Buying a motorcycle from dealership?

So i plan on buying a Honda Grom this summer and i'm unsure of which way to go.
Should i save up and pay in cash or should i get a loan and pay it off slowly?
What are the pros and cons of both?

Cash is far cheaper than financing.
Financing helps building Credit.
Save and pay cash later, or finance it and ride it today.

Just remember, whenever you take loans, you are spending a lot more for something.

So for easy numbers, if you buy a $5,000 machine now? It costs $5,000. If you take a loan for $5,000 at 8% interest (depends on the day and the area on what this value is), over 5 years you will be spending $6,082.92. So for the exact same piece of machinery, you spent $1,082.92 more. However, you did it spending $101.38 per month for 60 months.

So either $5000 now, or $101.38 per month for the next 5 years costing you $1082 more money.

Logically speaking, financing or taking loans is a waste of money. However, most people don't carry huge sums of cash in their accounts, so it is easier to budget and finance than to sit on a lump sum. Easier to monitor the debits and credits on a monthly basis.

Me personally? The only loan or debt that I have is the mortgage on my house. The only time I took a loan was from the bank on my truck. However, I put $20,000 down (on a $27,000 truck) and had the bank sport up the $7,000, so the interest rate was tiny because they knew they were going to get it as they had the title and $20,000 worth of equity to hold against me if they wanted.

Getting anything with almost nothing in, the banks are going to gouge you. So if you buy a bike and only shoot the bare minimum? Your interest rate will most likely be 10%+ because you are a high risk client. Even with rock solid credit, if you are requesting 80%+ of the value up front, they are going to hose you.

Just a word of caution. If you must finance or loan, always do it from the bank, never the dealer (so get the price from the dealer, and say you need to think it over, talk to your wife, whatever. Now go to the bank and request that amount of money. They check your credit, blah blah, and cut you a check. When you buy the bike with that check, the title gets sent to the bank until you pay off the loan). Also when you do, try and put as large of a down payment as you can afford so they don't bend you over on the interest rates. If you can't afford to put a large payment down? You are borderline living outside of your means, and are even more risky in your budget.

Don't listen to Mr. Pontifical Dan H. For some reason he thinks if you don't pay cash you can't afford something. If you don't have the cash on hand or feel like waiting and IF you have good credit and can afford the monthly payments, go for it. Life it too short not to have some fun and the Grom is cheap so all the better. However, if you really can't afford it, save up and get one next summer.

I finance the CBR250R for 24 months with a 16.99% APR with a 1,300 down payment (Total cost $5900 and payed of in 8 months) and the cons is full coverage insurance (if you get the Grom I sure it's less than $800 a year) and the second con is the interest but you get the bike early so it's worth it.

If you pay in full you don't worry about full coverage insurance and you can try to low ball the dealer which maybe. Only con is you need to save the money to own it.

Motorcycles are toys. Toys are not needed nor necessary and shouldn't be a burden on your finances. If you can't afford to pay cash, you don't need it.

My opinion. For what it's worth.

Want to help your credit rating? Pay a good sized down-payment and finance the rest.

Don't care? Save up and buy it.