2009 Model GL1800
In the Article I wrote a few weeks ago, Buying a GoldWing Part 2 – Overview of the UK GoldWing Market, I suggested that the UK market for big bikes was depressed because of the economic downturn and that dealers were existing on sales of commuter bikes.
There has been a big change in recent weeks. I heard from the Trade recently that the market for bigger and more expensive used bikes is surprisingly buoyant, to the extent that prices of used bikes of many types are likely to rise in UK, even those of bigger bikes. This is not because UK riders are suddenly opening their wallets, quite the opposite, ordinary retail sales of big bikes are still slow.
The brisk sales of big bikes is however directly linked to the downturn in the UK economy and especially to the weakness of the Pound against the Euro. We are used to thinking of Continental European prices for bikes being significantly cheaper than those in UK so that importing a GoldWing, from Germany for example, could be very attractive.
Such has been the fall of the Pound against the Euro that German prices for new bikes are now significantly dearer (over 15%) than the UK equivalent. They are higher still in France and Spain and especially Holland, where they are 40% higher. In Denmark they are highest of all at nearly 200% above UK prices – yes, the Danish pay three times what we do! (These figures are derived from comparative prices for a BMW1200GS in an excellent article in this weeks’s Motorcycle News and it’s well worth reading their article in full.)
No wonder then that both personal exports and wholesale trade sales of new bikes and used bikes to the Continent of Europe have taken off. This includes GoldWings. Harleys are particularly popular so it’s not all bad news; we might even see a bit less oil leaking on to our roads! Bikes are being exported in large numbers, especially to Holland and Poland.
Clearly this is no time to be thinking about importing a GoldWing from Europe. The Pound has also dropped spectatularly against the US Dollar, so a personal import of a GoldWing from North America is looking a lot less attractive than it did twelve months ago too.
There are implications of this development for used and maybe also new prices hold up or even increase compared with six months ago. The price of a new GoldWings in UK is extremely unlikely to fall and discounts which were available even quite recently are likely to disappear. One manaufacturer has recently announced a 15% risein UK prices across its full range of bikes.
HondaUK’s website is now showing a Recommended Retail Price for a GL1800 as £18,912 – and until recently I seem to remember it being about £17,500.
The 2009 model GoldWing appears to be unchanged from 2008. The GoldWing factory in Maryville Ohio closes next month and GoldWing manufacture is apparently being switched to a new factory in Japan. Logically we can therefore expect a new GoldWing model being announced for 2010 (released in North America in late 2009 but probably not available in UK until late 2010, for the 2011 model year. The price of a new GoldWing model usually jumps compared with the one it’s replacing.
So if you are thinking of trading in your GoldWing for a more recent model or are thinking about a new GL1800 within the next year or so, you might get a better deal within the next couple of weeks than for the next couple of years.
Cusworths still had a GL1800 demonstrator and also two brand new GL1800s in stock last week but Blackpool Honda recently sold their last one.
HGB are listing two pre-registered zero-miles 2008 GL1800s at a discounted 2008 price and they also list several used GL1800s at prices which look attractive to me too.
Appleyards are currently listing only two older GL1800s and two GL1500s but they do have a bigger selection of trikes.
If you’re quick (and lucky) there might still be a good deal on offer.
Honda Marysville is currently building the 2010 unchanged model (except for colors) and new facility in Japan will produce the 2011 model (most likely the new 2000CC model)
Combination of dealer info and initial rumours which now seems to be confirmed with MCN article on new 2000CC GoldWing.
The Marysville Factory was supposed to have closed in March 2009 (ie a few weeks ago) but you might be right. A friend is visiting that area in the next few days, so I might hear more in a week or so. Honda have always been very successful at keeping their cards close to their chest but the announcement of the Factory Closure was made by Honda (forced by US Labor Laws) so unless they postponed that closure, that was the one peice of really firm information we had. Time will tell!
I have now had confirmation (from Ohio and attributed to a Honda Rep) that the Factory has indeed closed. The 2010 GL1800s are all built and in a warehouse in Chicago; the colours (or rather colors) for 2010 are not being released.
Other intelligence gleaned (but not confirmed officially) is that Honda have no 2009 models left themselves, they have all gone to dealers, so the only ones left are in dealers’ showrooms. The 2010 models are expected to be launched earlier than usual, possibly as early as next month (i.e. June). There were two 2009 models in a Florida Honda dealer’s showroom this afternoon, one silver one red, and one black 2008 model. All three were being offered for $2,000 off the (recently increased) RRP. There are reproted to be no new Pearl Yellow GL1800s left anywhere; they sold out.