Comments on: Harley Davidson Reports Falling Sales

By: Waiting

Waiting — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:36:45 +0000

With sales falling and the dealers STILL selling (or trying to) over msrp it ins’t too hard to see why new Harleys are piling up on the sales floor.

When Harley gets a grip on todays economy changes and starts offering realistic deals like msrp prices and 0% financing just like the auto makers do to sell cars I WILL BE ON THEIR DOORSTEP BUYING MY NEW BIKE!!!

Until then I don’t need one that bad….

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 18:02:17 +0000

I worked at Harley 2 years ago, and I can say that Harley is probably tripping over itself “over-reacting” to this. They were having quarter after quarter of record profits, when i was there, but they were still a heartbeat away from worring to death about breaking that trend.

I work for another motorcycle company (Wichita) now and we have been keenly looking for when this mortgage thing to stop. Our custom bikes and choppers are mostly financed by “mortgage lines of credit” and this has really restricted our cusomers. However, unlike Harley, we don’t have a finance wing.

By: Earl

Earl — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:57:47 +0000

Every body that’s gonna get a HD has already done so. Very few people under 40 will lay out $15-20K on a monument to an era past they neither know nor care for. These days, V-twin means Ducati, cruiser means as much metric as 96 and HD better realise that selling factory customs with a cheap veneer of custom gloss will only go so far.

Whilst I don’t blame HD for not wanting to be associated with the likes of the odious Sonny Barger, Hell’s Angels have been the most effective promotion for HD, has given HD a cachet they really don’t deserve. Every other major motorcycle manufaturer in the world pace themselves with cutting edge products. HD rely on a retro appeal which is gonna bite ‘em on the arse one day.

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:27:12 +0000

It’s not just Harley.

It is the overall economy…we are in a ‘Depression’ really, but nobody’s talking about depressions anymore…not politically correct.

Many of my old ‘hippie’ friends have bought and sold Harleys in the last 10 years. Some traded up. Many quit riding after seeing one of their friends get killed by a car.

Of the few old guys I know who still own Harleys it seems they bought the one they
always wanted and will keep them. No more trading they say.

Anybody who is in the stock market should realize their risk now, I mean the ‘boom real estate
market’ and the ‘use your house equity as an ATM market’, is over so the old Yuppie
cash-to-burn segment is drying up.

Let’s face it, back in the day, Harley’s market was mainly ‘the Joe 12 pack, double-wide crowd’ and they are all hurtin’ now. Food, rent or new motorcycle??

By: PigIron

PigIron — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:34:22 +0000

I don’t know what sort of Kool-aid some of you have been drinking but Harley’s stock price is down over 35% from it’s high last year and is in fact at the same level it was six years ago.