So What's the deal ?

[xsyamahadg]

Somebody explain to me: Why when shopping for a bike, the metric bike dealers are all discounting their bikes anywhere from $300.00 to $500.00 off of suggested retail price lists. But when I went to Harley dealers they were adding anywhere from $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 to their suggested retail list prices. Some would say that Harley under produces bikes in order to hold the prices up, but when I pick up the local Cycle Trader Mag, I find over a hundred pages of bikes for sale, and 85 % of those are Harleys, and not just used bikes, the new bikes are listed too. So there doesn't appear to be a shortage of Harleys, it looks to be the opposite, there is a glut of Harleys on the market. "Splain to me Lucy" what gives ?

[roscowgo]

Lots of people are entirely too happy to bring their own pumice laden lube when they buy something.

Especially if that something happens to be a particularly well-hyped name brand. Harley, Lexus,hummer... Or if they feel that it makes them look good, or tougher, or whatever they've decided it does for em.

I'm in no way sayin all you harley riders are like that.....not at all. I'm saying your chosen bike, due to its history and media attracts its fair share of those folks. As do RR bikes. All the gixxersquids ....first time riders on r1's etc..


In short, there's a sucker born every minute.

[storysunfolding]

If you had a dealer and you could sell them like hotcakes at those prices wouldn't you? I find it wierd that every bike in a harley dealer is often sold. If it's sold what's it still doing there? Does harley require that it stays on the floor so long just so they have bikes to show?

[Loonette]

I don't know about the Harley dealers because I don't care enough to wonder. However, when we bought our car, it was difficult to find the exact model we wanted in the color we wanted. We had to run around to three different dealerships (not easy in the Chicago area). We finally found one being delivered to a suburban dealership, but when it arrived, they drop-drove it off the truck. Oh, we could still have it, but would have to wait for repairs!! No thanks. So the search was back on.

We eventually found just what we wanted, but didn't have to pay anything extra for its scarcity. We did drive around a lot in our search, which isn't cheap, but that was us being picky.

I guess if you want something bad enough, you have to decide if it's worth the trouble involved. Is it ethical to jack up the prices? No. Is it legal? Yes.

Hope you find just the right bike.

Cheers,
Loonette

[Gummiente]

Some would say that Harley under produces bikes in order to hold the prices up, but when I pick up the local Cycle Trader Mag, I find over a hundred pages of bikes for sale, and 85 % of those are Harleys, and not just used bikes, the new bikes are listed too.

With a sales forecast of about 400,000 units for this year it's hard to believe that Harley is "underproducing", but that's the reality of it. Demand is high and the market shows no sign of cooling down, so that means the unscrupulous dealers will be adding as much as they can get away with to the MSRP. Metric dealers, however, usually have stock still on the floor when the new models arrive and have to cut the prices on last year's units just to get them out the door.

No, it isn't fair, but that's the way it is. However in this age of the internet it isn't too hard to locate a dealer who has the bike you want for the price you want and you can skip the local dealer altogether.

In Canada, Harleys are imported by the Trev Deeley Corp and all dealers are strongly "encouraged" to stick with the MSRP, a policy that was set a few years ago. I have yet to hear of a dealer here that charges in excess of the set amount since that policy came into effect.

[xsyamahadg]

So, here is some more of the story, I tried to buy a pearl white 883 Sportster custom, and the dealer told me he needed a $500.00 deposit and there would be a 3 to 4 month wait, and if when it came in, it was not pearl white, I would have the choice to take it or leave it. He'd keep my $ 500.00 for the 3-4 month period. So, I said poop on that and went to the Yamaha dealer to look at 1100cc V-Star, turns out none of them were available either. Now I'm waiting to see how Yamaha's new 1304cc liquid cooled, belt drive cruiser stands up to critics. As it turns out, Harley may have done me a favor by making it so difficult to buy.

[Nalian]

So, here is some more of the story, I tried to buy a pearl white 883 Sportster custom, and the dealer told me he needed a $500.00 deposit and there would be a 3 to 4 month wait, and if when it came in, it was not pearl white, I would have the choice to take it or leave it. He'd keep my $ 500.00 for the 3-4 month period. So, I said poop on that and went to the Yamaha dealer to look at 1100cc V-Star, turns out none of them were available either. Now I'm waiting to see how Yamaha's new 1304cc liquid cooled, belt drive cruiser stands up to critics. As it turns out, Harley may have done me a favor by making it so difficult to buy.

That sounds like a really shitty dealer - I'd have walked away too! Do you only have one dealer in your area? If so that's probably why he's that way. If you had your heart set on that bike I'd have probably complained to corporate..I doubt they like hearing that kind of crap.

[flynrider]

The problem is only that there are enough people out there who are happy to pay list plus $1,000, put down a deposit for 3-4 months AND take the bike even if it's not the color they wanted.

As long as your dealer keeps seeing folks like that walk through the door, he has no incentive to be more reasonable with his terms.

[Bachstrad37]

Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price is just that....Suggested

Harley cannot for certain know the exact trend at any given moment, so they can only suggest on a yearly basis what that price is.

Like the housing market prices fluctuate based on a lot of variables. Supply and demand being the biggest factor in this case, dealers can price at will. Is it abuse? I don't think so. The bottom line for any successful businessman is to attain the most profit while retaining current and future sales.

Harley is now producing more bikes than ever before. The demand is absolutely amazing. I've had a chance to study their business practice recently and it looks a lot like Toyota's playbook. At the foundation of their success? Brand loyalty through legendary company lifespan and unspelled intangibles. Toyota is a bit different, but it creates the same loyalty base. Theirs is based on reliability and refinement thru a process they call "Kaizen" based on an American guy named Edward Deming. Do a google search on him and you'll get some hits on what he thought up.

In any case, you're just seeing a successful business model. This whole thing creates competition. I rather prefer competition than not given an option to buy a competing product.

[TechTMW]

Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price is just that....Suggested

Harley cannot for certain know the exact trend at any given moment, so they can only suggest on a yearly basis what that price is.

Like the housing market prices fluctuate based on a lot of variables. Supply and demand being the biggest factor in this case, dealers can price at will. Is it abuse? I don't think so. The bottom line for any successful businessman is to attain the most profit while retaining current and future sales.

Harley is now producing more bikes than ever before. The demand is absolutely amazing. I've had a chance to study their business practice recently and it looks a lot like Toyota's playbook. At the foundation of their success? Brand loyalty through legendary company lifespan and unspelled intangibles. Toyota is a bit different, but it creates the same loyalty base. Theirs is based on reliability and refinement thru a process they call "Kaizen" based on an American guy named Edward Deming. Do a google search on him and you'll get some hits on what he thought up.

In any case, you're just seeing a successful business model. This whole thing creates competition. I rather prefer competition than not given an option to buy a competing product.

You're more like Harold, aren't you ... ??