Ducati 1199 Panigale buying experience

... about my experience buying a brand new, shining 1199 Panigale, from GOAZ motorcycles in Scottsdale.

My EVO 848 Course SE exactly as i had her.

Here I was a proud and a happy owner of the 2012 848 EVO Course SE and  then out of the blue my wife asked for a new car.
After a day spent in a Mercedes dealership and a new lease for a 2014 ML 350 I told myself, that perhaps I earned a right to stretch family budget even further and get the bike I obsessed and dreamed about for the past 12 months.




So I called GOAZ in Scottsdale

GOAZ

- the only Ducati dealer in the valley to the best of my knowledge, and asked for financing and trade in options.

Out of decency I asked for the same sales man who sold me my 848 - Tommy, a petite Asian dude. However frankly speaking I was not perfectly happy with the guy from our first encounter. He always seems to be in a rush to do something else other then helping you. 
The guy gave me a set of wrong passenger foot pegs for my first bike. The biggest flop though, was when I asked why the bike wont start in gear with clutch pulled in - he said that this is how Ducatis are....
Later on I found out that clutch sensor flap was just slightly offset and did not press on the sensor. So two things were off, bike pre sale prep and salesmen training.

I am deviating of the topic here, but these are my experiences while buying my first super bike and thats what this post is all about.

I got a call back later in the day with finance options. Considering I was trading in a one year old bike I did not expect anything other than being completely "creamed" (dealer term) on this.  My 848 was in OK condition with a few scuffs on the fairings, new rear tyre, and after market levers and bar end mirrors. I was hoping that my upgrades will offset small scratches on the fairings. After a few rounds of phone calls and bargaining i had the payments in the ballpark where I wanted them.

OGIO Mach 5 

Next morning I collected all the belongings of my 848 along with an envelope of cash and put it in my OGIO No Drag Mach 5 Backpack and set out to GOAZ. By the way I recommend this back pack as a comfy short trip back pack and perfect water tightness.

This last ride on 848 felt awesome for some reason. I was doing 105 mph on loop-101 when a cop on a BMW cruiser caught me up and gave me a thumbs up and a slow down wave. That put a grin on my face and a feeling that I am doing something right today.

I safely arrived at the dealership and asked for Tommy. Now the guy was MIA and we had him paged. While waiting for him I was helped by an englishman named Mark. Now, this bloke was everything a motorcycle enthusiast and a salesman has to be - friendly, knowledgable with real life racing experience.  He spent time with me chatting while knowing from the beginning he wont make a dollar out of me. 

After 20 minutes Tommy has finally arrived and took my 848 in the back for appraisal. 

In the mean while I requested for a test ride on my object of desire. 

They had two 1199s sitting on the floor, one in Ducati red and one in Arctic white. 

Both bikes being standard 1199s, and in any case an S model was not in my budget. 

I was going for the red one and this is the one I took out.

Outside GOAZ, before first demo ride.

Now we are getting to the fun part. After signing some standard paperwork for a demo, Tommy wheeled the red beast outside. It is a thing of beauty in so many ways and my iPhone camera does not reflect even a tiny fraction of it. Once the ignition was on, the whole backyard of GOAZ started to reverberate. 
The exhaust sounds like nothing ever before, you can feel it in your insides even away from the bike. It is deep, low and loud oh so loud. 
I am worried now for the sound certification at EXCEL track day. Once I hopped on the bike I could literally feel the engine through the exhaust notes and slight vibrations. Compared to my 848 this lady is definitely louder but the vibrations and rattling at idle are much less.

The dash board which is now in color, a thing of beauty and very crisp and readable in day light.
Reaching out to the handle bars I was once again surprised how much closer they are to the tank compared to 848. This allows for a much liberal riding posture if needed for longer rides.

So I backed out of the parking space and prepared to work my left wrist to squeeze in the clutch.
Another pleasant surprise clutch is now as effortless as on a CBR circa 1999. Gear shift lever is also moving smoothly and with more precision. This is all in comparison to my 848, though.

Getting on the road and there is none, there are literally no fun roads in Scottsdale. Don't get me wrong I love Scottsdale, and hope to retire there, but motorcycle roads wise nada.

With  some moderate traffic, I made my way to the back road that circles the Scottsdale airport, and VOILA, I see a nice long curve in front of me, and no cars or FedEx trucks around.
I made one pass keeping it under 6k rpm, made a U turn and decided to twist it this time.  
First gear, doing around 50mph,  and I can see the apex, so I twist the throttle progressively, the front becomes light and wobbles, I give it final twist to the bottom and the front wheel is just gliding an inch away from the asphalt.
I kick in the second while bottoming the the throttle and we are airborne, goose bumps all over my body. I reach the straight part of the road with my wheelie about two feet and let it go, hitting the brakes slowly and then progressively stronger to test the ABS, but that was in wain with the asphalt temperatures in Arizona early September are sticky high.
Well what can I say: " It is sold", as far as my impression goes.
From the first turn I felt more confident on this monster of a bike than I ever felt on anything else.

