is going to turnaround and spend that money on add ons.

Perhaps a fair compromise would be to kick back 1% to the customer and retain the 1%.

It isn't a car lot...but it is a buyer's market. People have to realize that you can haggle on
nearly all high ticket items. If I am going to spend thousands of dollars, whether on a car, a
mattress set, big screen TV or a bike, you better believe there is some room to bargain or wait for
a sale price. Anyone who pays retail is an idiot.

"Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CL-<< You can also offer to pay cash and ask for the 2% discount that would have gone to the
credit card company. Doesn't seem like much but

that

Quoted message said:

2% might just cover pedals at cost. >><BR><BR>

Ya think that bike dealers add that 2% to cover each credit card sale?

Nope, it

Quoted message said:

comes out of their margin.

Give the bike shop a break, pay what they ask, it isn't a car lot, with

all the

Quoted message said:

factory kickbacks.

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 vecchios.comvecchios.comOpen ↗ "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

In article <[email hidden]>, [email hidden] (Qui si parla

Campagnolo) said:

Give the bike shop a break, pay what they ask, it isn't a car lot, with all the factory kickbacks.

spoken like a true bike shop owner...totally unbiased. I'll stick with finding the lowest prices
online and saving a few hundred dollars.

Jason Spaceman said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

When you want to make a deal it will never come on the product you want. It is on another product
that somebody will dump the price because nobody is interested. I doubt anybody will dump the price
on a 5200 today. Last year I wasn't looking for a Trek 5200 particularly and just happened to run
into one. The price was right and I bought it. Had I been looking for one it would have cost me
full price ;-(

Today I am looking for a Trek Fuel 100 frame ( 19.5" if somebody sees this ) and there are none to
be had, in my part of the world anyway. So if I want one I'll just haver to order an 04 and expect
to pay full price. Of course I will ask my LBS what his best price is before I close the deal.

--
Perre

You have to be smarter than a robot to reply.

Doesn't hurt to ask!

--

"Kurd" <[email hidden],net> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Yes you would be pushing your luck. It's a new bike. Don't push your luck with the sales guys and
usually you get taken care of better by the

service

Quoted message said:

guys.

-kurd

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price,
or kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile
since I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the
shop knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when
many shops usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

Gazoo at [email hidden] wrote on 9/19/03 4:56 PM:

Quoted message said:

Doesn't hurt to ask!

No, it doesn't. But, it never hurts to ask _nicely_. After many years in retail, you really notice
the ones who do so. The others are a dime a dozen
- and one of 'em wants to get the dozen for 5 cents...

-- Jim

Quoted message said:

It isn't a car lot...but it is a buyer's market. People have to realize

that

Quoted message said:

you can haggle on nearly all high ticket items. If I am going to spend thousands of dollars,
whether on a car, a mattress set, big screen TV or a bike, you better believe there is some room
to bargain or wait for a sale price. Anyone who pays retail is an idiot.

If it were just a box being pushed across the counter in exchange for money, I'd agree with you.
But, at many shops, there's a lot more to it than that... you (ok, maybe not you, but many people)
depend upon that shop for taking excellent care of them through the entire process, which involves
(as I pointed out previously) fitting them properly, assembly, taking care of things that go wrong
down the road, and making sure they feel *very* comfortable about bringing it in if anything isn't
quite right. There's a lot of service involved, not to mention personal interaction. Or at least
there *should* be.

So... what happens when you go to the Doctor? Do you haggle down the price? Or even when you bring
your car to a good mechanic. Do you tell them "$125 for a tune-up? Nobody intelligent pays that
much!" and then expect them to do great work if you did somehow manage to haggle them down?

I accept that haggling might make sense if you're talking about a commodity item with no value added
by the retailer. But the scenario (haggling down the price of a bike) in many cases represents a
severe devaluing of the retailer's contribution to the product. As I said before, we're either worth
it, or we aren't. It's not about haggling, it's about explaining what comes with a bike from us, and
either the customer sees the value, or they don't. Haggling doesn't make the product any less
valuable in my mind, based on what we put into it. But I'd be concerned about those that do
(haggle), since competing on the basis of price makes quality a secondary consideration.

