Holding Inventory Rarely Pays Off: The July Numbers and What to Do With Aged Units Right Now | Mike Murray, NPA

Here is what mattered in powersports this week, and what each story means for your store.Two kinds of stories this week. Brands under pressure: Triumph's first dirt bike gets recalled, MV Agusta admits it is hunting for cash, and KTM's newest bike is only as good as the allocation. And two dealers who just proved you can last. Kegel Harley-Davidson is the official oldest Harley dealer in the world at 114 years. Naults in New England is at 118 and started out selling Schwinn bicycles.The line between the two is simple. The ones that last have more than one leg to stand on. Polaris is building sleds for the military. CFMoto is buying into an NFL stadium. Turn 14 is bringing show-only parts pricing right before the fourth quarter. The lesson for a dealer is the same one every time. New units are not the only game.This week's rundown:Triumph recalls about 1,560 TF-450 motocross bikes in the US. The rocker arm can seize, the valves can break, and the fix is a whole new cylinder head. Twelve reports, one injury. This is the first real test of how Triumph backs its first dirt bike, and the owner is mad at Triumph but standing at your counter.MV Agusta says it is restructuring and looking for an outside investor. The statement pushes back on rumors but never says bikes are being built or shipped. What gets shaky first for an MV dealer: new units, parts, then warranty money.Why a cheap buy-in on a struggling brand is not cheap if the units never show upCFMoto is now the official side-by-side and ATV partner of the Minnesota Vikings. Close to 800 US dealers now. Why a stadium deal means your salesperson is not starting cold.Kegel Harley-Davidson in Rockford, Illinois, is the official oldest Harley dealer in the world. Same family since 1912. Retention is the whole game.Yamaha's 2027 WR450F. A new model year is a reason to call every owner in your file, and every trade is a clean used unit you sell twice.KTM's 2027 690 Rally. The ADV buyer spends on luggage, crash bars, and tires, and rides enough miles to keep your service bays full. The honest question is allocation.Husqvarna's 2027 TE300 Pro and FE350 Pro. Why the Pro badge gives your salesperson a step up and why the rider who stretches for it buys the good tires too.Naults Powersports has been open 118 years. It started as a Schwinn bicycle shop in 1908 and runs four stores today. Being old is the result, not the plan.Turn 14 is bringing buy-ready UTV parts and show-only pricing to the Sand Sports Super Show. Side-by-side unit margin is thin. The money is in wheels, roofs, light bars, and winches. Stock deep now.Polaris built a snowmobile for the military. You will never sell one, but it tells you the factory reads retail as soft and is spreading its bets. Smart dealers do the same.Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixitSponsor: https://ziidms.com/fixitConnect with Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/Follow the Fixit Online: https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixitMotoHunt for Dealers: https://dealers.motohunt.com

