I talked to the owner of this shop yesterday.He told me that the moco has cut WAY back on the number of new bikes they would ship to him and that h-d wants to cut 120 dealers worldwide in thnext 2 years.He decided that he couldnt stay in business if he could only get a third of the bikes he sold this years,so he is calling it quits on oct 15.Also for this year his service dept is off by 20 percent.
H-d will buy all of his unsold new bikes and hepl him sell all of the used ones.Also the moco will have a real estate agent from Wisc to hepl him sell the buildings
Next week all parts and clothes will be 30 percent off.
This dealership is 10 min from my house.What sucks is the good folks that work there losing there jobs

 

So will they take phone orders and ship out of state?

 

2 sides to every story and then there is the truth

 

not sure about phone orders...I will find out today.Its on my home
I have known the owner for 5 years.Good guy he is but leohd you are right about 2 sides of the story

 

We have lost three dealers here in the UK in the last few months. Harley seems to have been pretty brutal and taken away their franchises.

Hopefully, when they take on a new advertising agency, we will see an improved image from H-D and more interest in their bikes and stuff.

 

Thank the economy, and blame all the windbags in Washington who got us in this mess. Look back to where it all started...high energy costs.

 

No it was greed, greed and more greed... (North American energy costs are still a bargain compared to much of the rest of the world.)

 

I thought that you got an allotment from Harley and you could reduce it the following year - but the year after that your new allotment would be your reduction from the prior year. Could this be the issue?

 

There are too many dealers in the chicago area.I mean he is about 8 miles from calumet h-d .which is right acroos the state line in Ind. Heck go on the harley site and look at the dealer locator.type in zip code 60606 and see how many dealers there are in a 50 mile radius of downtown.
a sales GM at another dealer tod me the are trying to squeezw him out but I cant tell you the name of the dealer.

 

I'm amazed that the mom and pop HD dealer near me is still in business. It dates back to the 40's/50's and is the size of a shoe box with a very small service area. I've heard for years that the MOCO was on them to expand and modernize the place. Hell, it's not ever called XYZ Harley Davidson, it's called XYZ's Cycle Shop. And.....they don't even have a web page. Weird dealer.

Wonder if they're on the list of dealers to be cut down the road.