Are The New Cbr500's Only Available At Big Wing Centres?

[loserlazer]

^ Projection as a defense-mechanism..... cool!

As you said,

"Honda aren't going to spend money to train thousands of Somchai's little helpers (employed by Somchai, not Honda) who are going to leave next

week and get a job at the 711, why would they?"

Good to see you come round and see sense mate.

So almera you agree with us that it is not a good idea for all parties to sell/buy 500 series in local honda shops. For this and that reasons and it do not matter what the reasons are.

Good to see you come around too:lol:

Edited March 21, 2013 by loserlazer

[Almera]

So almera you agree with us that it is not a good idea for all parties to sell/buy 500 series in local honda shops.

Where did I never agree with that....

man.

For this and that reasons and it do not matter what the reasons are.

But J.F. is getting all upset over his fantasies about it.

[JonnyF]

So almera you agree with us that it is not a good idea for all parties to sell/buy 500 series in local honda shops.

Where did I never agree with that....

man.

>For this and that reasons and it do not matter what the reasons are.

But J.F. is getting all upset over his fantasies about it.

Upset? Man, I'm positively distraught about not being able to buy a bike (that I have no intention of buying) at an inflated price from a local dealer as opposed to the correct price from BigWing . The fact that BigWing BKK is conveniently located only 2 kms from my condo should I ever change my mind about the merits of the bike is only adding to my frustration, as you can imagine

Your constant changing of position is amusing though so please - carry on Sonny

[SumetCycle]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

[taninthai]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Brian how do all the smaller dealers work us it a franchise bussiness ,Honda set up supply everything ,who supply's and trains the staff,do they go on coarses attend college are they intact doing what we would call an apprentice ship in the western world. Edited March 21, 2013 by taninthai

[JonnyF]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Fixed prices, and better trained mechanics (you'd assume). I hear excellent things about you service department at Sumet Cycle so please don't take this as a dig, but clearly some of the regular dealers have major issues doing very simple things like changing oil and filters.

Therefore Honda are able to control the price gouging and (hopefully) ensure a higher quality of servicing if they sell and service the big bikes only at a select number of BigWing branches. It's much easier for them to control a few big branches than multiple branches on every high street of Nakhon Nowhere. Nothing to do with the cbr500 range being 'made in Thailand', not available elsewhere in the world yet, Thai patriotism or any of the other nonsense spouted on this thread.

[SumetCycle]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Brian how do all the smaller dealers work us it a franchise bussiness ,Honda set up supply everything ,who supply's and trains the staff,do they go on coarses attend college are they intact doing what we would call an apprentice ship in the western world.

Yes, it is a franchise. It is the responsibility of the dealers to hire the mechanics. Some have gone to technical school and others have learned on the job. A.P. Honda has training courses for mechanics every few months. Dealers are required to send at least one mechanic for this training. We usually send our head mechanic, who then teaches the other mechanics here at the shop what he has learned.

[SumetCycle]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Fixed prices, and better trained mechanics (you'd assume). I hear excellent things about you service department at Sumet Cycle so please don't take this as a dig, but clearly some of the regular dealers have major issues doing very simple things like changing oil and filters.

Therefore Honda are able to control the price gouging and (hopefully) ensure a higher quality of servicing if they sell and service the big bikes only at a select number of BigWing branches. It's much easier for them to control a few big branches than multiple branches on every high street of Nakhon Nowhere. Nothing to do with the cbr500 range being 'made in Thailand', not available elsewhere in the world yet, Thai patriotism or any of the other nonsense spouted on this thread.

I believe there are over 1000 authorized Honda dealers here in Thailand. Most are good, but there are some that are lacking. A.P. Honda accesses dealers every so often and give what they call dealer points. If you send your mechanics for training, you get points. If you do a certain amount of Honda activities, you get points. Etc. Etc. Years ago, nobody cared about the points, as there was no punishment for consistently getting a low dealer score. They are more serious about the points now and if consistently get a low score, you could lose your authorized dealer designation. Hopefully this will help to improve dealer quality in the future.

[taninthai]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Brian how do all the smaller dealers work us it a franchise bussiness ,Honda set up supply everything ,who supply's and trains the staff,do they go on coarses attend college are they intact doing what we would call an apprentice ship in the western world.

Yes, it is a franchise. It is the responsibility of the dealers to hire the mechanics. Some have gone to technical school and others have learned on the job. A.P. Honda has training courses for mechanics every few months. Dealers are required to send at least one mechanic for this training. We usually send our head mechanic, who then teaches the other mechanics here at the shop what he has learned.

doesnt sound ideal to tell the truth ,so most of them will never get any certification that states they are a reconized and trained mechanic.

[SumetCycle]

Big Wing Bangkok is owned by A.P. Honda. The other Big Wing branches are independently owned. Mityon got the branch in Pattaya for example. So you are still buying from regular dealers, but with a fixed price on the bikes.

Brian how do all the smaller dealers work us it a franchise bussiness ,Honda set up supply everything ,who supply's and trains the staff,do they go on coarses attend college are they intact doing what we would call an apprentice ship in the western world.

Yes, it is a franchise. It is the responsibility of the dealers to hire the mechanics. Some have gone to technical school and others have learned on the job. A.P. Honda has training courses for mechanics every few months. Dealers are required to send at least one mechanic for this training. We usually send our head mechanic, who then teaches the other mechanics here at the shop what he has learned.

doesnt sound ideal to tell the truth ,so most of them will never get any certification that states they are a reconized and trained mechanic.

If they have graduated from technical school or completed enough training at A.P. Honda they will.

[loserlazer]

You are running the smoothest honda dealership all over Thailand Brian, our words are not for you here.

You have been great to everyone here with your information and assistance and always hearing good things about your service - which i also did before and it was my best service in a Honda dealership.

But just want to ask Brian, do you earn anything for the service? Isn't it a burden for the dealers and waste of time their staff? I am sure many dealers are thinking like that what i see. For them a customer not coming to the service or sending them out of the shop fast - like without installing an oil filter specified by Honda - is a common practice.

Also, do honda give bad points for bad service, customer dissatisfaction and price gouging? If no, i hope they start to work on a better dealer pointing system.

Thanks.

[SumetCycle]

You are running the smoothest honda dealership all over Thailand Brian, our words are not for you here.

You have been great to everyone here with your information and assistance and always hearing good things about your service - which i also did before and it was my best service in a Honda dealership.

But just want to ask Brian, do you earn anything for the service? Isn't it a burden for the dealers and waste of time their staff? I am sure many dealers are thinking like that what i see. For them a customer not coming to the service or sending them out of the shop fast - like without installing an oil filter specified by Honda - is a common practice.

Also, do honda give bad points for bad service, customer dissatisfaction and price gouging? If no, i hope they start to work on a better dealer pointing system.

Thanks.

Thanks for the kind words, Lazer. We are not perfect, but we always try to do our best. I guess some shops care more about service than others. There is money to be made from service, but from the parts, not the labor. Here at Sumet, labor is included in the price of the part. As far as the the dealer not putting a new oil filter, I'm not sure. Perhaps they didn't have any in stock, it was back ordered from AP Honda, or it was an inexperienced mechanic who thought he knew better. At any rate, the reason for not changing it should have been explained to the customer.

[taninthai]

its good to have someone here with abit of knowledge about how it all works,so really at the end off the day its not actually hondas fault about poor service more the actual owner of that franchise,although it seems honda could do more to enforce better training and knowledge from its employees