Nigel,
I agree that some models are selling well, but overall sales are down quite significantly. I recently heard its a drop of 14% over last year.

Overheads are driven in part by manufacturers & importers demands but also a plethora of other unavoidable costs that have escalated over recent years. Even dealerships who have avoided the death grip of manufacturers expectations are struggling to survive.

Locally the big dealership problem is a company group that expanded vigorously & has now collapsed. It means there is now no dealer for Ducati, Honda, Yamaha or Kawasaki in our region, their Triumph dealership in N.Wales went under too, plus a couple of large supermarket style secondhand dealers they operated. Apparently their corporate strategy was to take out finance on all their stock which meant they were paying out interest on bikes that weren't selling.

I have both a BMW & KTM. The BMW has had one warranty claim that I anticipated being a long drawn out repair that was actually resolved with replacement parts sourced & fitted in less than an hour & half. My KTM has been faultless for 33k miles.