The dealer by me only JUST stopped modding the warrior prior to sale. Since Ive known about the Warrior they have always put on Bigshots or shorties, they have changed the lights to LEDs, they put the fender eliminator on, they changed to the Yammi TT bars. They even put solo seats on some of them. When I bought mine one of the sales guys made a comment that once they were done modding they couldnt keep it on the showroom floor for more than 2 weeks. Then they had to start modding another one and it just wasnt worth all the time and expense to do all that work for basically the MSRP. The ones they didnt mod never sold.

 

+1 on the sales never being up.

I bought my 02 new in 04 as a left over. The dealer said he had it on the floor for 2.5 years and it never sold. In my eyes, with the price I paid for a brand new Warrior with 0 miles on it, I basically stole it from him.

 

I was told the dealers put thier orders in at the beginning of the year and thats what they get for the year the dealers near me still have 06&07s on the floor I can't see them ordering more if they can't sell what the have. You see them brand new on E-bay for 10,000 all day long I love my warrior and plan on investing time and money in it but I fear the warrior might not be around long

 

The fastest way to sell a Warrior off the showroom floor is to have the Potential customer test ride a competing Power Cruiser first!

 

Yeah, mine is an 07 that had been in Brenham Motorsports for several months. The guy told me that no one seemed to like the Midnight version. Good for me! By the way, I can't tell you how many times I've had people taking pictures and gauking at this bike. Maybe Yamaha didn't market the "coolness" factor very well, but then again, there would be more Warriors on the road. That makes us special[/emoticons/emotion-4.gif]

 

i called The dealer who I bought my roadstar from to give him the vin # on my Warrior( which I bought on ebay) to do the recall's ...he said they only had sold only three of them in all these year's so I called Yamaha corporation to find a dealer number that had knowledge of the recall, heck I thought I was gonna have to go to houston or dallas because of the warrior's scraseness,, everybody I talk to at the gas station's loves the way the warrior's look .but I mean nobody in these parts are ever seen on one Unless you lived in Sheveport La, beaumont Tx , Houston or Dallas which makes it hard to hook up with any warrior breathen!! O well It's one amoung thousand's on this site,,but in this area it's one in a million[/emoticons/emotion-2.gif] not really but I never see one! Saw one in crockett tx ,,one time a year ago ,that is the only one I ever seen period! If yamaha would have done the[/emoticons/emotion-6.gif] water heater different ,I know it would have had higher sales.. I Think about it like this though The 68 dodge charger was the most bang for the buck car's of it's time...just try to get your hands on one NOW!! these warrior's value will be measure down the road,not at this time..

 

the sales rate of the warrior will never be all that hot, it's a niche market. It's for people that want a V-twin but don't want a Harley or anything that looks or can be confused with one. There are lots of people buying metric clones and the market is good for that, the warrior isn't that and never was.

 

The Warrior is very much a niche bike and as such, sells less than mainstream bikes. Yamaha has not done a good job marketing the Warrior but then they have so much product to market. I hope the boys at Yamaha will get their act together and split off the Star brand and build an excititng dealership one block away from all of the "big box" Harley shops. Head to head, the Star line competes well with the Harley brand...and the Warrior would go head to head with the V-rod. I rode 2 V-rods prior to riding a Warrior and I just could not make myself like the way it handled or felt on the road. And yes, I meant "make myself" because even though I have owned several Yamaha/Star bikes, Harley dealerships have a way of letting me spend more money fueling my passion for my motorcycle(s). With all of that being said, I submit that any true motorcyclist who will test ride a Warrior will be hard pressed to find any cruiser that comes close to the absolute THRILL of riding this bike....my test ride was 2 days after the V-rod and I only made it a couple of blocks before my grin was too much to contain...out came the check book!

 

The market for the warrior is male in the late 30's to early 40's making 50k+ a year. While there are more than a few people making that, not everyone is looking for a performance cruiser like the warrior. There are a handful of warriors where I live, but the marketing on them has been very light. On the good side, Yamaha normally stocks parts for 10 years after a model is stopped.

 

Allsmiles,
Well I guess I am in a minority, within a minority! I am 53, make something less than 50K, but I feel in love with the Warrior at first sight. Although it was a customized version. It didn't even have the Warrior sticker on the tank. Two summers ago, I was on vacation and staying at a motel in Conneticutt, close to the Foxwood casino, and saw one in the parking lot. I was lucky enough to be looking at it when the owner came up. We started talking and I was hooked. That was in July and by September, I had my 02 from ebay. It's just a great bike! I ride hard most of the time, and to me, that's the only way to enjoy any motocycle. Maybe that's because I came up in motocross and dirt bikes, where you don't really have a throttle, IT'S a TRIGGER! So, if Yamaha does drop the Warrior, I'll be sad. Because this bike is a great platform to develop, but the bean counters never consider anything but the bottom line. I don't know if any management types ever do any research on sites like this, probably not, but if a smart one did, they might change their corporate minds.
I've always wondered if that bike owner I met at Foxwoods is here on this forum. How about it?

