I didn't do my research by looking at NADA guides (which are frequently off base by quite a bit), I did my research by looking at the market, and the market put this one near the average price for other 2006es with similiar mileage. But it's also hard to get a hard judge of the market value when there were NO 2006 Mulberry Red Tribals elsewhere in the market. Its hard to get a grip on what the market is when the sample size is relatively low as compared to, say, an 06 Honda Accord.
Also, motorcycles are inherently emotional purchase, and in that vein I wasn't willing to take substitutes; there were few examples in the color and trim option I wanted, and some of those (of course) were newer ones out of my price range. So in the end, the "market" for motorcycles that interested me was down to a handful: again, difficult to make a value judgment there.
ALSO, also, I wasn't willing to wait forever. Right now, I can't afford to wait six months for the perfect deal to show up: I don't even own a car right now (yet) and I'm only here at my wife's parent's house for another week, and this was one of maybe two or three I could personally see that was on my itinerary before I get to my final destination in October.
But yeah, I still will confess I didn't do my research in every corner, as I hadn't even looked at the NADA guide. If I had that info, I might have been able to talk the dealer down a bit. But maybe not, because he said he had another buyer who had called that day...and plus, as I alluded to earlier, I didn't have another 2006 Mulberry Red Tribal with 4k miles to threaten to walk away from him over.
