I have never suggested not to try other bikes. I have always suggested it. Problem is how do you try one when there is NOT a LBS that carries them near you. You can't always find what you are looking for mail order either as sometimes you need to know exactly what it is called. I try and patronage my LBS because without them it sometimes could be a real PITA. Also to order stuff mail order in other countries can be quite expensive. I had to mail order something in Germany while I was there as nobody stocked the part and it cost me 17 Euro just for shipping a $5 part. That is a rip off.
Mail order can sometimes make sense but often not. What do you do when your bike arrives damaged? You want to ship it back and forth a bunch of times until it is fixed. I have a good relationship with my LBS's and probably do 90% of my business through them and another 10% online.
When I start spending close to $1000 and up on a folder I start to think about re-sale as well. A Dahon Boardwalk is a throw away bike. It isn't worse the hassle to re-sell it but when you lay out $800+ for a Speed TR then you start to think about it. Why buy the TR this year if next year there will be an improved model that makes yours worthless? I'll just wait until the next year instead. Well wait a minute, why not wait for the next (next) year instead?
People on this forum (usually Americans) often forget that there are a lot of other countries represented there. Since I travel lot globally I think about how much trouble will it be to fix something if my bike breaks down in Siberia, Nice or Billings (Montana) for that matter.
If you start looking at the Dahon line up you can see sometimes major changes within a model year on the same model. Sometimes for the worse. Perfect example is the Dahon Speed TR '05 vs. '06. While it went from a 21 spd to a 24 speed the gear gaps were widened. Not a good thing as they weren't really close to begin with but some might say that is progress but they got rid of the amazing brakes it had before for some cheap Avids. They went from a Truvativ crank to Sugino. Problem is with constant changes you have to be careful what you are getting. It appears to be a case of where Dahon went with the absolute cheapest they could find each year rather than having some consistency. I don't fault them for that but it makes it more difficult for the buyer.
I don't mind them experimenting to some extent either but I would like to know who their are polling for some ideas or improvements. They are all over the board on where they are going. I don't see a real clear consistent vision of where they are headed. They send a lot of mixed signal.
I will stand by my comments that most Dahons are throwaways. They have terrible re-sale unless you happen to get the one peach in the lineup for that year. I will NEVER again buy an expensive Dahon. I was lucky getting out of my last one without getting killed on it. The only way I would consider buying an over $500 Dahon is if I planned on riding it into the dust and thought I liked it enough to keep it that long. Best way to buy an expensive Dahon is used. Someone else will take the big hit on depreciation and then you can snap it up. Buy the old one just after the new models are announced.
I like my Dahons and they generally represent a decent value as for purchase price and the content you get. Once you start to figure in TCO they don't look so attractive.
As for the patriot comment I don't know where that came from. I am speaking about terror in the world in general. When people misuse world just for hyperbole it really weakens their true and original meaning. Maybe I have been fortunate or unfortunate to have seen some of the atrocities that people commit on each other but to ignore its existence increases the likelihood that it will sometime visit your area. Few problems remain localized in the world indefinitely. If in the balance of my life I only have to worry about the value of a Dahon relative to other marques then I will count my existence a very fortunate one. I've seen my friends die because of terrorist attacks that I almost fell victim too. It takes on an entirely different meaning when but for the delay of a taxi ride congested I could have died too.
Anyway that is one of the reasons I prefer to use my folders rather than public transport in a lot of countries I visit. I have flexibility to avoid it or take better and less congested options if I am forced to use it.