 

This kind of dicussion can only happen with a cult vehicle. My local dealer is also the local VMAX hangout and those guys all know their bikes inside and out. I bought mine used. Didn't know the history or anything except that the transmission recall had been done years ago, that my local dealer my local dealer did the other three recalls, and that the previous owner had been smart enough to give the dealer the receipts, which I in turn took with the bike. After a few weeks, I joined some New England and Mid Atlantic riders in CT and one of the Busa riders, DNCGrumpy, started reciting, almost word-for-word, the information on my receipts (where the first owner had bought it, when it sold, etc.). AMAZING!!!! I also found out more from him, about how it had been on the dealer floor for two years and that the dealership in MA had to install the "massive chrome" bars and have a local shop paint the bike to sell it. I also learned that this had been the first Warrior at that dealership to receive the transmission recall. (I sure hope they got it right!)

 

I have breakfast with a bunch of bikers every so often. There is quite a variety of bikes, but mostly Harley's. After breakfast they are always checking out my Warrior. It grabs more attention than the other bikes. I love the comments I get.
As I have asked before, "Why didn't Star market it properly?" The Warrior has great appeal but no one knows what it is.
Usually the first comment I get is "Nice bike". The second comment is "What is it".

 

I'm just glad I've got mine. If they decide to stop production I could'nt care less. That would just make it more unique. I'm not going to worry myself with what yamaha thinks is the way of the future. I'll never second guess myself and say "if only I had waited and got the Raider", or "I should have waited for the new v-max". F that nonsense. As far as I'm concerned I was meant to have my warrior. The way I look at it is that I was in the right place at the right time. There will always be a new and improved. There will always be, "WOW" that's a nice bike. It's the same thing with chicks. You just have to realize when you've got a good thing.[8D]

 

quote:Originally posted by Rif

I'm just glad I've got mine. If they decide to stop production I could'nt care less. That would just make it more unique. I'm not going to worry myself with what yamaha thinks is the way of the future. I'll never second guess myself and say "if only I had waited and got the Raider", or "I should have waited for the new v-max". F that nonsense. As far as I'm concerned I was meant to have my warrior. The way I look at it is that I was in the right place at the right time. There will always be a new and improved. There will always be, "WOW" that's a nice bike. It's the same thing with chicks. You just have to realize when you've got a good thing.[8D]

+1 a thousand times!

 

I really like the fact that the Warrior is so scarse. There are now three others here in town and they are all owned by the Dealer Mechanics or their friends:} My Hardley friends all say 'nice bike' but they also ask me when I'm going to buy a 'real man's ' bike!! I just wave as I pass them:}:} I love this bike.....no bias there!!

 

The few guys I know that have them or have had them are really cool, so I dont want some dick buying the same kinda bike as me, so I am cool with it

 

Local dealer had 2 new Raiders on the floor, and the Warrior looked way better! I agree, the Warrior is unique, the Raider looks like another HD clone.

 

My dealer also went the mod route,but they still just sit for quite awhile.However they have sold a few Raiders

 

quote:Originally posted by seattlesage

Remember, www.yamahasportsplaza.com gives 25% off all OEM parts and accessories from Yamaha. Can't beat that deal! (if you can let me know I'll buy there!)



Actually there is....Its called Yamaha of Hamilton and they offer 26% off AND they are a SITE SPONSOR http://rswarrior.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=60147&SearchTerms=yamahasportsplaza.com

2)http://rswarrior.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=60652&SearchTerms=yamahasportsplaza.com

Dave

 

My local dealer, Yamaha-Suzuki of Mineola has had a 07 Warrior on the show room floor for months. They want $10,500 for it but I am sure he will deal to sell it. The owner has told me that the Warriors aren't moving as well as they use to and he is selling more Suzuki's 109's.

Also one of the local Stealers, Crazy Freddy's has an 08 Raider advertised for $9,899. But I have heard all kinds of bad sh*t about them, so who knows if that price is just BS

 

Man o man this comes up a lot! I cant wait to see what happens either way. Can you picture this website in like 10 years?!! Conversations about rust and rebuilds and remember when they were new .
If this is a cult......I LOVE IT!!