Every dealer says the same thing when the season slows down. We have no traffic. Jason White has counted the traffic, by hand, to check his door counters. His answer: you have plenty. You are just not doing good with it.Jason has run Fay Myers Motorcycle World in Colorado for 30 years. For the last ten he has also been a GM and now VP of Financial Services at Schomp Automotive Group, the car group famous for one price, one person, one hour. He sits on the board of A2Z Sync. He runs an F&I product agency. And he co-founded One Dealer Lane. Almost nobody has lived both worlds at the top like this.What we cover:Why most deals do not die on price. They die in the gaps nobody is measuring.Stopping the clock. The OEMs want fast lead responses. Fast is not the same as good.The one rule Jason lives by: you must measure to manage. Foot traffic, internet traffic, phone traffic. He has door counters in sales, parts, and service.Why the phone tracking excuse is dead. A VoIP system costs what your 1975 phone costs.Listen to your phone calls. Even your best people. If you want to get frustrated, do it on a Tuesday.The slow season lie. Peak season is shooting fish in a barrel. The off season shows who follows the process.The wait. Why a customer sitting in silence hurts more in a passion purchase than in a car deal.The pit pass and the dealership walk. Why they made the process longer and the timing never worked.The number one fix, and it sounds too simple: get the paper out of the deal.Why powersports pays one seventh of what auto pays for a CRM, and why it is not fair to expect the same results.The store with a CRM nobody uses. Some guys on the CRM, some on the DMS, some on a sticky note. How Jason forced the habit.The Schomp story. Lisa Schomp went one price in the early nineties, let go of the commission staff, and hired teachers. They went from third to first in market share.Forget one price. Think one profit. The lesson from Aaron Wallace that changed how Jason looks at every deal.Why Fay Myers still does not run one price, and the 190 Honda motorcycle variations that explain it.The line to write down: with transparency you get trust, and with trust you get speed.The FTC and the freight problem. Why BMW is the only OEM doing it right, and Jason's warning to an OEM this week about who ends up named in the lawsuit.Setup charges that are still based on labor math from the 1980s.F&I with no negotiation. Every customer pays the same price for every product. What it does to penetration.Retro before reinsurance, and the three to five products every store should carry.The digital menu. Three years ago Jason surveyed 100 dealers. Ten had one.The one thing to do this week: walk your own deal from handshake to keys and count how many times you type the same customer in.One Dealer Lane in sixty seconds, including the 25-year sticky-note salesman who said "I wish you had forced me sooner."Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixitConnect with Jason White: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-white-6608b81/One Dealer Lane: https://onedealerlane.comSponsor: https://ziidms.com/fixitConnect with Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/Follow the Fixit Online: https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixitMotoHunt for Dealers: https://dealers.motohunt.com

Here is what mattered in powersports this week, and what each story means for your store.At BMW, the motorcycle side just out-earned the car side. The bikes made about 230 million euros in profit in the first half of the year. The car side saw profit fall 45%. And here is the part to chew on. Motorrad sold slightly fewer bikes and still made more money on each one. Less discounting. A richer mix. Tighter inventory. The same discipline we have heard from Harley and Polaris.That theme runs through the whole week. The best used dealers are the ones who turn fast instead of holding out for every last dollar. And the dealers who keep saying yes to buyers are the ones with a deep lender bench, because credit scores on new loans are slipping.This week's rundown:BMW Motorrad profit up 8.5% while the car side fell 45%. Why fewer units and more profit is the healthy trick, and what to tell a customer on the fence.Suzuki's first wave of 2027 bikes. The new SV7GX sport crossover at about $8,600, 40th anniversary GSX-R1000s, and refreshed RM-Z dirt bikes. Three different buyers from one announcement.Why Suzuki's reservation program is smart. It tells you which buyers are serious.Kawasaki recalls about 3,500 supercharged Teryx H2 side-by-sides. A drive part can break and throw metal. Stop riding, free fix, and a reason to get your best customers back in the service drive.Club BRP drew more than 4,100 dealers from 81 countries. The new Responsible Rider Masterclass is free safety training, and free safety training is free customer retention.Dealer of the Year went to Sheridan Powersports for Can-Am and RideNow Chandler for Sea-Doo.Honda opened its 2027 National Technician Contest. $8,000 and a shot at Team USA. Why a tech who feels seen is a tech who stays.Used prices are running about 10% higher than last year. Trade equity is real, and it is rocket fuel for a new deal.Take every trade, no matter the badge. A Honda store should still appraise the Polaris that rolls in. Wholesale what you do not want to keep.One caution on used. Inventory is still high, and if the brands pile on new unit discounts, used values can drift down later.Credit scores on new auto loans fell from 723 to 716. More buyers under 580. Why a thin lender bench is how good customers walk out.Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixitConnect with Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/Follow the Fixit Online: https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixitMotoHunt for Dealers: https://dealers.motohunt.comSponsor: https://ziidms.com/fixit

