It would be a serious disappointment, i'd keep what i have. Scary thing is by the time Harley went that way Victory would probably already be there. Looks like it would add new meaning to Harley's holding their value, old bike prices would skyrocket. I'd have to fix up what i have or get an older (US) made one to fix back up (with overseas parts no doubt). My only hope is that it doesn't happen till i'm long gone.

 

Actually if HD went that way Victory would be more likely to get as much American as possible. Because then they could say "The ONLY American motorcycle company".

 

I personally at this point am not impressed much by Victory. That being said, If Harley switched to Overseas assembly, I would be done with them and buy Victory. Harley also has a huge appeal here in America that is due to Patriotism alone.

 

As stated above, many times its hard to export a whole vehicle to another country so they ship them the parts and the vehicle is assembled and sold to that local market. For example, my Toyota Tundra was built in the good ol' USA, just makes more sense than building that monster in Japan and shipping them to the USA.

It would probably be less expensive for Harley riders in Australia, Canada, UK, etc... if they Harley was assembled there.

 

Until 1998 the Harley distributor in the country (and the same owner of the 8 dealerships nationwide) got the whole bikes shipped from the USA.

In that year, the economic crisis (don't know if it was Asia or Russia's) made the price of the US Dollar go up to heaven...so imported good became really expensive stuff. The Japanese makers had their products coming through the free trade zone...so it was cheaper than a Harley.

The only solution encountered in order to survive in the Brazilian market was to assembly locally....so Milwaukee made such decision and an assembly operation was initiated.

It's appropriate to notice a few things:

1- this assembly line is controlled exclusively by the folks at the MoCo. - The partner here (distributor) only distributes and controls the dealers.

2- the line doesn't produce an enormous amount that could be exported (it runs around 2,000 bikes a year)

3- it only assembles Touring and Softail lines, this means that the Sportster line and VRSC line comes totally assembled from US (like it was in the past) - Dyna line not available here (since 1998).

At the time of the announcement of the Operations here there was an enormous speculation whether HD would export these Brazilian assembled to be sold in US - HD stated more than one time that they won't do that and these bikes are for consumption locally in Brazil (even the other South American countries like Argentina have to get their bikes straight from US)

 

I think the Japaness started building their cars in the US because of the devaluation of the dollar. As the dollar gets less valuable it makes more sense to build it in the US. For instance all but one Nissan is built in the US ( I believe the 350 z is made in japan). The premium Infiniti line is made in Japan (Except the super huge SUV that no one outside of the US would ever buy and is basically a rebadeged Nissan. The fact is most people currently could not afford a car built totally in Japan.

So it's not a whole case of shipping the vehicles. For instance BWM builds the Z4 in south carolina and exports over half of them. It is not a case of shipping costs it a case of cheap labor + land.

It would kind of upset me if Harley stopped exporting US made Harley to places like europe. For my american pride stand point. I doubt the harley's would be made in asia and sent here..more likely scenario is Canada or Mexico.

 

I just want to know who is buying the bikes assembled in Brazil that are for the Brazillian market because from where I sit, here in Boston, all of Brazil is here.

Forks, Carbs, and othe major components are made overseas and shipped here. It's just the way it is, like it or not.

 

hehehhe....well...Brazilians who are here. lol

 

HD is big business and they make decisions that affect their profits. If it takes using foreign made or produced parts to increase that profit, then thats what they will do. I really don't pay attention to the chrome parts that I buy (wear they were made), but I have noticed that most of the HD clothing line are NOT US made! That in itself brought the company down a notch in my eyes. But, with the large US plants they now have I believe that the bikes will essentially remain American made. However, I will start looking at all the bike parts that I buy in the future.

 

Just by reading what has been posted so far, even though Harleys are an American Icon, wouldn't it make sense to take the parts to another country and have the folks there assemble the bikes for their own sales. If a person had a choice of paying $34,000 for a bike, do you think that most people would actually pay that much? If that same person had to only pay $24,000 for that same bike, wouldn't that possibly cause the sales of Harleys to go up a little and possibly make it easier for others in other countrys to enjoy what we do here? I honestly believe that there are other icons in the U.S. that have foreign parts in them and but doesn't seem that they get the same response as a Harley that is made elsewhere. Does what I say make any sense to the rest of ya? Thanks