I bought an R1100R in 2000 at Chicago Cycle Center, now Chicago BMW, for about $600 off the MSRP, and half price and free installation on the (in my opinion way overpriced) windshield and hard bags. I suspect they might have gone even a bit lower if I had pushed harder, but I didn't. BMW had just reduced the MSRP on that model from $10,500 to $9,000, so it seemed like a pretty good deal at the time. And it still does. The bike has been very reliable, has none of the surging I have read so much about, and what buzzing there initially was pretty much went away after the first 6,000 miles or so. It is very easy to do 500 miles at a pop on it, and my hands never go to sleep like they did when it was new, though I could use a little more leg room. Maybe some day I'll get a peg lowering kit or highway pegs or something, but I digress.
Incidentally, in the year or so before BMW lowered of the price on the R1100R the euro lost about 15% on the dollar, which was pretty close to the amount they cut off the price of the bike. HOwever, they did not lower the price on the RT or GS, which I understood were much better sellers at the time. The euro has climbed significantly v. the dollar over the last year, though BMW has yet to raise prices if the exchange rate indeed affects the price of its bikes. From what I understand, BMW prices are a little more competitive with Japanese bikes in other countries, so it may be that BMWNA still has a pretty good margin to play with despite currency fluctuations. With the current give-away financing deals, BMW now seems to be intent on capturing market share at the expense of unit profit -- make it up in volume, or something like that. They are certainly trying to change their image and appeal to younger buyers. That suggests to me that they may be willing to negotiate price even on top of the unbelievable financing deals. But who knows? It probably has more to do with local demand and how hard up your local dealer is to make a sale. Anyway, good luck with it.