But the wonderful thing about the world is that you have lots of choices, enough that most people
can find somebody to do business with in a way they like.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles www.ChainReaction.com

"CL" <chetliew(-at_)comcast.net> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

exactly,

so if the customer is willing to pay cash, why not kick it back to

him/her?

Quoted message said:

In the end the bike shop is out the same 2% if the customer decides to use his/her credit card for
points or miles. If I were a shop owner I'd rather give that money to the customer than Visa or
Matercard...especially if

s/he

Quoted message said:

is going to turnaround and spend that money on add ons.

Perhaps a fair compromise would be to kick back 1% to the customer and retain the 1%.

It isn't a car lot...but it is a buyer's market. People have to realize

that

Quoted message said:

you can haggle on nearly all high ticket items. If I am going to spend thousands of dollars,
whether on a car, a mattress set, big screen TV or a bike, you better believe there is some room
to bargain or wait for a sale price. Anyone who pays retail is an idiot.

"Qui si parla Campagnolo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

CL-<< You can also offer to pay cash and ask for the 2% discount that would have gone to the
credit card company. Doesn't seem like much but

that

Quoted message said:

2% might just cover pedals at cost. >><BR><BR>

Ya think that bike dealers add that 2% to cover each credit card sale?

Nope, it

Quoted message said:

comes out of their margin.

Give the bike shop a break, pay what they ask, it isn't a car lot, with

all the

Quoted message said:

factory kickbacks.

Peter Chisholm Vecchio's Bicicletteria 1833 Pearl St. Boulder, CO, 80302
(303)440-3535 vecchios.comvecchios.comOpen ↗ "Ruote convenzionali costruite eccezionalmente bene"

definitely pushing your luck, 3500 is a good price for a great bike

"Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

You can always try, but that's not a bad price in CDN$. It doesn't hurt to try. Let us know what
happens Stan "Jason Spaceman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

After test driving various road bikes I am thinking about ordering a 2004 Trek 5200 from my LBS
(they don't have a 2003 5200 in my size so I have to order next year's model). The price should
come out to about $3500 Canadian, give or take a hundred dollars or so.

Would I be pushing my luck if I asked the dealer to knock a couple hundred bucks off the price, or
kick in a decent pair of pedals for free (say Speedplay X2's or something)? It's been awhile since
I last bought a new bike, back in Sept. 1997 to be exact. And I remember back then the shop
knocked $400 off the price of the bike, mind you it was near the end of the season when many shops
usually mark down prices anyways.

J. Spaceman

My LBS is actually selling the 2004for $150 CDN LESS than the 2003 model Stan "Jason Spaceman"
<[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Robert Chambers said:

I don't know if I buy that they can't come up with a 2003 in your size. They have little
incentive to if they can get you to pay a few hundred bucks more for a 2004. I was ordering a
new Trek 5500 towards the end of last year and got caught in this little game for a while, too.
I made it

clear

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I was also looking at other bikes at other dealers and that it made

little

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

difference to me if I had to take a walk to the other store and get the other bike. And the bike
I wanted magically materialized from

somewhere.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I don't normally like to deal with my LBS that way, but they've been a revolving door for
personnel lately and my years of loyalty have come to mean nothing to the bubble-headed kids
they try to run the place with

now.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Bob C.

They checked with their computer and they had no 2003 5200's left. They

did

Quoted message said:

have a 2003 5900 on display that I took for a test ride, but it was too small for me and even with
an end of the season discount it would've been out of my price range. So my only option was to
order a 2004 5200 if I wanted a Trek in my size.

The Trek web site lists the 2004 5200 as having a suggested retail price

of

Quoted message said:

$2749.99 US. Which comes out to about $3735.42 Cdn. Do dealers follow

the

Quoted message said:

suggested retail prices all that much, or do they tend to price items lower?

J. Spaceman