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Besser’s adds a line

Lorin Besser had planned all along to keep Besser’s Bike Barn a pre-owned only operation. Then CFMOTO came calling.

“I was at the IMS show in Minneapolis and got hooked up with those guys. I had kept getting turned down to carry their line because I wasn’t a franchised dealer. So I told their rep to ask [VP Sales] Dave Auringer if remembers Lorin Besser. Then it was ‘Yes, when can we sign you up?’”

“We’ve sold them throughout the summer and it’s been a very, very good venture. It was kind of easy to decide to add them. Back in the automobile days, I remember when Hyundai walked in my door and said ‘Lorin, how would you like to be a Hyundai dealer?’ I looked at him and said ‘No thank you.’ I made that mistake once. You can’t beat these startup companies. I see a bright, bright future for CFMOTO.”

And while the U.S. subsidiary of the massive Chinese OEM has made strides in recent years, customers still need to be told the brand’s story.

“We have a big poster of the CFMOTO factory on our wall,” said Besser, who was named to the brand’s dealer council last month. “Today’s generation is not like the old generation. They want something new, and they don’t necessarily care if it’s Hyundai, Kia or CFMOTO. They can afford it. They can ride this thing for two, three, four years and can afford to buy another new one. That’s the trend. This generation today is 1-1-1. Unfortunately our generation today is becoming a disposable generation. They want something new bright and shiny today, but they also want that a few years down the road again.”

Besser, in fact, has had to change up his pre-owned ATV sales strategy due to the success of the CFMOTO brand. Besser said that since he added the CMFMOTO line, the dealership has lightened its used ATV inventory.

“What we’re seeing from a lot of our buyers are people who had an older ATV when they were affordable, and now they’re going shopping to replace it and see the sticker shock on the new stuff. Then they see our ad, where they can buy a new 500 for $4,999. That’s cheaper than most used. So they come in and see that it’s liquid cooled and fuel injected and it’s got braiding over the brake lines and we carry parts. CFMOTO is doing everything right, so it’s actually a pretty easy sell.”

 

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