“Are there any buy here pay here motorcycle dealerships in the United States?”

I received this admittedly intriguing question from a reader yesterday. And to be perfectly honest, I’d never really thought about it. I’m not really a motorcycle sort of guy, so it never occurred to me that my readers might be looking for motorcycles they can buy on a “buy here, pay here basis.”

On the surface, it would make sense that there would be buy here pay here motorcycle dealerships. I mean, you can buy everything from cars to plasma televisions on a “buy here, pay here” basis. So why not motorcycles?

What’s a Buy Here Pay Here Motorcycle Dealership?

If your credit is bad, you can usually go to a standard dealership to buy a vehicle. Most dealerships work with several banks and lenders, some of which offer special financing for “credit challenged” consumers. But if your credit really stinks, you may end up at a “buy here, pay here” dealership. These dealerships handle the financing themselves, instead of using third party lenders.

They set their own interest rates, so you can plan to pay more for financing than through a third party lender. Also, these dealerships tend to adopt a “take no shit” approach when it comes to making your payments. I’ve been told that some of these guys will take your vehicle if you’re a week late. They have a major financial stake in whether you pay on time, so they can’t afford to let you screw around.

So Are There Any Buy Here Pay Here Motorcycle Dealerships?

If so, not very many. A quick Google search yielded thousands of results, but the vast majority turned out to be just online lenders (or affiliate marketers promoting these lenders), and the pages just used the term “buy here pay here motorcycle ” to get traffic. In fact, many of them specifically state that they do not offer loans for motorcycles.

I live in a medium-sized city (about 2 million people in the metro area), so I thought there might be at least one buy here pay here motorcycle dealership in the city. I called every motorcycle dealership and “buy here pay here” dealership in the city, and came up empty-handed. “Buy here, pay here” dealerships didn’t stock motorcycles, and motorcycle dealerships didn’t offer “buy here, pay here” financing.

Further searching finally turned up Team Lake Road Auto Sales in Conneaut Lake, PA, which offers “buy here, pay here” financing and has motorcycles in its inventory. But the website states that “Buy here, pay here” financing is only available on “some” vehicles. I’d bet a cup of coffee that these vehicles don’t include the motorcycles.

Admittedly, my research was neither exhaustive nor terribly well organized. But if there is such a thing as a buy here pay here motorcycle dealership, I’ll be damned if I can find it.

To my reader (who asked me not to use his name… and I don’t blame him, given my tendency toward shenanigans), and anyone else looking for a buy here pay here motorcycle dealership… I’m sorry. My search is going in the “dead end” file for now.

If anyone knows of such a dealership, please comment here or send me a message on the Contact page.

Image attribution: Custom Motorcycles