Exactly what I'm saying, hogasm. But why won't people get sensible instead of getting ass-raped, and just stop buying these bikes till it hurts the MoCo? That's the real question. It doesn't do any "real" HD owner any favours - we end up being all classed as spoiled rich folks with a whole lot more money than sense, and basically get laughed at by folks in the real world. 
Bikes bought at upwards of US$50000 (A CUSE in India costs around - wait for this - US$80,000!!!) don't make us look like cool dudes, or lucky, or envied; they simply make us look as if we are fools, stupid to pay the price. I don't care that in many countries - like the examples I gave yesterday of Switzerland, Austria, and Scandinavia - a big chunk is import duty; if the actual price of the bike was closer to reality, the duty would be a whole lot lower.
Nothing to do with having the money to pay for one, everything to do with having the wisdom not to.
Jim
Good points! I think that the majority of new Harley buyers probably ARE "rich" (relatively speaking)... either that or they're in hock up to their eyebrows on their new Hogs! I would never pay outrageous import taxes to buy a new Harley in one of the countries you mentioned. There's a limit to how much these expensive toys are really worth... at least to me. Apparently my tolerance is pretty high though... judging from the amount of money that has left my wallet and gone to dealers and the MoCo in the last month for various P&A items since I acquired this bike!
Many Harley owners these days probably do not know a piston from a petcock. They HAVE to take their bikes in to a dealer for anything - because they don't know how to work on it themselves. These are just machines after all... but how many people work on their 4-wheeled vehicles these days? I don't even do that anymore - because I frankly don't
want to spend my time working on them.
With the Harley, it's different, for me at least. I will likely do most or all of my maintenance myself... because I can, and I enjoy working on my bike immensely. I have the H-D Service manual, the 2012 CVO SG supplement, and the parts catalog is on its way. But I think that
most new Harley buyers (as in their first Harley... maybe even their first
motorcycle) will highly likely be taking it to the dealer to have
all of their maintenance done. I suspect that dealers - as well as the MoCo - make a
lot more profit on service, P&A, and Motorclothes than they do on selling the bikes anyway... and the MoCo makes tons of additional money licensing the H-D logo, too.
But you are right... if the price gets too high, then people WILL stop buying. Judging from the way the 2012 CVOs seem to be flying out the door though, that price point does not seem to have been reached yet. It will be interesting to see how many bikes the MoCo sells in the current quarter on their next earnings call... if the profitability and/or revenue numbers are down, then I would expect the bike prices to follow... but that might take awhile.
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Topic: HD Dealerships That Have Closed or Are Closing (Read 170858 times)