Total Motorcycle Community Forums

BRUMBEAR wrote:To get back on topic
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... gD9EDCVPG0
this will not end good for Harley

Almost $5M of his $6.2M income for 2009 was options.

Given the size of the company, that's a pretty light compensation package.

But the company just lost a total of $ 245 million dollars in closing Buell alone.
Do you still work at H-D?
If so what is the biggest seller this spring ?
How many are you off from last year and the year before?

BRUMBEAR wrote:But the company just lost a total of $ 245 million dollars in closing Buell alone.
Do you still work at H-D?
If so what is the biggest seller this spring ?
How many are you off from last year and the year before?

Yep. Still slinging Harleys. The best seller has been Street Glides and Ultra Classics.

Tourers rule. Cruisers have been light.


We are actually doing pretty well. I've sold 4+ per month since October. Not bad considering I only work on the weekends.

We are the number one dealership in our region.

Glad your dealership is doing well they are from what I hear a very well run establishment.
I was trying to get an idea of how the bikes were moving as to how they were moving 2 seasons ago.
Here Bergan H-D seems to be doing well but bergan county NJ is probably one of the richest areas in the country if not the.
Kosco h-d I don't know I know they owned another dealership (not Harley) that closed recently and legends closed if you draw a line from NYC to Pocono mountains in Pa the three were evenly spread across the state with one more further west (tramonton) they according to a salesman I used to repo with are doing poorly but are not stand alone so they are moving some stuff.
I heard the Royal Enfield guy might be finished out in Belvidere NJ at least as an Enfield guy. We lost a Triumph dealer as well in Central Jersey. While I think Harley and Triumph are firmly entrenched H-D may be in far worse condition than actually thought because of finacial or bad lending practices. I still believe they will not fall but they are stumbling. Triumph IMHO has the ability to contract and weather the storm.

BRUMBEAR wrote:Glad your dealership is doing well they are from what I hear a very well run establishment.
I was trying to get an idea of how the bikes were moving as to how they were moving 2 seasons ago.
Here Bergan H-D seems to be doing well but bergan county NJ is probably one of the richest areas in the country if not the.
Kosco h-d I don't know I know they owned another dealership (not Harley) that closed recently and legends closed if you draw a line from NYC to Pocono mountains in Pa the three were evenly spread across the state with one more further west (tramonton) they according to a salesman I used to repo with are doing poorly but are not stand alone so they are moving some stuff.
I heard the Royal Enfield guy might be finished out in Belvidere NJ at least as an Enfield guy. We lost a Triumph dealer as well in Central Jersey. While I think Harley and Triumph are firmly entrenched H-D may be in far worse condition than actually thought because of finacial or bad lending practices. I still believe they will not fall but they are stumbling. Triumph IMHO has the ability to contract and weather the storm.

There are a ton of dealerships that are significantly down. We aren't.

We are starting to see a pretty healthy demand increase. The auctions are bringing much higher wholesale prices compared to a year ago.

We just sent a load of bikes to auction and were able, on the whole, to sell them for what we had in them.

BRUMBEAR wrote: I heard the Royal Enfield guy might be finished out in Belvidere NJ at least as an Enfield guy.

Not surprising. You can't survive just on Enfield. We lost the Bordentown, NJ Enfield dealer last spring. But my impression was the Belvidere place just did the Enfield franchise as a sideline, they are mainly a motosports parts supplier.

BRUMBEAR wrote:We lost a Triumph dealer as well in Central Jersey.

Freehold Honda-Triumph. I heard that one was not typical though - someone offered them a price for their property that was too good to refuse.

That still leaves three Triumph dealers in NJ.

Yeah I think Triumph is hear to stay as well as Harley but there is a lot of smoke and mirrors there so something is gonna give, I am only speculating here but I wonder what impact the new lead laws will have with the companies like kymco and the slew of chinese manufacters that make bikes mostly for kids.
I also wonder what the future holds in the US for URAL I like em but I don't know how good the market is for them. The same goes for Victory but they have money behind them POLARIS I think. It is just that in the new emerging market you can not expect to sell to many over $12K motorcycles and most of the HD, Victory line and I would think some Urals at least are over that price range add in the big Goldwings and star bikes and BMW the market is starting to look different.
I also look at who has the most behind them

Honda has Cars/generators and some light industrial equpment as well as Robotics
Victory has Polaris and they also have alot of products to offer
Yamaha has everything you can think of
BMW cars and motors and jet engines
Ural I have no idea?
Harley has Harley so thats why I think you gotta wonder?

Harley sells a crap load of parts, accessories, service, and merchandise.

Given mark up, the biggest single ticket items are bikes, but the combined largest profit center for any dealership is everything else combined.

The profit margin on bikes is between 10% and 15% on average. Let's say average price is $20,000 and profit margin is 15% per bike, the dealership is grossing $3,000 per bike.

The service department has 6 techs billing 30 hours a week. That's $14,400 a week not including the mark up on parts.

That's close to 5 bikes sales a week to equal the labor hours billed. Our dealership has five main profit centers: Sales, service, parts, finance & insurance, and motor clothes.

As long as there are Harleys on the road, there will be sources of income.

Definitely on the parts/service profit margin. That's true on any brand bike.
And yeah Victory has Polaris, so that's snowmobiles, ATVs, sport quads, etc backing them up.
Suzuki also has cars, but their cars are so crappy I think the bike division is keeping the car division afloat... haha
Kawasaki also makes EVERYTHING out there, and is branching out into power tools I saw recently.

Fatty that is true on a dealership but I mean overall when the bikes are not doing great the clothes well maybe but harley has nothing else, That makes them vulnerable as a corporation. I still think the name will keep em afloat but they may end up in another amf situation they may have no choice if things don't turn around. And me being a Buell guy well I can't say I'd hate it but overall I think H-D will survive and well there's always the PT barum theory just kidden don't go gettin all riled up again fellas.