You can compare Harley past sales to the current sales to get a better idea of what is going on. As an example, for Q1 2006 (Jan-Mar) revenue was$1.29 billion compared with $1.24 billion in the year before (2005). Compare that to Q1 2008 (ending March 30, 2008) with reported revenue of $1.31 billion, an increase of 10.8%, compared to $1.18 billion in the same period of 2007.

Long and short of it ... you can clearly see that 2008 was not a bad year for the MOCO ... though all of that is clearly not from motorcycle sales. Revenue for motorcycles for Q1 2008 was just over $1.02 billion and the rest was clothing, parts, etc.

Revenue for HD for the quarter just ended (Q2) was $1.57 billion, a decrease of 2.9%, compared to $1.62 billion in the same period of 2007.

More importantly, HD expects to ship between 74,000 and 78,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles during the third quarter of 2008. For the full year of 2008, Harley-Davidson still plans to ship between 303,500 units and 307,500 units (source: Automotive Business Review).

Interestingly, HD shipped almost 81,000 new bikes to dealers in Q2, which was an increase over planned shipments for the quarter. You and I both know the fellows at HD aren't shipping those extra bikes just because they got nothing better to do.

Long and short of it ... HD (like everyone else) does expect flat-sales for the next 2 quarters (at least) but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are cutting production dramatically. Remember, quarters 3 and 4 of each year are traditionally slower for motorcycle sales, and if you look at sales for the past 10 years you'll see drops for the 3rd and 4th quarter averaging 15% ... so it's not that shocking that they expect 15% to 18% for the next 2 quarters.

In fact the biggest issue right now for HD (just like Ford, GM, and some banks) is credit ... not production. Eaglemark Bank (the finance side of Harley) has already offered 2 "economic stimulus" packages this year, and they are expected to offer another by mid-quarter.

 

Hd needs to very careful about reducing production, some other bike company might set up to the plate and increase theres. People need to realize that HD has been boning people for years with selling there bike mrsp + for years. We need to be better consumers. All is takes is for sales to continue going down and they will change there tune. You can't keep stores open on shirt sales alone.

 

Seems like several Bike companies have tried that....I think you can go to most Japanese dealers and find brand New bikes that are several years old. I wonder that that does to their bottom line and resale prices?

If people are willing to pay MSRP for an HD, good for HD. If people won't, then Harley will have to change their game plan....either fewer bikes or lower prices. Lower prices will hurt resale prices, thus hurting HD's "image". Guess which one the will/have chosen?

Honda (cars) asked and got over retail for years...I always liked Honda cars but I stopped buying them when that started. I'm 60 and one of the old timers everyone talks about and didn't buy an HD for many, many years because I refused to pay over MSRP & wait for a year. Now I'm running out of time, and besides, I've been riding my Son's 08 RKC while he has been in Iraq, Love it more than any of the other bikes I've owned, so screw it. He offered to order me an 09 while he's over there. So, I'm getting my 09 HD and for 1800 under MSRP. Now, I just have to live long enough to enjoy it!

cheers, geeded

 

I think he was talking about before that era 1980-1990s Back in the 50s 60s and 70s it was differant.

 

Yep that was the time period he is referrring to ..

Go back pre 1984 and look at the production numbers .. A great dealer was lucky to get 100 bikes in a model year .. They were hard to get , and you paid for them ..

Harleys were always hard to get and cost more than the others ..

I buy a Harley for two reasons , one is it's primarly American manufacture , and two its a Harley ..

Some moan because they cost so much more than Brand X , well , two facts here :

1) Instead of complaining go buy the Brand X

2) Like it or not , not everyone can afford a Harley

End of Rant / semi hijack