 

Yamaha has a history of abandoning good (non-supersport) bikes once they are on the market. They stop development and just let them languish. No marketing to speak of. Look at the TDM850 and the V-max, both really good machines, albeit from different points of view. The current TDM sells like hotcakes in Europe, and Yammie has finally figured out that a new v-max might be a good image bike.

I love the Yamaha machines, but their marketing sense is seriously deranged. They've done absolutely nothing to differentiate themselves and their cruising (or general purpose) machines from the Harley crowd. The Star brand was a decent idea, but they could be making Harley look like a cash-cow milking, customer-exploiting bandit, who hasn't released anything new and improved for 10 years, but instead they've done a me-too with their marketing - totally disregarding the excellence of the bikes versus the competition.

A development on the Warrior would be so much more impactful (if marketed and all, yet aggressively) than the me-too raider.
They show every sign of once again turning away from the better bike and (for the short term) pushing something inferior and pedestrian.

Its a shame, but so many companies survive in spite of themselves. It would be amazing if they ever brought their marketing abilities in line with their engineering competencies.

 

quote:Originally posted by tag2501

Yamaha has a history of abandoning good (non-supersport) bikes once they are on the market. They stop development and just let them languish. No marketing to speak of. Look at the TDM850 and the V-max, both really good machines, albeit from different points of view. The current TDM sells like hotcakes in Europe, and Yammie has finally figured out that a new v-max might be a good image bike.

I love the Yamaha machines, but their marketing sense is seriously deranged. They've done absolutely nothing to differentiate themselves and their cruising (or general purpose) machines from the Harley crowd. The Star brand was a decent idea, but they could be making Harley look like a cash-cow milking, customer-exploiting bandit, who hasn't released anything new and improved for 10 years, but instead they've done a me-too with their marketing - totally disregarding the excellence of the bikes versus the competition.

A development on the Warrior would be so much more impactful (if marketed and all, yet aggressively) than the me-too raider.
They show every sign of once again turning away from the better bike and (for the short term) pushing something inferior and pedestrian.

Its a shame, but so many companies survive in spite of themselves. It would be amazing if they ever brought their marketing abilities in line with their engineering competencies.



tag2501, Yamaha is in it for the duration. It takes generations to build a brand. Yamaha dirt bikes are cool. Yamaha cruisers are not cool. Harley is cool. Harley has the pedigree due to American made, corporate change and buying the company back. You can't change what's cool with advertising. We the people change what's cool. Look around this site at who's doing that, and it includes you too.

Yamaha is going with the flow of generations buying their motorcycles at a young age and moving up. Yamaha and other Japanese brands of cruisers are perceived as copies which is why Yamaha advertising encourages customization. Yamaha has no choice but to buck the trend of development and offer "Japanese Knock-offs" of V-Twins to make money and also build brand loyalty. Yamaha has made some great motorcycles, including the V-Max and the Warrior.

If you research "Star" you'd find it's all Yamaha had in coming up with a name to brand their cruisers. The "Star" brand may fall to a better Yamaha brand name, but from my point of view, Yamaha as a company is better positioned for the race in the long haul than any other manufacturer.

 

I think there are several reasons it never really took off. First, in the cruiser class, it doesn't have the accomidation abillity (large bags, seat, and other things) as readilly avalible as any other one out there. Yes, things can be done, but not as easily or cheaply as other models/brands. Then there is that ungodly exhaust, which from a cruiser perspective will turn them away just because. I ride with a lot of great guys on the R-1 and 6's, and now that they have had a chance to take mine around the block, they all want a warrior, but you have to figure they arte into speed first (like who isn't-lol) but a warrior off the showroom floor is about 3,000 more than one of there bikes. So it goes into economics. If Yamaha did a few more advancements with the bike and checked into how they market it they would probably sell a lot more. And no offence to anyone who wants a Raider, but I think they look like crap. If you really want to get another bike, look at the MT-109. It is not avalible in the states yet, but you can get them in Canada. Now THAT's a ride! I believe it has the 113" in it, but it has been a little time since I looked at the exact specs, so don't quote me on that. I know in MT, it is hard for people to find a warrior that want one, and I know of a couple of dealers that say they can't get as many as they need, though it still isn't as large a seller as other models. It boils down to preference and what it has on it when you buy it, because most people I know don't want to mess with it once it's out the door, they just want to ride.

 

If Yamaha was paying attention to anything on the warrior, they would have lost the "water heater" exhaust can since everyone else does anyway. I have only seen one warrior on the street with the stock can on it! Yamaha is famous for one uping the competition then letting that model fade away slowly. At least give the warrior the 113 and a better seat! [/emoticons/emotion-6.gif!]