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Oct 26th Ducati Transparent Maintenance

Whoooaaaa, it’s been a solid minute since I’ve posted a blog article. So, why not come back with a bang and talk about something very controversial in the top tier moto world… motorcycle dealer maintenance pricing?! 

Since my hiatus in the blogging world, I took a job working for a franchised Ducati dealer as the Service Manager. All politics aside from the dealer level, working with Ducati North America was awesome and getting to see my technicians grow and achieve their Ducati certifications was great. 

Now that I’ve moved on and started my own company outside of the moto world, I can speak about some issues at the consumer level to help educate and remind the dealers that consumers take notice and negative experiences have a downhill effect across the market, including at corporate and local levels. Cause and effect statistics of going against training were actually noted during the training. 

One thing Ducati does really well for it’s franchise locations is training. They provide each employee training modules depending on position, which educate the folks who are the front people for the brand, i.e., Sales Managers, Service Managers, and so forth. I wish the owners actually attended some of these trainings, as they might better understand the history, research, and reasons why Ducati spent so much money and time to properly release these materials. Ducati is an intelligent company and looks at the big picture and not just one small section of the painting. 

Which brings me to Ducati’s Transparency Maintenance. This was a key point on the training modules for the service side with discussions about why it’s important for Ducati dealers to follow the outlined guidelines set forth. The diagram listed is straight from Ducati’s website and not private inside information. 

Ducati has earned a reputation for not only being a top tier manufacturer of the sexiest and fastest bikes on the planet, but also for being the most expensive to maintain. Ducati, in it’s analytics/satisfaction surveys, determined that they were losing a significant consumer base from their reputation of being unaffordable for maintenance, so through further consumer research and analysis, they worked to fix this misconception by releasing a tested transparency guideline for all dealers to follow. Ducati required all dealers to post the transparency chart somewhere near the service center so customers would have awareness before even purchasing a new/used Ducati, or having one serviced, that the costs are comparable to Honda’s, so why wouldn’t you want to upgrade to the best?! 

Sounds great, right? Here’s the problem, Ducati North America requires these things but there is not a penalty for the dealer if they do not comply. So, some franchise owners only look at the smaller picture, and decide they want to squeeze every dollar they can out of the consumer, not understanding economics and the effects it has. Do you want to sell 50 bikes and charge $5 dollars a service or sell 25 bikes for $7 dollars a service? Some dealers have maintained an old school mentality and are charging 2 to 3 times the prescribed rates without concern for the effects this has to the industry or the Ducati brand. 

I called around to the top dealers in the country for pricing on my bike, the Ducati Desert X, for an annual service with oil change. Here’s what I received:

Ducati Sanford $850

Ducati AMS $650

Ducati Corsa $650

Ducati Miami $600

Ducati NYC $440

As you can see, these prices for the same service are all over the place. Some do not follow the guidelines, nor are they even remotely in the same ball field. Ducati NYC is the closest to the guidelines. The Ducati chart calls for 1.42 hours and the listed dealers were either almost dead on or multiple hours over. As my buddy mentioned to me, it shouldn’t be cheaper to service their Jaguar and Porsche vs. the Ducati on basic oil service. It’s actually pretty offensive to the consumer and these dealers should be ashamed of themselves for ripping customers off. But then again, if someone is willing to spend 2x as much, why not, right? Well, that goes back to the economics of it and losing long-term. Maybe they can get away with it on the sport bikes but a Desert X customer is a different class of rider and will just go back to servicing the bike themselves or trade it in for a KTM, Yamaha, or something else in the same class for half the cost. 

Ducati North America, please step it up and develop a better accountability plan. Start holding back bonuses to dealers who aren’t following the guidelines. Dealers will comply, you simply have to place emphasis on what is ultimately best for the company AND their pockets in the long run.

-Cheers

Posted in Gear Review & Thoughts and tagged ducati, Ducati Maintenance, Ducati Transparency, Ducati Transparent Maintenance, ducati usa by admin with
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