Well according to this it wasn`t the flop we were led to believe . How the Ducati Superbike 999 Wasn’t a Sales Flop & Other Ducati Superbike Sales Statistics
Come to think of it who said it was a flop in the first place. I have heard how people have said the 999/749 was almost the death of Ducati but who are these people . Looks to me like they were all talking bollocks .
Wasnt it Ducati themselves? Maybe the under performance was related to expected sales rather than pure sales v other years or parket penetration?
With previous bikes it was form over function, with the 749/999 range they went the other way round and created a face only an mother could love. Thankfully they saw sense....
Thats totally irrelevant its about sales figures not someones view on looks . It says that they sold as many 999 as they did 998 and 996 and double that of 916 . Not wether or not you like it or you dont.
But Boy oh Boy, does it function? Oh Yes! Put a white surround on the front headlight area of the '05/'06 and it looks fabulous, flowing from the front lower edge under the lower headlight back to the rear of the screen. It changes the way the front looks dramatically for the better. This unfortunately doesn't work so well with the early 999 with the extra vent slots beside the headlights which made the front look too fussy. The later WSB 999 swingarm also looked vastly better than the original 999 slightly wierd cast double sided swingarm In hindsight Ducati should have used the later 999 restyle from the beginning and kept the single side swingarm.
This only compares the first years sales and is not a realistic way of comparing the various bikes sales or appeal. The 916, 996 and 998 went on to total sales over 40,000 with the 748s another 30,000. 9xx/748 sales averaged around 9000 per year from 98-02 but they only achieved around 5,000 in the first three years of manufacture. Sales peaked with the 996/748s at over 12,000 in 99/00 after 5 years of production. But the early 916 and 748 production was limited due to manufacturing capacity issues and they were unable to meet the demand for the bikes. Manufacture of the 998 was mostly shared with the production of the 999 and then 749 and at the time you could buy either 998 or 999. The numbers built of the 998 was inevitably low and some of the sales were blighted by the introduction of the new bike. At the time the 999 was regarded as a good bike but ugly by many and did not compete very well with the much cheaper (and some argued more attractive) jap stuff like the R1 It would be a better comparison to see what the final build numbers and annual sales totals were for the 749/999. The 749/999 is a design which tends to grow on you but will never reach the level of mass appeal that the 916 and its derivatives achieved Here is the article that claimed the 999 nearly shut them down, it includes some interesting comment including what may appear to be an admission of regret from Claudio Domenicali. How the 999 Nearly Killed Ducati | Ducati News Today
You beat me to it Denzel, they sold lots of 999s because they built lots of 999s, especially as the factory was better established. Ducati couldnt build enough 916/748s for demand...
So according to your statistics the 916 through to the 998 sold 40,000 bikes . Thats about 4000 a year . The graph shows that first year production of every big bike model and the 999 did not show a decrease in that in its first year of production . I would like to see the total number of 999 series sold but my betting would be that it did not decrease below the 4000 a year number . There was an 18% decrease in bike sakes in 2003 across all models I think it is a very poor excuse to demean the designer of the 999 to blame it for any downward trend. The super bike not being the biggest % of the overall sales in any case . I will wait to see what figure comes out for the total sales od 999 series before I believe any of the ill informed hype about this , the most successful race bike , total sales figures of the 999 series would tell. No mention of the smaller capacity sports bike has been made.
So if they sold lots of 999s how come the 999 got the name for being the downfall. I have a different theory for its downfall , if there indeed was one , and that is Texas-Pacific-Group.
Man, all this posh talk about sales, items, best looking bike, it's a bloody ducati...need we say any more. It's a ducati.
I've got a 999 and I like it a lot. I have it because it was the Ducati superbike available when it was time to change the 916. I can see that it isn't stunningly gorgeous from all angles, but it's still pretty tasty and it's different. I imagine that people did rue the lack of single-sided swing arm (quite rightly) and the lack of double zorsts. The stacked lights weren't a problem, surely, because MV had already done it and it looked great. The fact that Ducati went back to 916-derived design cues surely reflects the lack of public enthusiasm for the 999, no matter how much you like it. Just think how many Mutleys they'd sell if it was a beautiful bike: the factory wouldn't be able to cope. Seeing as it doesn't look great but sells in droves anyway. Maybe it's a deliberate policy to balance supply and demand...
I've been told 5 times in 2 days that I have nice bike along with the other countless people who told me the same thing last summer. By other motorcyclists, car drivers and random people who have gone out of their way to stop me and tell me. It seems only folks who own other model Ducati's have issues with the looks! :smile:
Non Ducati owners loved my 907ie, especially non-motorcyclists. They always thought it was incredibly fast. I suppose the Testarossa styling struck a chord with them.
For me the 748/916 will always be the "pin up" Ducati. However when I had the option to buy either a 916/999 or a 1098 I went for the 999. It just "had me" However I agree, It gives me a lovely warm feeling when people go out of their way to comment on how great or pretty my bike is. A feeling that I would imagine ALL Ducati owners have experienced whilst in ownership......How many GSXR owners get such a feeling I ask....
