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[DesertHOG]

Revzilla - Common Tread coverage on both Harley and Polaris. Looks like Polaris sales are growing but they may need to steal away some Harley market share to get larger than projected sales increases.

https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/tuesday-was-not-a-cheerful-day-in-the-us-motorcycle-industry?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2/02/2018%20-%20CT&utm_term=Common%20Tread%20%7C%20Combined

[windjammer]

Closing Kansas City and opening in Thiland it's a global enconomy.

[J.D.]

Loss of sales unfortunately is likely the only thing that will force HD to improve both product quality/reliability and dealer experience.  Kudos to the consumers.  Unfortunately the workers at the plant have to be so directly impacted by what in part can be traced back to the management.

[FLSTFI Dave]

Closing Kansas City and opening in Thiland it's a global enconomy.

The plant in Thailand is only for the bikes to be sold there.  The reason is, it is almost impossible to import a harley into that country due to the very hi Tariffs.  So Harley has figured out how to be able to sell there.  Build there.  This is not taking American jobs, as you can't import the bike if its built here as the Tariff makes it way to expensive.

Loss of sales unfortunately is likely the only thing that will force HD to improve both product quality/reliability and dealer experience.  Kudos to the consumers.  Unfortunately the workers at the plant have to be so directly impacted by what in part can be traced back to the management.

I full agree on needing to improve quality and reliability.  Dealer experience depends on the dealer.  There are some that are very good.  There are many that are mediocre at best.  There are many that are horrible.  They will have a hard time getting the horrible dealers to become good.

[grc]

The plant in Thailand is only for the bikes to be sold there.  The reason is, it is almost impossible to import a harley into that country due to the very hi Tariffs.  So Harley has figured out how to be able to sell there.  Build there.  This is not taking American jobs, as you can't import the bike if its built here as the Tariff makes it way to expensive.

I full agree on needing to improve quality and reliability.  Dealer experience depends on the dealer.  There are some that are very good.  There are many that are mediocre at best.  There are many that are horrible. They will have a hard time getting the horrible dealers to become good.

Actually, Harley has had the ability to dictate to and punish dealers through their favorable franchise agreements for a long time, especially compared to their counterparts in the auto business.  Unfortunately the time to fix the lousy dealership problem was when they had the dealers by the you-know-whats with limited production volumes versus high dealer and customer demand.  Instead of going that way, Harley chose to run off the Mom and Pop long time dealers and bring in the lowlife types from the used car industry (and others).  Now that dealer sales are dropping, H-D has lost a big part of their ability to dictate to dealers.  Manufacturers, even in the car business, do have the ability to heavily influence dealership behaviors IF THEY WANT TO DO SO.  But it takes commitment from corporate management and follow through on their part.  I've never seen such commitment at H-D.

JMHO - Jerry

[bigsixman]

Well said Jerry, you hit the nail right on the head in my opinion.