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Author Topic: Harley Discontinues 3 Models, Some Colors, and Halts Production of CVOs for 2020  (Read 5602 times)

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mark

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The new CEO has decided that they will introduce the '21s in Jan/Feb as opposed to Aug/Sep like they have in the past.   He thinks that introducing them towards the beginning of the riding season will be better than rolling them out towards the end.

So, if other manufacturers stick with the tradition of releasing new models in Aug-Sept, won’t that give Indian, BMW, Honda, etc., a jump start on the new model year?  Who in a cold weather area would buy a bike in Jan, knowing it’ll be 3-4 months before they can ride it?  I’d wait until things warmed up...it’s not like HD is going to run out of bikes.  Also, if this is a one time thing, that means the ‘21 model year will only be 8-9 months.
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FLSTFI Dave

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If indeed it comes down to running out of bikes I agree with Mark that they will move bikes from less
productive dealers.


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This would be the answer, but the MoCo would have to be involved and directing it.  The smaller dealers with poor sales and excess inventory is going to want to make money on their inventory.  The successful dealer is not going to want to pay the dealer with poor sales more for the bike than they would pay the MoCo.  Unless its just a shift of inventory with no profit for the unsuccessful dealer, it would reward the unsuccessful dealer which is not right in my mind.  It would also punish the successful dealer.
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mark

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This would be the answer, but the MoCo would have to be involved and directing it.  The smaller dealers with poor sales and excess inventory is going to want to make money on their inventory.  The successful dealer is not going to want to pay the dealer with poor sales more for the bike than they would pay the MoCo.  Unless its just a shift of inventory with no profit for the unsuccessful dealer, it would reward the unsuccessful dealer which is not right in my mind.  It would also punish the successful dealer.
Agreed.  For this to work, it would have to be orchestrated by the MoCo, with them eating the transportation cost, etc.  I’d think a dealership that’s struggling would want to lighten their inventory...no use in paying for excess bikes sitting on the showroom floor that aren’t selling.
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WildClyde

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The announcement model that worked for me was to announce the next year's models right before Sturgis, and to bring the H-D dog-and-pony show to the Rapid City Convention Center for all to see. Demos, every model in every color, reps from Engineering, reps from Manufacturing, reps from Marketing, were all present. The place was packed!

There was a rider herd mentality present that made considering purchasing the latest-next-new-thing bike exciting. It worked for me! Within a few days of reaching home, I went into my dealer and ordered a new CVO.
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BigLew55

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The announcement model that worked for me was to announce the next year's models right before Sturgis, and to bring the H-D dog-and-pony show to the Rapid City Convention Center for all to see. Demos, every model in every color, reps from Engineering, reps from Manufacturing, reps from Marketing, were all present. The place was packed!

There was a rider herd mentality present that made considering purchasing the latest-next-new-thing bike exciting. It worked for me! Within a few days of reaching home, I went into my dealer and ordered a new CVO.

I definitely miss riding the new and shiny stuff at Sturgis.  Now that they are all last year's models, I don't bother.  It would be nice to get back to that.  Maybe they'll do it at Daytona now?  That wasn't nearly as enjoyable an event as is the Black Hills Classic....
 :nixweiss:
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Threephase

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So My take away from all this Is that the new Road Glide CVO will be a really low production numbers bike making it very desirable since there will so few of them.
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FLSTFI Dave

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The announcement model that worked for me was to announce the next year's models right before Sturgis, and to bring the H-D dog-and-pony show to the Rapid City Convention Center for all to see. Demos, every model in every color, reps from Engineering, reps from Manufacturing, reps from Marketing, were all present. The place was packed!

There was a rider herd mentality present that made considering purchasing the latest-next-new-thing bike exciting. It worked for me! Within a few days of reaching home, I went into my dealer and ordered a new CVO.

