jimbo77
23rd August 2003, 12:05 AM
To all who are interested, as I posted earlier, I vacationed in the central New York State area, only 11 miles from Oneida Suzuki. I grew up around there, and visited that store many times in my youth. Well, I'd like to report that the place has changed little in the 20 years since I had last been there.
You have to picture this. Oneida is a small town in Central NY, near Syracuse. There population may be 10,000. 10% of that is from the local Oneida native american indian tribe. ( I won't go off on my diatribe as to how this tribe is negatively impacting this area ). Oneida Suzuki is a small shop, catering to a rural economy that isn't strong, and to survive, they offer a wide range of products, from motorcycles, to four wheelers, to chain saws !!! What they offer most is down home friendliness, and a desire to treat their customers well. I was there to buy nothing, but had good conversations with the people there. I took a quick tour of their small facility. They had a decent showroom, with bikes and gear, and accessories, and a small shop area in back, which was very clean. The majority of their sales was oriented toward off road, such as dirt bikes and four wheelers. ( I affectionately refer to this area as "Redneck New York"; I can say that as I grew up in that area). Its not hard to understand how they offer such good pricing, as they've been in that area for decades, and their overhead is low. Combined with the local economy, the pricing makes sense. As for the quality of their mechanical service, I can not say other than what my youngest brother stated since he purchased his RM250 from them (also at a great price). He had issues not uncommon to those we've all read about and in fact stated regarding our own dealers. I got the impression this place actually took the time to get to know the customers. (I would venture to guess many dealers are like this, and it takes some effort on the part of the customer to get to know the dealer also.)
My only regret is on my trip to Oneida that day, I left my camera at home by mistake. I would have grabbed a couple shots for you all to see. I was too preoccupied thinking of the route I would take to get to them, seeing the coutryside, the rolling hills, the curvy roads. All of which I don't get in Florida. To end up the report, I will do as much internet business with Oneida Suzuki as I'm able, for a few reasons. They offer good pricing, they seem to be good people, and I know their local economy can use the extra bucks.
There you have it...
You have to picture this. Oneida is a small town in Central NY, near Syracuse. There population may be 10,000. 10% of that is from the local Oneida native american indian tribe. ( I won't go off on my diatribe as to how this tribe is negatively impacting this area ). Oneida Suzuki is a small shop, catering to a rural economy that isn't strong, and to survive, they offer a wide range of products, from motorcycles, to four wheelers, to chain saws !!! What they offer most is down home friendliness, and a desire to treat their customers well. I was there to buy nothing, but had good conversations with the people there. I took a quick tour of their small facility. They had a decent showroom, with bikes and gear, and accessories, and a small shop area in back, which was very clean. The majority of their sales was oriented toward off road, such as dirt bikes and four wheelers. ( I affectionately refer to this area as "Redneck New York"; I can say that as I grew up in that area). Its not hard to understand how they offer such good pricing, as they've been in that area for decades, and their overhead is low. Combined with the local economy, the pricing makes sense. As for the quality of their mechanical service, I can not say other than what my youngest brother stated since he purchased his RM250 from them (also at a great price). He had issues not uncommon to those we've all read about and in fact stated regarding our own dealers. I got the impression this place actually took the time to get to know the customers. (I would venture to guess many dealers are like this, and it takes some effort on the part of the customer to get to know the dealer also.)
My only regret is on my trip to Oneida that day, I left my camera at home by mistake. I would have grabbed a couple shots for you all to see. I was too preoccupied thinking of the route I would take to get to them, seeing the coutryside, the rolling hills, the curvy roads. All of which I don't get in Florida. To end up the report, I will do as much internet business with Oneida Suzuki as I'm able, for a few reasons. They offer good pricing, they seem to be good people, and I know their local economy can use the extra bucks.
There you have it...