Back in May, Mike Murray told us April was the top and the market would bottom out around August. The July numbers are in. He was right.But there is a new wrinkle. About 6,500 units crossed the block in July. A year ago it was 5,000. That is 30% more bikes at the auction, the most for any July in three years. More supply plus the normal fall slide means a lot of red on the report. Domestic cruisers down 13%. Metric down 10%. PWC down 23%.Here is the part most dealers will miss. The actual dollars are still at or above last year in most categories. The drop feels worse than it is because spring was so strong. And the lowest prices of the year are sitting right in front of you for the next 30 to 60 days.Mike walks through where the extra bikes are coming from, why the clean ones still bring big money while the rough ones sit, and what to do with the units you took in too high this summer. He also gives away the pricing trick a dealer shared in a 20 group meeting last week. It works.What we cover:Why the slide came right on schedule, and why 2026 is still a little better than expectedWhere the extra 1,500 auction units came from. It is not repos. Repos are flat.More dealers are buying too. NPA saw about 10% more dealers show up this year.The three ways dealers use Direct Buy: the trade you do not want, the trade you are not sure about, and the unit that has aged outSturgis: how NPA put numbers on non-Harley trades in a couple of minutes so the sales team could stay on the customerWhy this is a buyer's market right now. More supply, less competition, and the northern dealers are already thinking about snow.The three things that decide what a bike is worth: how wanted it is, what shape it is in, and the milesWhere the deals are. Clean low-mile bikes still get bid up. The one with a dent in the tank that needs $900 in recon is where the money is.The buying window: prices start climbing again in 30 to 45 daysThe unit you took in too high. Mike's answer: holding inventory rarely pays off. Cut it loose and put the money in something that turns.The dealer who turns his used inventory five times a year, and how he does itThe 11,995 pricing trickWhy clean Harleys keep pulling away from rough onesWhy side by sides are holding up when everything else slidWhy PWC fell off a cliff, and why not to panic about itRepos: flat, normal, nothing to worry aboutThe $10,000 bike that is now an $8,000 bike, and the $1,000 loss that turned into $2,000 because nobody had a planBook values dropping 2% to 4% on September 1, and why that is good newsTrikes: why the book went one way and the real market went anotherThe 60 to 90 day outlookThe one thing to do this week: go watch an auction for 30 minutesWatch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixitNPA Market Report: https://www.npauctions.com/cp/npa-market-reportReach Mike Murray: [email protected] with Jacob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/Follow the Fixit Online: https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixitMotoHunt for Dealers: https://dealers.motohunt.comSponsor: https://www.ziidms.com/fixit

Here is what matters in powersports this week, and what each story actually means for your store.The Dealership fiXit Rundown cuts through the headlines and tells you how the week's news lands on your floor, in your service bay, and in your next conversation with a customer. No fluff, just the stories that matter and the angle a dealer can actually use.This week's rundown:BRP launches its own captive lender, BRP Financial Services, built with Octane. What a factory-owned bank means when a customer sits at your desk to buy a Can-Am, Sea-Doo, or Ski-Doo, and the upside and the catch for your storeBlackstone's Safe Harbor buys MarineMax, the largest boat retailer in the country, for $1.5 billion all cash. Why Wall Street money moving into recreation tells you what your own store could be worthCan-Am reveals its 2027 side-by-sides and ATVs: a ground-up Defender HD10 with 80 horsepower, factory-installed accessory packages, a smoother Maverick R, and big 10.25 inch screens with offline mapsWhat is actually working on social media for dealers right now, and why real video of your people beats polished unit photos every timeThe US and Canada tariff fight is back, with new taxes set for September 8th, and why it lands on your sticker price whether you sell north or south of the borderThe FTC and the state of Connecticut hit a Nissan dealer with a $4 million settlement over pricing. Why the same rules are aimed right at powersports and what trips dealers upThe cheap end of the used market is drying up. A three-year-old vehicle just hit a record price, and what that means for the value of the trade sitting in your customer's garageThe MIC bought MotorcycleIndustryJobs.com, the main hiring board for our industry, and why staffing is the quiet bottleneck choking most storesThe profit hiding in your showroom: why how you lay out your floor and your gear wall is a real profit center most dealers treat as an afterthoughtAIMExpo 2027 is locked in for Orlando, March 3rd through 5th, and how to actually get value out of the tripWatch on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit⁠Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠MotoHunt for Dealers: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠Sponsor: https://www.ziidms.com/fixit NADA Dealer Connect discount code: MOTOHUNT20

