I think Harley is trying to avoid the troubles that have overwhelmed the US auto industry by keeping their manufacturing costs from getting out of control. I'm sure that seems unpleasant to the workers but Harley almost went out of business back in the 80s until Reagan helped out.
I am well aware of the HD issues in the 80's and earlier. Whose fault was it that the bikes were primitive designs w/ all the problems that comes with it.
They upscaled the designs - reworked the engines - gave them decent brakes, etc. And now they sell the heck out of them.
Don't forget the Japs were dumping bikes on this market for well below cost to manufacture.
When my 1990 was made - HD made about 30k big twin motorcycles. Look how many they put out now. I think I saw it was about 400k of them.
Yeah I remember. I helped pay for that with the 400 dollar tariff I paid on my high-performance jap bike. Still waiting for Harley to pay me back (*cough*)