What VW means for Ducati

[Triple J]

hope this means, that audi dealers will now sell bikes and do service much like BMW does. There is always a shortage of dealers... and 

Where does this happen? Around here, the BMW moto and car dealers are completely separate.

[DucsLikeBread]

Where does this happen? Around here, the BMW moto and car dealers are completely separate.

In Los Angeles

[hbliam]

In Los Angeles

Which one? The only combo dealership I ever saw was Long Beach but they have since moved the motos to a separate dealership across the street.

[CairnsDuc]

Quite a large number of BMW Dealers here in Australia are both Car and Bike Dealers. talking to a former BMW bike dealer friend about 3 years ago, he said BMW had set the Service and Dealership standard so high he could not afford to reach them when it came time to redo his dealer contract, Just a small part of the Demands they put to him were:

* Larger Part Inventory holding (Nearly triple what he normally carried)
* Double his in stock Bike holding, he always had 4 or 5 on Display/Demo and 7 or 8 Crated. that had to change to 7 or 8 on Display 15 to 20 Crated.
* Showroom Size had to Double (at least)
* Service area had to Triple! with Dedicated Service Waiting room.
* had to Carry 10's of thousands worth of Accessories for every bike he had on Display. (So pretty much every Accessory in the Book for that particular model if he had that model in stock)
* on and on it went.

He gave up the Dealership, The local BMW Car dealer took it on, the Car Dealer now only carries 2 or 3 bikes on display and
also has a smaller parts inventory and hold virtually no Accessory stock.

As he said, he saw the writing on the wall, they simply wanted to bring it all in house.

[jvax]

BMW dealerships are separate in Japan.  It's kind of unthinkable to see a car/bike combo dealership here, even with Honda.

[nightster.lp]

Seems to me that they could benefit from opening up a few more Dealerships. I'm lucky in that I only live 40 miles from my local ship. However, according to ducati.com, the second closest shop to me is 520 miles away. Its easy to lust after something you can go look at every Saturday. Lusting leads to buying. But if you gotta drive 3 hours to drool over something? Screw it.  If I just bought Ducati, first thing I would do is put a shop down the street from "nightster.lp"  

[HotIce]

REALLY???
wow..  talk about a huge PR loss for Marelli/Weber... (owned by FIAT no less)

Same for the Diavel.

[herm]

my take away....

"If VW started selling Golfs that went 175mph, but cost $75,000, got 8mpg, required $5,000 services every 4,000 miles and blew up after 20,000 miles, VW would be in a lot of trouble, right?"

or at least the most interesting part of the article..

[ducatiz]

Same for the Diavel.

I don't see it that way.

AMG's participation with Ducati was just marketing.

Marelli gages and EFI have been on Ducatis since the 851, well before that really since Weber is owned by Marelli and they got Ducati to put their DCNF carb on the Paso 750 and Sport in 1987.

Prior to that, Ducatis had been using everything from Veglia to Smith to Nippodenso gages.  Since the rollout of the EFI bikes, all of them have had Marelli gages until recently.

[Dirty Duc]

my take away....

"If VW started selling Golfs that went 175mph, but cost $75,000, got 8mpg, required $5,000 services every 4,000 miles and blew up after 20,000 miles, VW would be in a lot of trouble, right?"

or at least the most interesting part of the article..

Doesn't that kind of describe a watercooled 911?

[HotIce]

I don't see it that way.
AMG's participation with Ducati was just marketing.
Marelli gages and EFI have been on Ducatis since the 851, well before that really since Weber is owned by Marelli and they got Ducati to put their DCNF carb on the Paso 750 and Sport in 1987.
Prior to that, Ducatis had been using everything from Veglia to Smith to Nippodenso gages.  Since the rollout of the EFI bikes, all of them have had Marelli gages until recently.

What I was saying, is that the Diavel uses a Mitsubishi ECU too.

[ducatiz]

What I was saying, is that the Diavel uses a Mitsubishi ECU too.

AHA

thanks

interesting that they have jumped to Mitsubishi then.  I thought the Siemens EFI system would be the preferred one..

[Curmudgeon]

interesting that they have jumped to Mitsubishi then.  I thought the Siemens EFI system would be the preferred one..

More than likely, it was the easiest path for all the other functions besides EFi that the "box" has to manage now. Oddly, Siemens DOES handle ABS and DTC on the EVO though. Makes you wonder whether these ECUs are just for Ducati or are found in other applications. For 10+ years in cars ABS has been connected to ignition advance and fly-by-wire throttle.

[Curmudgeon]

After weeks of rumor, Bloomberg and Reuters are both independently reporting that VW has agreed to purchase Ducati for something in the neighborhood of $1.12 billion. But why does a gigantic auto conglomerate want a tiny bike manufacturer? What will VW do with Ducati? And, what does the deal mean for that most evocative of bike brands? Let’s examine the background, business and speak to experts that may be able to share some insight....

Read that yesterday. Next time how about just posting the link? 

[ducatiz]

More than likely, it was the easiest path for all the other functions besides EFi that the "box" has to manage now. Oddly, Siemens DOES handle ABS and DTC on the EVO though. Makes you wonder whether these ECUs are just for Ducati or are found in other applications. For 10+ years in cars ABS has been connected to ignition advance and fly-by-wire throttle.

I am 100% certain they are not solely for Ducati, rather, they are usually designed in a componetized fashion with each feature a separate IC on the board.  They design the board for general purpose use, program it for the engine's specifics and then add additional functions for things like ABS.

Check out the Ignitech products, they have proven it can be done for the fueling for EFI and keep it fully programmable.  I got a couple of the IgniJET units for my group purchase and I am pretty impressed with the featureset in the device.  It really would not be much extra to add functionality for the ABS -- just a couple of sensor inputs for wheel speed comparison and then direct taps into the fuel/advance/throttle wire.