It was such a beautiful day, the wife and I just decided to go check out the '14 RTs. We drove 70 miles to our "local" Spyder dealer. On the way we stopped in a hole-in-the-wall tenderloin joint for lunch.
Both of us took a ride with the sales manager(I am not cleared to pilot a trike post hand surgery). Why she was out, I went and talked to the service manager and got information on the Can-Am techs. I was impressed with her candor. She said:
1. You really can't compare a GL1800 trike and an RT because they are two different animals.
2. The service on a RT is more expensive overall bacause BRP doesn't make things easy. All services require removing tupperware which adds to the lbor cost. As an example she said the labor cost for an oild change on an RT is 2.5X that of a GL1800. An air filter change is another story where the GW is more expensive than the RT. I came away thinking that maintenance cost could be a near wash.
After we got done being passengers, what came out of my wife's mouth really floored me. She says "with the SE6 tranny, if something happened to you, I could drive the trike." To be honest, I had never considered that as a "safety factor" before she said it. We both like the idea of going totally wireless.
I was amazed that this dealer did not order any base RTs for inventory. Just RTSs and LTDs. He also commented that if I want GPS, I should just get a LTD. Got to admit, I'm not sure about that. However, I'm not super mechanical, so maybe he has a point. I just wish BRP would upgrade to the latest ZUMO offering.
We had a very pleasant experience and everybody was friendly and more than willing to talk with us, even though we have one of the other trikes. Got some homework to do. I know that there are a few riders who have made the jump from GW to RT, and from RT to GW. For those that went from the Spyder to the GL1800, were you moving away from the V-Twin motor?
Mike
Both of us took a ride with the sales manager(I am not cleared to pilot a trike post hand surgery). Why she was out, I went and talked to the service manager and got information on the Can-Am techs. I was impressed with her candor. She said:
1. You really can't compare a GL1800 trike and an RT because they are two different animals.
2. The service on a RT is more expensive overall bacause BRP doesn't make things easy. All services require removing tupperware which adds to the lbor cost. As an example she said the labor cost for an oild change on an RT is 2.5X that of a GL1800. An air filter change is another story where the GW is more expensive than the RT. I came away thinking that maintenance cost could be a near wash.
After we got done being passengers, what came out of my wife's mouth really floored me. She says "with the SE6 tranny, if something happened to you, I could drive the trike." To be honest, I had never considered that as a "safety factor" before she said it. We both like the idea of going totally wireless.
I was amazed that this dealer did not order any base RTs for inventory. Just RTSs and LTDs. He also commented that if I want GPS, I should just get a LTD. Got to admit, I'm not sure about that. However, I'm not super mechanical, so maybe he has a point. I just wish BRP would upgrade to the latest ZUMO offering.
We had a very pleasant experience and everybody was friendly and more than willing to talk with us, even though we have one of the other trikes. Got some homework to do. I know that there are a few riders who have made the jump from GW to RT, and from RT to GW. For those that went from the Spyder to the GL1800, were you moving away from the V-Twin motor?
Mike
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hyea:
... at a Bike shop! :thumbup:
