Great news! I think the Cambs one is going into the old Saab showroom in Harston. Great to have 2 dealerships owned and run by the same company. I imagine it'll mean more demo bikes and better facilities shared between the two. Hopefully some good ride-outs too! News - An exciting venture for the Vindis Group.
Call me a grumpy old philistine but what is IMO corporate bollox on the link is enough to stop me from calling in. I mean really " the values of the Ducati brand are close to the heart of the Vindis group " If that doesn't put you off then you probably have a thick beard and wear a lumberjack shirt or maybe you work in marketing. Shame for St Neots Motorcycles who have been marvellous in all my dealings with them.
I agree - St. Neots Ducati have been great. I assumed that they were retiring from it rather than having their dealership status pulled. No idea what happened.
Maybe they like selling Suzukis bikes too and don't want to give it up. Maybe they don't want big, shiny, expensive showrooms . Maybe they don't like being told what to do by a company that has just been caught cheating emissions tests in America. Maybe they don't like that fact that years of sales and service helping to build the brand in a relatively small and off prime pitch showroom doesn't seem to count for a lot. Maybe something else altogether. I hope St Neots get another similar franchise, maybe Guzzi or MV etc, to continue alongside Suzuki. They are good, straightforward people. I recall having some warranty repairs carried out and being delayed in traffic on the way to collect the bike. They arranged for one of the staff to stay way beyond usual hours just so I could still collect the bike. Not just 10 minutes late either,I was about 90 minutes late. Not saying there wont be good staff at Vindis, I hope there are but the stuff on the link only puts me off Ducati and after 34 years of continuous Ducati ownership that is quite something.
That reminds me of the P&H rebrand. They have spent thousands to come up with, "Life to the power of 2" Was that the ad mans IQ?
Not trying to start a fight, but I don't really get your issue with this statement. What's wrong with Vindis saying that they pride themselves on what they consider to be similar brand values to Ducati's? To say that you wouldn't use this new dealer due to that statement being said, is a little harsh. Maybe you work for or know the guys at St. Neots Motorcycles and know the ins and outs of the situation. I certainly hope that St. Neots didn't have the brand pulled out from under their feet. The guys at SNM are great, honest and kind, but I assume that Ducati want big shiny dealerships who have a good range of demo bikes and display models. St. Neots didn't have very many. I waited months for a test ride on a Multi DVT and they never had a demo bike to test. I ended up going much further to ride one at Seastar near Norwich. Seastar were great and let me and a friend have a DVT and 1299s for half the day, so after a good coffee and chat, I felt slightly obliged to order my new DVT with them.
As far as i can gather with the st neots ,ducati problem st neots basically told ducati to take a run and jump It just became to much of a problem for st neots to continue with ducati Problems with whos paying for what on warranty claims and basically how ducati wanted them to run things There a great bunch of people at st neots a great shame
Ducati told St Neots that they'd pull their franchise unless they spent a considerable amount of money to update their Ducati showroom to their new requirements. St Neots, a small independent, were unwilling to do so. Ducati pulled the franchise. VAG are commoditising the Ducati brand, this is part of the process. I chose that word carefully.
It saddens me to see bike brands being amalgamated into car dealerships. I refer to this at 'point of sale', I'm not referring to the pros and cons of Ducati being owned by VAG. It will change the culture and ethos of the bike business when diluted with the 'slimeballs' we call car dealers. I certainly wouldn't buy any bike product or service from a business that is essentially a owned by a big car dealer. I'm ok with Ducati being owned by VAG but I wont be buying any bike that's sat next to an A4 and sold by a guy in a cheap suit and pointy shoes that says 'yeah they're reet fast these Ducati's, do you need finance and rubber mats?'.
Yup, years ago I worked for a very small Skoda dealership who had spent decades nurturing the brand and a band of loyal customers. The mechanics were skilled and insightful and the garage knew its customers as friends and always acted in their best interests. VAG did a number on them too, their lovely characterful old garage was not compliant with brand guidelines and they didn't have the will to invest and get into debt. It's a sad part of the corporate world.
Well, just got back from the opening . As expected really, well from me. Good weather brought out a fair turn out by the looks of the hour I was there. About 15 new bikes there, workshop looked very sparse and all perfect as you would expect. I think the trouble for me was I still look back to the days of a little more tradional bike shop and maybe those days have gone for good, maybe even more so with your average Ducati rider. The staff said their that the 'average' Ducati owner is 47 . Funny as that's me and what looked to be very one around me. Obviously no second hand bikes in stock , and the staff are all riders so they said when asked if they drove an Audi or a bike..... It's certainly got the Audi look .
I was there but only by accident ! I went for a ride and saw it was open ....no advertising I saw and I only live 10 mins away
