hi, My nearest Ducati dealer is currently charging about £60 for insurance for test rides (refundable if you purchase). I’ve never heard of this - is it a new thing? I get that a V4S isn’t a cheap piece of kit but by the same logic am I expected to buy one because just I’ve read they’re good? When I bought my 1299S (three years ago today!) the dealer (a different one) were more than happy for me to take it for a decent run. I walked out.
Ps I could have had a ride if I arranged my own insurance I believe - but that’s got faff and expense written all over it too!
Or, go along to a Ducati roadshow in the summer (or Worcester this weekend) and you can ride what you like!
Agree you should tell them to poke it - I've done the same many years ago. They are selling and you are buying - who should be trying harder?
Some dealers can't afford the levels of insurance charged to cover test rides therefore cover the cost my amortising the premium across test riders, i also suspect that they pick and choose who they charge based on dealer relationship and whether they think a customer is really a potential buyer or just a test pilot. Was there a reason you didn't buy your last one from them ? They may suspect that you are just using them for a test ride before calling your usual dealer and buying one.
Ducati Manchester make a charge of £10 for insurance, if my memory serves me right. It doesnt cover for pillions though. Back in 2010 I had a test ride on a KTM RC8R and they charged me £20 at the time.
I've never been charged for test rides, instead have had to produce my own insurance docs, even so, I don't think any of the rates quoted above are unreasonable, especially in absence of own insurance and less so if negotiated to be refunded upon purchase of bike
Never been charged to date. Have previously had test rides where I've been escorted for 30 minutes to those where the dealer has given me the bike at 10am only asking I have it back before closing time. Maybe they're worried about this sort of thing?
I have never paid insurance for a test ride but Leeds Ducati (and other dealers up here,) make you sign a £1000 insurance excess to focus your mind.
I’m in my mid 40s and turned up on a Panigale S, which was parked outside. If they don’t take me as a serious customer what does one one look like? I don’t think that they assume I’m just using their demo bike with no intention of buying - it seemed very much like a standard policy (which I’ve now found on their website along with details how they need a vehicle with key to be left as a deposit as well). I understand their concerns over insurance costs and the fact that the bike is a rather expensive machine but so was the Panigale S which I tested before I bought mine (new). I no longer go there as I’ve moved house and it’s now 130 miles away. When they serviced my bike they were positively encouraging me to take any of their fleet out as the work overran due to staff shortages. Their policy there was they’re there to be used. They pushed me out on a Diavel and a KTM - I refused the V4 as mine was then less than 2 years old and I didn’t want to like it! In my opinion (as a non-serial bike tester / time waster) you could lose a lot of customers with a £60 cost. Yes, I’d get it back if I bought one but that’s unfair in my opinion. In my case I have had perhaps four demo rides and bought two of them. Would I have bought the V4S? I don’t know, however if I do now I’m pretty confident it’ll not be sourced from that dealer. Incidentally I don’t consider a large excess as unfair personally - I seem to remember giving a £1000 deposit on a card before and not considering it unreasonable. That to me was basically just to make sure I took care and gave me a financial investment into not dropping the bloody thing!
Ten quid at Oxford Ducati also. No biggy as they filled the petrol tank and didn’t want me to refill after 2 hours of me caning their hypermotard. I think it’s more than fair for fuel alone
If a dealership can't get suitable insurance to cover test rides, at a price reasonable enough to be absorbed as operating costs, then surely they shouldn't be a dealership for those particular bikes? Perhaps Ducati don't give much margin, perhaps there's no money to be made by selling ducati branded goods, if that's the case then that's something Ducati need to address if they're going to continue increasing sales and gaining market share. Having said that, doesn't most fully comp insurance cover you for riding someone else's bike with their permission?
Ducati dealers can, will & should do what they want. Maybe its justified - maybe not. I expect their margins on things are fine, I know what a tishirt costs to print, and I bet there's a good margin on a £3k Akra too which accompany many sales... Don't even mention the servicing revenue. I will never pay for a test ride.
They had 3rd party cover available anyhow, so I’d have been legal on the road. I’m just not happy with the idea of that level of cover on a £26k (it was a V4 Corse model they had as a demo) bike. I’m pretty confident in my ability not to crash (used to speedy bikes, dry weather, not inclined to ride like a tit) but these things do happen. My policy with motoring is not to drive / ride what I can’t afford to replace. I’ll borrow my friends cars or bikes on the TPO other vehicle cover of my policy as if I screw up totally and write their machine off I can afford to replace it like for like. I occasionally borrow a 20 year old BMW or a friends 125 - in effect I self insure the fully comp bit. I recently chose to walk home rather than borrow a colleague’s 14 plate Range Rover as I don’t have the cash to replace it if I screw it up. I’m not prepared / can’t afford to do that on a V4S. I’m happy to agree to a decent excess as I said earlier, £1000 say, as that protects their insurance policy against silly scratches, broken mirrors and the like, but to ask £60 for fully comp as a dealer seemed daft. I’ve had, amongst others, 1299S, Diavel and a couple of new Porsches as demo / courtesy vehicles and been fully comp on the dealer policy each time, with no eyebrows raised.
Or perhaps they’re getting too greedy?!? I understand they probably get a lot of people wanting to try a V4S with no intent of buying one and I admit I can’t think of a way of weeding out the test pilots from the genuinely interested potential buyers, but to me £60 was prohibitive. Had there been such a charge I’m pretty confident I wouldn’t have taken out a 1299S and then wouldn’t have bought one. I certainly did that on a bit of a whim - I had no intention when I woke up that day to test one (I was happy with my 4 year old 1198, in fact I’d just stuck Termis on it as it was meant to be a keeper!) let alone buy one that day but the whole ease of the demo made my mind up.
