I have had the most interesting interactions at my local dealerships this summer. On multiple occasions, the employees behind the parts counter have told me that they can order in the parts I need. The words are spoken with aplomb; they assure me that I must only wait another half a week, or a week at most, for the parts to arrive.

How interesting. And, how silly. Because if they can order parts in, so can I, and it is much easier and often less expensive for me to do so.

I feel that we are arriving a make-or-break point for many dealerships and repair shops where the owners and management must ask themselves “What are we doing here? What are we good for?”. Their customers are certainly asking these questions about them.

The Internet has disrupted the traditional dealership model. For years, many parts, even aftermarket parts, were only available through dealerships. The dealership was also the only place you could buy a brand-new motorcycle and often the easiest place to buy a second-hand motorcycle.

None of this is true anymore. While the dealership sales model for new bikes is protected by law in many jurisdictions, it is not protected everywhere. During COVID-19, most OEMs figured out some temporary means to sell bikes outside of brick-and-mortar dealers. Even before that, smaller distributors figured out how to sell bikes (mostly Chinese machines) direct-to-consumer. CSC is a well-known, long-established example in the US, but other countries have equivalents. And of course, you can easily buy a used motorcycle outside of the dealership chain.

As for the parts desk question, this has been completely revolutionized. Many online retailers now offer direct-to-your-door shipping for factory parts. It is true that not every country has OEM parts available directly to consumers. At least, they are not always easily found outside the dealership chain. But even in those cases, generic parts such as grips, luggage, batteries, wheel bearings, tires or even many electronic components are easily found through Amazon or other simple-to-use websites. When you do so, the parts are shipped to you, the buyer, with no 15-minute drive to your local parts counter, no wait in line at the desk, no waiting for a bumbling and inexperienced staffer to fumble through distributors’ catalogs to find the aftermarket parts you want. Shopping online is easier and often cheaper when compared to shopping local.

Nevertheless, many of us like to shop local and keep our neighbors employed. In my case, I have friends employed at local dealerships. I try to give them my business when I can. We’re told that this is a smart thing to do, because when we need parts right away, the Internet can’t deliver, but our local dealership can. There is some logic to that argument, so I try to buy what I can locally, even if it costs a bit more time and money.

But this summer, I do not remember a single instance where a local dealer had the parts I wanted in-stock. I am not talking about complicated and expensive OEM parts. I was looking for wheel bearings or generic brake pads. This items used to be the bread-and-butter of big dealers and small. A smart, capable counter-man would have this sort of thing on-hand, and order when he ran low, especially if it was a consumable off a model that the dealership sold. Your local Suzuki or Kawasaki dealer always had 17-inch tubes in stock, for instance, as KLR650 and DR650 riders would need them. Or your local Honda dealer would always have a set of front wheel bearings for a CRF250L, and so on.

Not anymore. Now, you get the canned reply: “I don’t have it, but I can order it in for you, and it’ll be here next week.”

Well, sir, I can order it to, and it will be less expensive and delivered to my door. And that does not bode well for your own long-term employment, because once I start buying my parts elsewhere, I may also start doing my motorcycle shopping elsewhere. There are certainly other places I can take my motorcycle for servicing as well.

I’ve had other irksome interactions over past months, including one salesman who refused to answer his phone or reply to emails when asked about a machine he had listed on his website. When I went to visit the shop in person, he practically pounced on me, asking if he could help me. He was quite taken aback when I informed him that no, he could not—he had already missed multiple chances to do so, and I would not give him another. There are plenty of other places to buy a motorcycle, and he had missed both his first shot and the rebound.

这可能听起来像一个巨大的抱怨,和每一个haps it is. However, I do not wish dealerships ill; I wish them success. But as Oscar Wilde said, “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the result.” If local dealerships do not take the steps necessary to offer excellent customer service, such as providing the in-stock parts that they claim are their very raison d’être, then people will quickly lose interest in shopping there. Once the public perceives you, rightly or wrongly, as an incompetent middleman whose only function is to jack up pricing, then they will do their best to find a lower-cost workaround. To avoid that, dealerships need to have a top-down examination of what their actual function is to customers, and start doing it well, lest they become irrelevant.