It is no secret that the financial collapse of a few years had devastating effects on the motorcycle industry as a whole, and few markets have been hit worse than the Italian motorcycle market. Coming through a painful bankruptcy process, and re-emerging into a still devastated Italian economy, Moto Morini has perhaps had the worst luck of the Italian brands in dealing with this economic chaos.
Needing to sell bikes, and operating really only in its home market, Moto Morini is getting creative with putting Bologna’s other brand into the garages of motorcyclists. With necessity being the mother of all invention, Moto Morini has a clever scheme to help cash-strapped Europeans get a new ride: pay for only half of the motorbike.
Calling the program Moto Morini Rent, the format is really more similar to a lease program, where an owner puts down half the value of a motorcycle (available only on the Moto Morini Scrambler and Moto Morini Corsaro), and gets to ride the machine for 18 months. At the end of the 18-month term, the owner can pay the other 50% of the price tag, and own his/her Moto Morini outright.
If that option doesn’t sound appealing enough, the owner can opt instead to trade the machine in for a newer model from Moto Morini, and get a €1,500 euro discount on that new-bike purchase. Oh but wait, there’s more…for a the third option, the owner can simply hand the bike back to Moto Morini, and be done with the transaction.
The announcement from Moto Morini is a pretty interesting one from a finance point-of-view as it allows would-be Moto Morini owners to time-shift their payments for a new motorcycle presumably into a time period where the European economy could be doing considerably better — a real boon for motorcyclists in countries like Spain and Italy.
A creative way to spark interest in the brand and to adapt to the current economic conditions, it will be interesting to see if Moto Morini pushes more Scrambler and Corsaro machines out its door because of the Moto Morini Rent program. Success or failure, we have to give them kudos for trying.
Source: Moto Morini
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