[CZroe]

I’ve been struggling without a vehicle for more than a year since losing my home and car to a tornado. I was sharing my brother’s car while saving money for another vehicle for over a year. Last year I decided to wait as long as I could for Kawasaki to announce the ZX-4R, but then my bro wrecked his car at the end of May and we had to do something quick. Thankfully, our friend gave us a 2000 Pontiac Montana which had been mothballed for a year. It needed a bunch of money to get registered and a lot more to stay on the road (immediately broke down twice), so there went all the money I was saving.

With the recent news that there will be a 2023 Ninja ZX-4R, I’m excited enough to resume plans to get one… only I’m not sure where to start. I’m not going to have enough to buy it outright like I had hoped/planned before, and the whole reason I didn’t run right out and finance a car is because I’m already co-signed as the primary on two car loans for friends. I recall getting turned down for a bike loan around 2013 just because the credit union considered it an unsecured loan (MSRP/value too low for a standard secured vehicle loan). I already tried to apply for disaster relief loans from SBA and got turned down so I don’t think I’m going to do much better with the dealer financing unless I show up with a huge down payment.

So, how would you go about this in my situation? I’ve gone entirely too long without a vehicle and I’m right back to square 1… actually negative 1, with the housing situation since we need to abandon our accessory building and my mother’s trailer after her landlord decided to sell the neighborhood (now we both need to find a place).

Assuming this thing is going to be $8,500-$9,000, what kind of down payment should I come up with? I bought my 2008 Ninja 250 with cash, but even then I had dealers ignore my deposits and sell bikes out from under me. I chased incoming stock from dealer to dealer until Kawasaki canceled the remaining 2008 bikes to release the 2009 models early with a +$500 MSRP. After chasing it for months I ended up having to drive several states away to get one of the last 2008 models that a dealer wasn’t expecting and, thus, hadn’t taken a deposit. I got it for $3,500 (MSRP) plus a $200 set-up fee.

Needless to say, I don’t want to go through all that again. I might’ve been the very last to get a new 2008 Ninja 250 but I’d like to be among the very first to get a ZX-4R. I don’t know what other people did to convince a dealer to ignore my deposit and sell it to them. If they paid over MSRP, well, wouldn’t the dealer have asked me to pay more than MSRP? I suspect they prefer financing over cash since they can sell you service plans and probably get some kind of kick backs. Would it be wise to purchase such things if I plan to ride daily it and it might help seal the seal?

How early should I express interest and offer a deposit? Presumably I have to wait for Kawasaki to announce it but perhaps they will have already placed their orders. I don’t see how it’s possible to be first without coming off as a desperate sucker they can ring out to dry but, well, they’d be right. *shrug* I am desperate enough to offer a deposit even before it’s announced unless you guys tell me that’s a mistake.

Any tips? I haven’t set foot in the local Kawasaki dealer for over a year and I don’t know how I feel about buying from them after the way they treated me in 2008. Maybe I need to go out of state again!

IIRC, it was this very day in 2008 that I got my Ninja 250. Neat.