Negotiate Price On A New Bike?

[captnhoy]

I'm close to buying a new KLX 150 Enduro and wondered if you guys even try for a better price. I guess this might be a stupid question considering where we are but would appreciate all comments. Comments on the bike itself also welcome. In truth I would mostly ride it on the street probably no more than 10 kilometers per outing. I just have this urge to do some occasional trail riding and I guess I'm mostly fed up with the standard motorbike experience.

[Rolo Tomazi]

Good luck wih negotiating a better price, my experience is not good there, most dealers simply say "No" to any offer I made.

Better check with different dealers, one may have a better offer.

You wrote that you're going to get the enduro, have you considered the motard version with 14" wheels?

If you ride mainly around town but do some trails I would recommend the motard. Better choice of tires, it should have a bigger front disc and the gearing is more towards the street. The enduro has shorter gearing to be able to do dirt.

But - both models are small and if you aren't a midget the enduro may be the better choice because even with bigger wheels (19/16, if I recall right?) it's still a small bike, so the motard looks even smaller. Think: KSR110=12"; 150 motard=14"; 150 enduro=19"(?); KLX250 Tracker=17"; KLX250 enduro 21" front wheel.

Make sure it's the 150 with a carb which is cheaper than the 125 with FI (if they still offer it) - they both look identical!

Edited March 25, 2013 by Rolo Tomazi

[mania]

Most dealers here especially bigger bikes, as in not scooters do not

cut any deals in price at all.

Some might give you a better freebie, jacket,bike cover etc. with the bike but that is as

good as it gets IMO

On scooters sometimes you find dealers like Niyom Panich

that give 1000 baht off for cash

[taninthai]

Don't think you will be able to negotiate with Kawasaki seems to be set prices nationwide ,Honda dealers however seem to have different prices in different places im sure with a wad of cash you might get small discount somewhere with Honda but then they don't sell the bike you want.

[Richard-BKK]

Good luck wih negotiating a better price, my experience is not good there, most dealers simply say "No" to any offer I made.

Better check with different dealers, one may have a better offer.

You wrote that you're going to get the enduro, have you considered the motard version with 14" wheels?

If you ride mainly around town but do some trails I would recommend the motard. Better choice of tires, it should have a bigger front disc and the gearing is more towards the street. The enduro has shorter gearing to be able to do dirt.

But - both models are small and if you aren't a midget the enduro may be the better choice because even with bigger wheels (19/16, if I recall right?) it's still a small bike, so the motard looks even smaller. Think: KSR110=12"; 150 motard=14"; 150 enduro=19"(?); KLX250 Tracker=17"; KLX250 enduro 21" front wheel.

Make sure it's the 150 with a carb which is cheaper than the 125 with FI (if they still offer it) - they both look identical!

The Kawasaki KLX150 always comes with a Keihin NCV24 carburetor... and with only 12 horsepower the Kawasaki KLX150 has a hard time outperforming a Honda Wave 125i... actual the Honda Wave 125i also has a 40 kilogram higher maximum load weight...

150cc no performance, air-cooled and equipped with a carburetor - it almost sounds like a budget Chinese bike until you see the price....

Edited March 25, 2013 by Richard-BKK

[taninthai]

Good luck wih negotiating a better price, my experience is not good there, most dealers simply say "No" to any offer I made.

Better check with different dealers, one may have a better offer.

You wrote that you're going to get the enduro, have you considered the motard version with 14" wheels?

If you ride mainly around town but do some trails I would recommend the motard. Better choice of tires, it should have a bigger front disc and the gearing is more towards the street. The enduro has shorter gearing to be able to do dirt.

But - both models are small and if you aren't a midget the enduro may be the better choice because even with bigger wheels (19/16, if I recall right?) it's still a small bike, so the motard looks even smaller. Think: KSR110=12"; 150 motard=14"; 150 enduro=19"(?); KLX250 Tracker=17"; KLX250 enduro 21" front wheel.

Make sure it's the 150 with a carb which is cheaper than the 125 with FI (if they still offer it) - they both look identical!