My wife and I were in the first four non employees to ride the new 15 Rushmore Road glides at the Sturgis unveiling.  She went home traded her street glide and bought her first road glide as soon as the dealer got one. 
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2023 FLTRXSE Whiskey Neat
2021 RA1250S Pan America Special
2019 FLTRXSE Red Pepper / Magnetic Gray Traded
2018 FLTRXSE Gunship Gray  Traded
2017 FLHXSE  Starfire Black / Atomic Red  Traded
2015 FLTRUSE Abyss Blue / Crushed Saphire Traded
2013 FLHRSE5 Diamond Dust 117  Traded
2012 FLTRXSE White Gold Pearl / Starfire Black  Traded
2009 FLTRSE3 Silver/Titanium  Traded
2003 Fatboy, real fire paint set,

RoadTrip

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Agreed.  For this to work, it would have to be orchestrated by the MoCo, with them eating the transportation cost, etc.  I’d think a dealership that’s struggling would want to lighten their inventory...no use in paying for excess bikes sitting on the showroom floor that aren’t selling.
When dealers receive inventory, it moves from H-D’s ownership to dealers’s ownership, usually financed by the dealer’s floorplan (think interim loan). Dealers have “x” number of months (usually 4-6 months) of no payments on the floorplan loan to allow time to sell. If they hold the inventory too long, they have to start paying down the floorplan loan associated with that bike. This is usually why you see Manager’s Specials listed in the dealership ads.

Unless H-D is foreclosing on a floorplan loan, they cannot simply reallocate inventory once it has been received by a dealer. Any trades between dealers are actually sales at some agreed upon wholesale price. In these cases, the buying dealer doesn’t get credit for the ultimate sale of the bike to the consumer because the bike wasn’t direct delivered by the factory and the selling dealer also gets penalized. This is important because for the last three years, H-D has been allocating inventory based on the dealer’s prior year’s sales of direct delivered bikes. So the small or weak performing dealers are basically dying a slow death or refocusing to pre-owned sales (or New sales of other brands) for survival.
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2smoke

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Is Harley production still shut down?
Engine assembly re-started today- Monday, May, 18th.
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CVODON

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Most of the dealers, both small & large have a supplemental floorplan account with the local bank they do most business with. This allows them to have floating money available for about anything they need it for borrowed basically against the bikes sitting on the showroom floor, this is in addition to the HD Financial money that will be due at some point on unsold units. So for one dealer with large inventory to release bikes to another would have to include first any HD Financial monies owed against the paperwork on a specific bike + the local floorplan money which has been spent in most cases.
Dealer to Dealer could happen, but would not be a simple easy deal and would make receiving dealer have additional funds in these bikes compared to ones straight from HD + His HD Financial and local floorplan money would start to increase so MORE money in these units.
Just a terrible involved idea. UNLESS HD steps up and compensates the holding, or overstocked dealer a credit toward future units, This does happen in the car market, maybe it does in bikes as well.
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grc

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Unless things have changed since I was in the auto business, the moment the dealership takes possession of the new vehicle ownership passes from the manufacturer to the dealer.  At that point, the manufacturer can't just decide to move dealer A's inventory to dealer B.  Any such inventory shuffling would have to be between the dealers involved.  The manufacturer could always decide to set up a program to help pay the dealer giving up inventory, to grease the transaction so to speak, but as long as dealer A isn't out of trust on that inventory Harley can't just confiscate it and move it on their own.  And there is always a problem when a company uses Harley's system for allocating new bikes.  Dealer A is not going to want to give up future allocations based on retail sales, so that would also have to be negotiated.

Jerry
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Robmay

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If I’ve learned anything during these “unusual” times it is that any law, rule or regulation can be changed at any given time by those who deem it “necessary” at a moments notice.


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Threephase

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I wonder what poor souls will get the first 15-20 engines built after a shutdown? Quality control seems to have been lacking under normal circumstances.
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Less is more, I guess???

https://www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/harley-davidson-restructure-fewer-models-sales/


Saw that article yesterday.  Had to just shake my head when read how the company's new reliance for success would be to harken back to lower production levels and "exclusivity" to in some way tweak interest. 

I looked it up the word in the just made up American Heritage of Harley Dictionary and found this:

Exclusivity: The act of denying people motorcycles today they have already decided yesterday they do not want anymore.
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