Interesting News About KTM Dealers

[coopernicus]

I don't know any more than this: I heard today that KTM is making it a requirement for all dealers to use GE Financing (presumably for KTM/Husky bike purchases). Initial word is that a lot of long time dealers will be dropped due to this requirement. In my opinion, there are 3 reasons for making this change: Because they are so big they can and don't care, they will get a financial kickback from GE, or they are trying to weed out some dealers that they no longer want (in favor of newer dealers who they do want the money from). Anybody here about this?

Eric

[Ud_luz]

I don't think it's new. Doesn't it only apply to customer financing? If so it's been that way for 10 years or so.

[Muddy]

It's been like that for yrs. Financed my adventure bike through
a credit union back in 07, ktm didn't give a rats arse about
even trying to come close to my rate. Hmmm maybe they will
abort Husky in a few yrs as well.....

[twowheels]

This is more likely financing for the dealer's operation and floorplanning of bikes, not consumer financing.

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[ScottyR]

KTM has forced dealers to use GE floor planning for at least 10 yrs. They do ALL their billing through GE. Bikes, parts, accessories all billed on their GE account.

The biggest issue is that GE isn't giving out money as easily as they did a few years ago and a lot of dealers do not qualify to use GE financing and in turn, KTM has no choice but to cancel their dealer agreements.

[coopernicus]

I was just passing along what I heard at the time as I did not know what the history was with KTM and GE Financing. Ultimately, it was the potential dropping of long time dealers that I was trying to communicate. I had heard that some southern US dealers were impacted by more stringent financing rules.

Eric

[twowheels]

You're cool. After a couple dealers went out and left Clay holding the bag he 'encouraged' dealers to get hooked up with GE. The terms seemed onerous and intrusive to me so I went another direction.

If it had been a deal breaker like it sounds like with KTM I'd have started peddling Chinese scooters instead

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