The Kawasaki KLX150 always comes with a Keihin NCV24 carburetor... and with only 12 horsepower the Kawasaki KLX150 has a hard time outperforming a Honda Wave 125i... actual the Honda Wave 125i also has a 40 kilogram higher maximum load weight...

150cc no performance, air-cooled and equipped with a carburetor - it almost sounds like a budget Chinese bike until you see the price....

The big plus is it's priced nearly the same as a budget Chinese bike ,so you have the build quality and reliability of a Japanese established brand at the same cost of a budget no ones ever heard of Chinese bike,can't go wring with with the 150cc klx if your on a budget,even be able to sell further down the line for a fairly decent price.

[captnhoy]

Thanks for all the input.

As a full grown farang @ 85 kilos the klx 150 is as small as I'd go in the Kawasaki lineup. Richard BKK is saying do not go it. I understand the non performance comment but not the air cooled comment. I thought that was tried and true for a casual rider, no? Can the 12 HP be increased with a carb change and maybe exhaust? Or that doesn't really do it and is expensive?

I posted here with some unstated concerns- I see 3 KLX 250's currently for sale. My concern is they are for sale due to a lack of customer satisfaction. Also the prices are not much higher than the 78,500 that my local dealer wants for the KLX 150. So I'm not sure i agree about them holding value because these 250's cost about double what the 150 costs.

Having said all that it seems there are almost no options. A cheap Chinese bike is not a consideration and neither is an expensive true off road import. Maybe i should think more about a used 250. Probably more power than I want but the depreciation has already hit. Assuming it has enough quality to hold up to a few years of casual use then be sold off again.

Thanks!

[mania]

Also the prices are not much higher than the 78,500 that my local dealer wants for the KLX 150.

Maybe i should think more about a used 250. Probably more power than I want but the depreciation has already hit. Assuming it has enough quality to hold up to a few years of casual use then be sold off again.

If it were me & prices are close as you say & also mileage is

low on the used 250's I would definitely go with the used 250

No such thing as more power than you want as the throttle twist decides.

But if the spec someone listed is correct on the 125 being the same as a wave

you may find having extra ponies on tap a + when needed for climbing if off road etc.

Good Luck

PS: I would not worry too much about others reasons for selling as there

are so many reasons here that folks sell. Buyers remorse is not always performance based

[JonnyF]

Thanks for all the input.

As a full grown farang @ 85 kilos the klx 150 is as small as I'd go in the Kawasaki lineup. Richard BKK is saying do not go it. I understand the non performance comment but not the air cooled comment. I thought that was tried and true for a casual rider, no? Can the 12 HP be increased with a carb change and maybe exhaust? Or that doesn't really do it and is expensive?

I posted here with some unstated concerns- I see 3 KLX 250's currently for sale. My concern is they are for sale due to a lack of customer satisfaction. Also the prices are not much higher than the 78,500 that my local dealer wants for the KLX 150. So I'm not sure i agree about them holding value because these 250's cost about double what the 150 costs.

Having said all that it seems there are almost no options. A cheap Chinese bike is not a consideration and neither is an expensive true off road import. Maybe i should think more about a used 250. Probably more power than I want but the depreciation has already hit. Assuming it has enough quality to hold up to a few years of casual use then be sold off again.

Thanks!

I'd get a second hand KLX 250 or D-Tracker 250. Like you said, a large chunk of the depreciation has already occurred and these bikes are pretty much bullet proof. The 250's aren't particularly powerful so I wouldn't worry about that, long term it's much better to get a bit more bike than you want and grow into it than buy a little bike and spend a fortune trying to get every last bit of power from it at the expense of reliability...

Edit: I never had any luck getting the price down on new bikes either.

Edited March 25, 2013 by JonnyF

[loserlazer]

go for a second hand 250 cc whatever kawa or honda.

150 klx is really worst that wave on performance as i was about to hire one on my last visit to Koh Phangan and after a test for 100 meters, i decided to get a click 125i which was better in all terms of performance.