Most industry events are big trade shows where you get talked at all day and everyone is trying to sell you something. DealerConnect is the opposite. It is dealers sitting across from dealers, trading real numbers and real fixes, in a room built for it.I have been to every DealerConnect since the beginning, and it has a different feel than the big shows. More intimate. More real. This year it runs September 19 to 21 at the Hilton in downtown Columbus, Ohio, presented by AppOne, and it is the biggest one yet.I sat down with two people from the NPDA, the National Powersports Dealer Association. Tigra Tsujikawa is the Events Director who builds DealerConnect every year. Steve Gotoski just joined as Membership and Marketing Director after over a decade at the AMA. We get into what the event is, what you will learn, and the real reason a dealer should make the trip.What we cover:Why the NPDA is the missing third leg of the stool: the MIC serves the OEMs, the AMA serves the riders, and the NPDA finally represents the dealers who connect themWhat the association does behind the scenes so a busy dealer does not have to, from FTC advocacy to legislation that could hurt your businessWhy every dealer belongs, from a one-person shop to a 300-employee groupWhat DealerConnect actually is: education and networking built by dealers, for dealersWhat a day looks like: the schedule, the meals, the AppOne welcome reception, and why the moments in between the sessions matter most20 sessions this year, double the education, covering sales, employees, finance, AI, succession planning, pre-owned strategy, and dealership cultureThe brand new FTC compliance session and why it is the most timely one on the agendaWhy the room is intentionally intimate, and how less noise means more real conversations and better takeawaysThe NPDA partner ecosystem: insurance, financing, training, and legal partners who get powersports and are there to help, not just sellThe honest logistics: how to plan your trip and why DealerConnect is worth the time out of the storeThe week-stacking angle: the Harley-Davidson dealer meeting starts the day after in Milwaukee, so DealerConnect ends early to make it easy to hit bothThe education workbook and post-event QR code so you can catch the sessions you missYou do not have to be a member to attend, plus a special this year: buy a DealerConnect ticket and get membership for $99The big beautiful bill win: how the NPDA helped get a tax write-off for financing interest on American-made powersports vehiclesWhere to register and why the hotel block closes August 28thUse code MotoHunt20 for a discount on registration. Service and accessory dealers, contact [email protected] or Tigra directly about a special registration built for you.Watch on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit⁠Register for DealerConnect 2026: ⁠https://www.npda.org⁠Connect with Tigra Tsujikawa: ⁠[email protected]⁠Connect with Steve Gotoski: ⁠[email protected]⁠Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠MotoHunt for Dealers: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠

Here is what matters in powersports this week, and what each story actually means for your store.The Dealership fiXit Rundown cuts through the headlines and tells you how the week's news lands on your floor, in your service bay, and in your next conversation with a customer. This week's rundown:Yamaha is ending in-house side-by-side production in the US after the 2026 model year. What that really means, why it is not the same as quitting the category, and how to talk to your Wolverine and Viking customers about parts, service, and warrantyWhy your 2026 Yamaha side-by-sides on the floor right now might be the last in-house units ever built, and how to tell that story to a buyerPolaris reveals its 2027 lineup: a 275 horsepower RZR Pro R Boost, a brand new air-controlled CVT called Numatix that cuts cabin noise up to 40%, and a $6,999 Sportsman 500 that covers the budget buyerCFMoto's new X-Force: 154 horsepower for under $24,000 and why the value brands are not the joke they were 10 years agoSea-Doo rumored to push its top skis to 350 horsepower for 2027, and why the current 325 units are where the value is sitting right nowNew motorcycle sales up 1.9% through Q2 per the MIC, and what a cooling but growing market means for how you sell the back half of the yearSonic Automotive's powersports arm is on fire, up 53%, and what big money buying into powersports means for what your store is worthBMW spy shots point to an M 1300 GS, the first M badge on its flagship adventure bike, and why a halo bike drives showroom trafficAn Italian firm claims a 2.5 billion euro bid for Ducati while Volkswagen says it is not for sale, and the one line to know if a customer brings it upKTM recalls Husqvarna and GasGas dirt bikes over a front brake defect, and how to turn warranty work into traffic, trust, and a possible salePlus DealerConnect 2026 is coming to Columbus, and why this dealer-to-dealer event is worth the tripNPDA Dealer Connect 2026 discount code: MOTOHUNT20Watch on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit⁠Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠MotoHunt for Dealers: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠

The rule everyone was scared of got struck down. The enforcement did not. And the people who watch this closely believe powersports dealers are next.Anne Gambardella is the General Counsel and Executive Vice President at the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association. She has spent years helping dealers navigate advertising and pricing compliance, and she came on to break down exactly what the FTC wants, what it is going after, and what a dealer needs to do about it this week. In plain English, with real steps you can take at your store.This one is tactical. We get past the headlines and into what actually has to change on your website, your third-party listings, and even your salespeople's social media posts.What we cover:Why the CARS Rule getting struck down did not make dealers safe, and how the FTC enforces one dealer at a time under its existing authorityThe core rule in one sentence: the most prominent price in your ad has to include every fee except government chargesWhat actually comes out of the price, only tag, title, and registration, and what has to stay in, freight, setup, and doc or processing feesWhy the low-advertised-price game that has run for 30 years is now the thing that gets you flaggedHow rebates work now: you can list them, but you cannot pull a rebate most people do not qualify for out of the advertised priceThe 97 warning letters, what they really mean, and why a dealer who did not get one is not safe, just not on the list yetWhy this is not really a new rule in many states, and how it may already be illegal where you operateThe powersports reality: freight and setup fees the dealer did not create but still has to include in the priceWhy "call for price" is not the loophole dealers think it is, and how lying on the phone is still a deceptive practiceThe social media trap: how one salesperson posting a price can become an advertising violation for the whole storeWhy your price has to match everywhere, your site, third-party listings, and social, and how to document your pricing updatesThe trust numbers that prove customers want this: 86% worry about hidden fees, 76% do not trust dealer pricing, 29% walk to another dealer over price doubtThe real cost of getting caught: penalties north of $50,000 per violation, plus state action, franchise risk, and reputation damageWhy transparency is a competitive edge, not a loss, and the exact three moves to fix your pricing this weekWatch on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit⁠Learn more (VADA, FTC resources): ⁠https://www.vada.com⁠Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠MotoHunt for Dealers: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠Get $20 off your Dealer Connect 2026 registration with code "MOTOHUNT20"

The week in powersports, made for dealers.This week: Harley says dealer profit should double off its Back to the Bricks plan, powersports used values are running about 10% over last year, Polaris raises its full-year numbers, the NPDA pushes to fix the freight and setup fight, why 20 groups are still a dealer's best edge, and a Honda CBR600RR recall you should know. Plus quick hits on SEMA, e-bikes, a Royal Enfield drop, and Harley's 2026 Deadwood.🏍️ Brought to you by MotoHunt. Grow your store: https://dealers.motohunt.com📺 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealershipfixit🤝 Connect with Jacob on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/🎧 Follow the show so you never miss a Rundown.

Most hiring conversations start too late. They start with where to post the job. This one starts three steps earlier, with whether you even know what you are hiring for.We brought two powersports recruiters together for this one, and they come at it from opposite sides of the table. Jaye Sanders is a Talent Partner at Dream Team Referrals and Managing Director at Powersports Listings on the M&A side, so she sees how your team affects what your store is actually worth. Kevin Vaughn, who goes by Elvis, just founded Coreline Search, and he was a General Manager at House of Harley-Davidson until a few months ago. He has been GM at three different dealerships and came up from the sales floor all the way to the top seat.Between the two of them you get both sides. Kevin speaks for the dealer who has to make the hire. Jaye speaks for the person deciding whether to take it. It gets honest, it gets a little spicy, and it is packed with things a dealer can act on this week.Watch on YouTube: ⁠https://youtube.com/@dealershipfixit⁠Connect with Jaye Sanders (Dream Team Referrals): ⁠520-850-0236Connect with Kevin "Elvis" Vaughn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elvisvaughn/Connect with Jacob: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacob-b-berry/⁠Follow the Fixit Online: ⁠https://linktr.ee/dealershipfixit⁠MotoHunt for Dealers: ⁠https://dealers.motohunt.com⁠