Bottom line, anybody can do more and can do it better, on board this bike right away!!! She inspires confidence.

Nope it is not me, i missed my film crew that day :)

It was not all peaches and cream, though, on the way back to the dealership I had to stop at  a few traffic lights, and it was there, when my goose bumps left and were replaced by searing heat in my inner thighs.
I know that Ducatis run hot and I am usually prepared, riding in leathers whenever practical. I did my home work and learned that 1199s are burning hot, but I just wanted to know how bad they really are. I wore Kevlar Daianese denim this time. It was bad and getting worse. 


The engine temperature, according to the dash, was at 250 Fahrenheit, and my 848 which was hot in traffic, never hit anything above 210 even when it was 120 ambient air. For all you eager ducatisti, there is a recall in place, and they will put in additional heat protection, free of charge, all you have to do is ask your dealer. Ill let you know how this went, first thing next week.

I went of the topic again as this was supposed to be about the buying experiences the riding ones, will follow.

Back to the dealership and off the bike, i am happy for two reasons not being burned anymore and also knowing that i do want this bike like no other.

This is where my buying experience is hitting the bottom,  Tommy was no where to be found again and I asked to page him. He showed up in another 10 minutes, while i was entertained by Mark. He showed me a YouTube video of the rider crashing and burning the bike Mark was running in the British Superbikes team.

Tommy came back from where ever he was, and don't get me wrong there were no other buyers there at the time. He came back with the guy from finance or so he claimed, and they were not happy with the condition my 848 was in. They were making a big deal out of the scratches on the fairings and trying to beat down the trade in price.

Another issue was terrible financing options they were throwing at me.  60 month at 6.5 % and I am the guy with perfect credit and a returning customer.

I don’t want to get in all the details about the bargaining process, I'm sure there is a bunch of stories on this topic online.  
After an hour or so of back and fourth, and please wait here a few minutes I got them where I wanted. In the end I got decent financing and flipped 2500 on my old bike. Considering I put 5k miles in one year and low sided it once, not a bad deal I recon.

Once that was settled I was taken to the little office to once again another financial manager. Now this is a guy I remember well from last time for all the buckets of bullshit and mis information he poured over my head. 

This hustler actually had the balls to tell me that since I am financing my bike, the bank is requiring me to purchase a service plan and an anti theft device.

Now I am not a stranger to car dealerships and signed a number of leases over the years and never drove a car older than 3 years, and yes people in those back room offices the once you go the last tend to sell you services and options you might not need, but to be so audacious and claim this is a bank requirement….

So I held my smile back and asked again if it was really necessary and it appeared it is not.

Although if you plan to keep the bike longer than 3 years, I think a service plan makes sense  You can bring the price for 7 services to 1800 $ with a purchase of a new bike. If you pay as they come you’ll cash out 1300 $ just for the first two….

When I bought my first bike I did get a tire protection service and it was a waste of money in the end.

So, anyways this time I politely declined all the options and signed the financing agreement.

My new bike was waiting for me in the back room, which was nice, compared to my first purchase when the walk around was done outside in 120 degree heat.

Tommy tried to explain as much as possible or as much as he knew, and this time he got me correct foot pegs.

The bike was not detailed, it was not even cleaned  by any standards. There was dust and rain drops, all over the dash board, wind screen, the tires were dirty on the side walls with silicone grease.

Rear rim was smeared with chain lube. Right side rear view mirror was missing a bolt cap. A few engine nuts were smeared in grease in a bad, bad way.

Bikes come in, in crates and they have to be checked and prepped by dealership before they go on the floor and finally when they are sold.

When I asked if they could install the additional heat shield parts before delivering the bike to me, I was told that this can only be done after sales and on owners request.

Mind you that the white 1199 standing on the floor next to mine already had these parts in place.

I asked Tommy to make an appointment for me at the service department for the heat shield installation and he said he would but eventually I ended up doing it myself.

Being fed up with people at GOAZ and crazy for my bike I got on the road and on the way home, already planning a break in trip to Flagstaff via Prescott and Gerome.

I made first left hander and activated the turn signal, when I pushed the reset button it did not work……

If you want to read more check out my future posts about experience with Panigale 1199…

Coming up

-First ride

-Breaking it in

-Track day at AMP

Flagstaff, Snowbowl it was snowing on top