[BSJ]

Honestly, I have no idea why people buy 150's when there are some really great 250's around.

[Beardog]

80+ kilos is a bit much for a smaller bike. I concour with all the other posters- you can get a 1 year old or less 250 bike with a lot of grunt compared to a 150 that will be struggling to keep up with your weight bracket. If your looking for a scooter size just get a scooter. They don't seem to mind that much about weight. If you are trying to get some preformance step up to the plate & get a bike that you will enjoy 3 months later or we will see it for sale quickly. No sense in grumbling & kicking yourself in the ass over such a small amount of baht to fork out . That & the resale is a whole lot quicker.

[coley]

Hi. I have a dtracker 250 for sale on thai visa and mine is a good bike! Like one poster said "many reasons for sale". I am selling because I want to do some tours with my wife and its not comfortable with 2 up for any long periods. Mine is the 2011 black and green for 120k. Stability is far ahead of smaller models. If you want more info on dtracker 250s in general I can probably help. Colin

[Rolo Tomazi]

You said you want to buy a KLX150 and I figured you must have your reasons. But if you are considering a used KLX250 it's a no-brainer - go for it!

The reason why they sell fairly cheap these days is because of the CRF250L and the new CRF250M. People sell their used Kawas for 100 to 120K, get a new Honda for 140-150K!

Also many owners sell their 250s now to buy one of the new 500cc Hondas, the CB500F is only 200K or so. The KLX250 is definitely not a bad bike.

I've never ridden a KLX150 but when compared to a Wave 125i (I had one) it must have more power. It's got 144cc, five gears and clutch and may be even lighter.

The Wave may have a higher top speed because it is geared for the street, the KLX is for the dirt. But acceleration should be better on the KLX.

[captnhoy]

You said you want to buy a KLX150 and I figured you must have your reasons. But if you are considering a used KLX250 it's a no-brainer - go for it!

The reason why they sell fairly cheap these days is because of the CRF250L and the new CRF250M. People sell their used Kawas for 100 to 120K, get a new Honda for 140-150K!

Also many owners sell their 250s now to buy one of the new 500cc Hondas, the CB500F is only 200K or so. The KLX250 is definitely not a bad bike.

I've never ridden a KLX150 but when compared to a Wave 125i (I had one) it must have more power. It's got 144cc, five gears and clutch and may be even lighter.

The Wave may have a higher top speed because it is geared for the street, the KLX is for the dirt. But acceleration should be better on the KLX.

Hey RT - thanks for the post that pulls it all together. I did not know that Honda had a competitive product until your post. I just spent an hour on the Honda website and watching a bunch of youtube. I think you are so right and the real no brainer is a new CRF250L. I was only interested in the 150 because I was uniformed about it's lack of performance. If it would go better it would be a hell of a buy at 78,000 new.

[Richard-BKK]

You said you want to buy a KLX150 and I figured you must have your reasons. But if you are considering a used KLX250 it's a no-brainer - go for it!

The reason why they sell fairly cheap these days is because of the CRF250L and the new CRF250M. People sell their used Kawas for 100 to 120K, get a new Honda for 140-150K!

Also many owners sell their 250s now to buy one of the new 500cc Hondas, the CB500F is only 200K or so. The KLX250 is definitely not a bad bike.

I've never ridden a KLX150 but when compared to a Wave 125i (I had one) it must have more power. It's got 144cc, five gears and clutch and may be even lighter.

The Wave may have a higher top speed because it is geared for the street, the KLX is for the dirt. But acceleration should be better on the KLX.

The Kawasaki KLX150 engine is developing a total output of 11.7 horsepower at 8,000 rpm (just search internet...many sources)...

[Rolo Tomazi]

You said you want to buy a KLX150 and I figured you must have your reasons. But if you are considering a used KLX250 it's a no-brainer - go for it!

The reason why they sell fairly cheap these days is because of the CRF250L and the new CRF250M. People sell their used Kawas for 100 to 120K, get a new Honda for 140-150K!

Also many owners sell their 250s now to buy one of the new 500cc Hondas, the CB500F is only 200K or so. The KLX250 is definitely not a bad bike.

