Selection on offer in Kissimmee

Yesterday was for hanging around, waiting for family to join us here in Central Florida from Gatwick, which fortunately was free from volcanic ash, albeit not entirely from its knock-on effects.  Fortunately their flight was delayed by only 3 hours but it did mean that a visit to Powersports of Kissimmee, a Honda, Can-Am and Suzuki Dealer, could be taken in without Grandmotherly impatience being provoked.

I’ve been under caution about visiting motorcycle dealers while on holiday in the US ever since I photographed Management alongside a new GoldWing colour a few years ago and emailed the picture home to a biker friend – who promptly posted it on the internet with the caption “Get the knobbly knees” or some such.  She was furious, so bikes only in the pictures this time.

This Dealer had four new (or at least un-registered) GL1800s in stock ranging from a 2010 model (which is unchanged in the US except for colour from 2009) in a metallic charcoal grey which is offered at list price – and the list price of GoldWings went up in the US last year by about the same amount as it did in UK.  So with the Dollar having strengthened considerably against the GB Pound during the past couple of years too, a personal import of a current year GoldWing from the States doesn’t strike me as an attractive prospect at the moment.

Still available in the US and my personal favourite GL1800 of all of them

As in UK however, HondaUSA has left-over previous years models of GoldWings to clear and is selling them to dealers at a discount,  which the dealers can therefore pass on.  So for example the black GL1800 in the picture is a 2008 Airbag Model and it was being offered for just over $21,000 (before haggling) so a good deal compared with the current list prices.  A 2010 top-of-the-range airbag GL1800 is listed at over $27,000 and the only differences from the 2008 model specification for 2009 and 2010 (which are identical) were an XM (i.e. satellite) radio reception, which is irrelevant for use in UK) and tyre pressure monitoring.   So at $21,000 plus about £4,000 in shipping, insurance and taxes to get it to UK, a personal import of a 2008 Airbag GL1800 from America is perhaps worth considering, even with a weak GB Pound to contend with.

The GoldWing production line at Maryville Ohio closed in March 2009 so as with all so-called 2010 models in UK, these bikes were all built prior to the factory closure and the 2012 Model GoldWing (the first from the new factory, as already announced to US Dealers if not publicly) will be imported into the US from Japan.

A helmet statement may be the alternative to carrying a gun on the bike

The closure of the US Factory has caused at least some American Wingers, or rather those who could afford to do so in the economic recession, to change their bikes ahead of this major change, to grab their last chance to have a replacement American-built GoldWing.  Nevertheless American Wingers, who unlike the European GoldWing market, are offered a range of several different GoldWing specifications, still haven’t really taken to the Airbag model, hence there are still some 2008 Airbag Model bikes unsold.

I didn’t get a chance to chat to the owner of this dealership and the Sales Lady was not very forthcoming about volumes and trends but I’ll make further enquiries and report again if I discover more.  They didn’t seem to have any used GoldWings in stock at all although there was a very neglected-looking champagne-coloured GL1800 out in the yard.  Its seat was very badly ripped and the plastic surfaces of the instrument and LCD display panels appeared to have been deliberately and very badly scratched, to the extent that the whole module would need replacing, as would the seat need recovering.  I guessed it might have have been bought cheaply by the dealer as a recovered stolen bike or a deliberately trashed repo bike because it’s difficult to see how any owner of a GoldWing would allow that sort of damage to develop in normal circumstances; I’ve never seen one as bad as that before. There are three very large auction sites in the Southern US at which re-possessed GoldWings are recycled into the trade so maybe it came from one of those.  Until HondaUK’s clampdown a few years ago UK dealers used an agent to buy whole container loads of GoldWings from this source for resale in UK.