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twin city closed!

rebake

New member
Well i found out today that Twin City bmw in Savoy il has closed as of 3p.m.last saturday.Looks like my trips to the local shop will be a lot longer. Ed
 
They've been selling alot of bikes lately on ebay.. so maybe they were cleaning out their inventory?
 
Intreresting press release on the topic of dealerships:

BMW Motorrad USA Expands Dealer Network with the Opening of Eight New Facilities

* 10.02.2010
* Press Release

BMW Brand Targets Growing Number of Dual-Sport Riders

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – February 10, 2009… BMW Motorrad USA has announced the opening of eight new dealerships within the past five months to better serve BMW motorcycle customers in new and underserved markets.

“In 2010 and beyond we will continue to identify growth opportunities for the BMW brand in markets that do not currently have a BMW motorcycle dealership by partnering with new or existing motorcycle dealers in those areas,” commented Todd Andersen, BMW Motorrad USA Marketing Manager.

The newest authorized BMW dealerships include: Van-Wall Powersports in Perry, IA; BMW Motorcycles of Chattanooga in Chattanooga, Tenn.; Bergen County BMW Motorcycles in Rochelle Park, NJ; Montgomeryville Cycle Center in Hatfield, PA; BMW Motorcycles Tulsa in Tulsa, OK; BMW Motorcycles of Spokane/Westside Motorsports in Spokane, WA; BMW Motorcycles of Utah in Sandy, UT; and Kissell Motor Sports in State College, PA.

“Our dedicated dealer network was the key to our success last year,” added Mr. Andersen, citing the fact that BMW Motorrad USA outperformed the industry for the 2nd year in a row in 2009 despite an overall motorcycle industry decline of 41 percent. “Our dealers continued to serve our customers well thanks to new products like the K1300 GT, K 1300 S, and the new S 1000 RR Superbike, as well as attractive financing programs from BMW Financial Services.”
 
with the distance to get to a dealer getting pretty far here in illinois does anyone know of any good independant shop in the illinois that can do work for us now.
 
Hmmm, hadn't seen any rumors floating around that I recall. :dunno

Sibud-seems like no one knew it was in the works.I talked to Charlie on Monday and he was as suprised as anyone.What i thought was bad was that they went in at 2:50 and told the employees that as of 3:00 they were closing.Like i said,now instead of 90miles to my dealer looks like i will have to double that.Ed
 
Sibud-seems like no one knew it was in the works.I talked to Charlie on Monday and he was as suprised as anyone.What i thought was bad was that they went in at 2:50 and told the employees that as of 3:00 they were closing.Like i said,now instead of 90miles to my dealer looks like i will have to double that.Ed

This demonstrates a certain management style. That management style has been known to cause businesses to fail many times. If in fact this is typical of this firm, their demise should not have been unexpected.
 
Sibud-seems like no one knew it was in the works.I talked to Charlie on Monday and he was as suprised as anyone.What i thought was bad was that they went in at 2:50 and told the employees that as of 3:00 they were closing.Like i said,now instead of 90miles to my dealer looks like i will have to double that.Ed

Yo Ed...you're always welcomed to stop by if'n your headed to Chi BMW.
If you do order from Chi BMW and you plan on picking the parts up,gimme a hollar before hand.
There's always the possibility I might be heading up there and could pick them up, saving you an additional 100 miles of travel..!
 
It wasn't the management style at Twin City BMW that closed their doors.

It's BMW NA's folly that their bikes have to be sold primarily through stand alone stores. Smaller communities do not have sufficient demand to make a stand alone BMW shop viable.

Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Triumph have no issues having their bikes sold next to each other. While BMW NA may believe their marketing approach makes the mark more exclusive it may also make it exctinct except in large urban markets.
 
It's BMW NA's folly that their bikes have to be sold primarily through stand alone stores. Smaller communities do not have sufficient demand to make a stand alone BMW shop viable.

Your are correct that primarily this is true, however in Canada stores generally feature several brands with BMWs as the flagship. I am so fortunate to live 5Km from a Dealer - and they also have several European and Japanese brands... no Harley's though - quite a different dynamic. ;)
 
The distance to my closest dealer (180mi) is the main reason I went looking for an airhead as my "next" bike. The hassles associated with needing to take a modern bike to a dealer for maintenance was the deciding factor between the airhead or a newer R-bike.

Tom
 
It wasn't the management style at Twin City BMW that closed their doors.

It's BMW NA's folly that their bikes have to be sold primarily through stand alone stores. Smaller communities do not have sufficient demand to make a stand alone BMW shop viable.

Honda, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Triumph have no issues having their bikes sold next to each other. While BMW NA may believe their marketing approach makes the mark more exclusive it may also make it exctinct except in large urban markets.

Absolutely true. Except, even BMW figured that out a few years back. If you look at the list of new dealers, Van Wall in Iowa for example, you will find at least three multi-brand new dealerships.
 
The last I had heard Harley and BMW were co-existing at one dealership in Grand Junction,Co. anyone know of these two pairing up elsewhere?
 
Southard Cycle in Peoria is an independant cycle repair shop. Gene Southard, the owner, rides a R1200. He'll work on the newer bikes. He was a BMW trained tech who worked for Grayboy Cycle in Peoria Heights when they were a BMW dealer. Also, the fomer head tech at Grayboy now works at Illinois Cycle in Peoria, which is the Aprilia dealer. I've gone to both these guys and find both reputable. But...both are small shops, and access to parts is limited to what you or they can order. YMMV...
 
The last I had heard Harley and BMW were co-existing at one dealership in Grand Junction,Co. anyone know of these two pairing up elsewhere?


Yea, I just posted in another thread that this happened here in November of '08. The HD dealer kept the BMW/Ducati shop open at their original location then moved them in May of '09 into one of two Colorado Springs HD locations. Since this happened most of the original BMW staff have been sent packing including a pretty good BMW wrench who was good at working on Ducati's.
 
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