I've never ridden a KLX150 but when compared to a Wave 125i (I had one) it must have more power. It's got 144cc, five gears and clutch and may be even lighter.

The Wave may have a higher top speed because it is geared for the street, the KLX is for the dirt. But acceleration should be better on the KLX.

Hey RT - thanks for the post that pulls it all together. I did not know that Honda had a competitive product until your post. I just spent an hour on the Honda website and watching a bunch of youtube. I think you are so right and the real no brainer is a new CRF250L. I was only interested in the 150 because I was uniformed about it's lack of performance. If it would go better it would be a hell of a buy at 78,000 new.

Maybe you should try the 150 out, take it for a test ride, if you haven't done that yet. The Phuket town dealership had test bikes available. Don't just compare numbers, I'm sure the KLX has more torque and with the clutch and five gears it should perform just fine.

I mainly ride a Nouvo 135 and the thing accelerates sprightly for its size, top speed is about 100km/h (110 on the speedo), it's practical cheap and you can park it anywhere - you can't expect more for the price of admission! I even did Phuket - Songkhla a week ago, rode a total of 1200km in six days (and rented a CRF250L for a day, did 220km on it) - all in six days.

If you look for a practical scoot the KLX150 is not a bad bike. A bit overpriced though.

I wouldn't consider the 150 because it's too small. If it would be "full size" with 17" wheels (like the Tracker) I'd prefer it as a city hopper.

But of course if you spend twice the money you more than twice the fun!

Check this one out: http://www.bahtsold.com/view/kawasaki-klx-250-for-sale-130459?doqs=1 - now that's a good deal!

[Richard-BKK]

The good part of the Kawasaki KLX150 is that it's relatively easy to enhance the performance, but by doing that you will directly loose the factory warranty.

Also just to give you a rough estimated cost, to increase the KLX150 performance to the level of a Honda CBR150Ri (16 horsepower) you're looking at an additional cost of over 30,000 THB.

I have several friends who started out with buying a Kawasaki KLX150 to do some weekend off-road riding, and all have in disappointment sold the motorcycle... The KLX150 is seriously underpowered... Also it's more difficult to find tires for
the bit out of standard tires... If you consider buying this motorcycle you should not buy it without a test ride... and do a test ride with a comparable motorcycle...

I know I will be criticized for saying, but a 200cc Keeway TX200 is a good alternative, it comes standard with more power, it has 3-years warranty and the tires follow a standard. Second alternative is a Lifan LF200GY-5 which cost half the price of the Kawasaki KLX150 while still giving more performance...

If you want to stay with a Japanese brand name, a secondhand Kawasaki KLX250 is your only alternative, it's a real work horse and hardly anything can go wrong... a real recommendation.

[Shurup]

Like others said, go with used 250. I've tried it for a few hrs city driving and it was fine, but it would be a MINIMUM I would take off-road, 150 off-road is a no-no!

My off-road bike (in Canada) is Yamaha wr450 and it's great, in some places I'm just idling through, some places I rev it and it's pretty much stays in a second gear while off-road. With smaller CC bike you'd have to rev it all the time and it will be a lot harder to handle it... I'm talking about technical off-road trails by the way. If your off-road means dirt road, even 150 will do but I'd still go with 250 - YOU COULD NEVER HAVE TOO MUCH POWER!!!

Edited March 27, 2013 by Shurup

[captnhoy]

Again i appreciate all of the input on my inquiry. Some people seem to think the KLX 150 is small like the 125. It is not - it has 19" wheels or 19 &16, not sure. I would like to test ride one but have my doubts about getting a yes on that in this small city - Ranong. I also appreciate the other bikes mentioned for consideration. I might do some more research but if it's true, the Honda CRF 250L is listed brand new on one web site for 135,000. That choice has moved into my number one spot. As for the young hot dogs who ride 400 Yamahas in the dirt, I'm genuinely happy for you - but that's not me. I'm sure I'm older than all of you but not dead yet. Some people complain that a 250 doesn't have enough performance. True for them but I doubt it's true for me. Long ago I rode a YZ 175 and that was all the thrill I could handle.

