Quote:
Originally Posted by sombo
The '07 ninjette cost dealerships about $2750 (a dealer showed me this once back then) and was being sold at $3000. Granted it didn't generate alot of money but it still paid for itself. Now, with the 'J' model 250 they moved the factory to China to reduce production costs, they also increased the price of the bike by nearly $1000 for '09 as compared to the '07.
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The difference between what dealers pay and what dealers sell them for has little to do with what Kawi is making on the machines themselves. If dealers couldn't make anything on them, they'd order none and there wouldn't be any point in Kawi making them in the first place. For all we know it's costing them $3500 all in per unit (including development time, factory setup, etc), yet they still do this in order to build the brand and get more people on to their more profitable bikes. Or maybe it costs them $1500 per bike and they are making a killing. Hard to say without actually being in the know.
As far as I know, the factory wasn't moved to China, but instead to Thailand. But yes, it was done to help manage manufacturing costs.