Used Harleys Reportedly Selling Better than New Ones
Granted, it isn’t such a bad thing that young people are buying used. After all, they’re still buying Harleys.
Harley-Davidson sales have been on the decline for quite some time now. And for the most part, millennials are bearing the brunt of the blame. Most “experts” figure that young folks just don’t have any interest in traditional cruisers. Or that they don’t have the money. But there’s one additional factor that’s hurting new bike sales. And you can blame Baby Boomers for it.
That factor is the glut of used bikes on the market today. And that large inventory has come from the clutches of aging Baby Boomers who are offloading their motorcycles. As we all learned in Economics class, more inventory equals lower prices. And buying a cheap, used Harley is rather enticing for young folks who don’t have a ton of cash to spend.
Granted, it isn’t such a bad thing that young people are buying used. After all, they’re still buying Harleys. It just isn’t helping the bottom line.
“I guess they [Harley] can take comfort in the fact that people are still interested in the brand,” Longbow Research analyst David MacGregor tells Reuters. “But certainly [used Harley bikes] don’t do anything for the company and it sure doesn’t do anything for the shareholders.”
Reportedly, sales of used Harley-Davidson motorcycles are currently double that of new ones. And experts expect it to take most new riders a full five years before they decide to trade their used bikes in for new ones. Obviously, that isn’t ideal for Harley-Davidson. But at least they can take comfort that previous reports of a complete generational distaste for their product were bogus. And it means that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, after all.