Anyway, the 2nd hand KLX 250's don't look so appealing compared to a new Honda @135,000 so I'm now going to try to find out if that is BS or a real price. Cheers!

[taninthai]

^

I've had a CRf 250l for nearly a year now,a real fun bike on the short twisties and off road trails you won't regret buying this bike,only one thing they are a bit tall for some people but several lowering kits are available.

One more thing there is a road version available now called crf250 m better choice if riding mostly on Tarmac.

[Rickster]

Still yet to see the "M" yet in the flesh, obviously not reached Phuket dealerships just yet, the black with gold rims looks a great bike in photo's....

Edited March 27, 2013 by Rickster

[yannic]

I have a KLX250 and I am very happy with it, always had Hondas before but when I bought it the CRF was not yet available. I think both are great, a 150 is good for a 15-16 year old light weight boy but totally underpowered for an adult. Get a 250er Enduro not a motard as if you want to go to trail once in a while

[Rolo Tomazi]

Still yet to see the "M" yet in the flesh, obviously not reached Phuket dealerships just yet, the black with gold rims looks a great bike in photo's....

I was quite surprised to see one sitting in the window of a Songkhla dealership.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Rolo Tomazi

[taninthai]

^

price?

[Rolo Tomazi]

146,000 THB - 8,000 more than the "L" down here. Kind of pricey, what do the extra 8K get you? A bigger front disc and no gold fork legs!

I rented a CRF in Phuket last week, it was new, had 6,000 km on the clock and ran fine. Only thing that bothered me was some intermittent clonky noise from the cylinder head area, maybe the cams or the rocjer arms. It came and went but was kind of annoying, I didn't expect that from a new Honda engine. The exhaust was loud and I had a full-face helmet on but could still hear it.

Does your CRF make any noise like that?

CaptnHoy - if you have 140K to spend, get a CRF250L, discussion over!

[taninthai]

Yep my engine sounds horrible just like a hammer repeatedly hitting a nail super fast,it's my first thumper I just think they all sound like that it certainly ain't no superbike ,I don't think it's anything to worry about with a 3 year/30,000km warranty you are not going to have any problems.

[captnhoy]

146,000 THB - 8,000 more than the "L" down here. Kind of pricey, what do the extra 8K get you? A bigger front disc and no gold fork legs!

CaptnHoy - if you have 140K to spend, get a CRF250L, discussion over!

Well I do have that and the price is 135k + accessories + 2000 shipping - price confirmed today by Jrmotor.com in Petchabun

[Rolo Tomazi]

Yep my engine sounds horrible just like a hammer repeatedly hitting a nail super fast,it's my first thumper I just think they all sound like that it certainly ain't no superbike ,I don't think it's anything to worry about with a 3 year/30,000km warranty you are not going to have any problems.

I've owned a XR650L, a DR650SE and a KLR250, all used bikes with a single, I've also owned at least 30 used twins, triples and fours over the years, and none of them made this kind of sound.

To get that from a ground-up new Honda engine is quite disappointing.

There are threads where other owners discuss this situation, it seems to be present in all new 250 singles including the CBR.

It doesn't lead to engine failure, it's just this sound that is quite annoying.

Honda seems to be aware of this because some owners complained but doesn't see a reason to do a recall.

But they haven't found a cure for this problem since the bike came out and it's been about two years.

I've gotten used to all kinds of rattles and sounds but am not really happy to shell out good money for a brand-new bike with a fault, no matter how small.

[taninthai]

As said I'm not experienced with little thumpers,I don't get any irregular sounds it just sort of sounds like the engine is running dry not much lubrication going on ,it hasn't worried me one bit I think that's just the sound these engines make and yes before anyone asks I have checked my oil and do check levels every week

P.so think the reliability of these engines has been proved already one person has 50,000 km on there bike and several others over 20,000 not that it really needs to be proven it's a Honda and just naturally expected.

Edited March 27, 2013 by taninthai