They are making too many bikes in too many versions and the dealers have too many unsold bikes on their lots.
Our local HD dealer even stays open on Sundays trying to sell the hundred or so bikes they have in stock.
Back a few years ago, you had to get on a waiting list...................
Motorcycle Ping!.................
“HD was in trouble well before Trump.”
Yes, they were. You’d think they’d have stopped digging their own grave after some REALLY bad PR in the past decade with sex and race discrimination suits at their dealerships.
Playing against President Trump has proven time and again to be a dumb idea. ;)
Millennials aren’t into riding hogs.
Harley-Davidson’s domestic market has been dropping for years, which is why they’re shifting emphasis to the international market.
It’s not Trumps fault. HD was trying to expand in a shrinking market.
It’s worse than that, the average age of a Harley owner is 50.
Yes; yes they were.
They screwed the pooch, though, when they tried to blame their troubles on PDJT.
They need to bring back the Black Cherry-Black Cherry Pearl paint scheme that I had on my 2005 Springer. That and every bike looks like some variant of the Fatbob street bike...
I would guess that a 6.4% slump is just the start.
HD is low quality, high price.
Who wants to pay the price of a mid-sized car ($27,000) for a motorcycle?
I ride BMW Adventures at that price, but I get much, much more than anything HD offers.
An HD bike should be about $14,000 at most.
Harley’s are just expensive cosplay accessories.
I heard Indian was up 10%.
There was also that stupid policy HD had for a few years where they gave full value for used HD’s traded in for new HD’s. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Actions have consequences. Shame on Harley-Davidson.
It’s not a “Trump curse” - it’s called you abandoned our country in order to make some bean counter happy by making your crap overseas - and the American people said “screw you. We’ll ride OTHER motorcycles, losers.”
Good thing.
Now if we could only figure out a way to get Hollywood out of the country...
The local Harley dealer is next to the gun range that I frequent. I am always shocked at the number of new bikes in their inventory. They spend hours every day just moving them around to open and close.
Actually, the growth trend over in Europe and the sluggish demand in US was already a feature well before H-D decided to move production overseas. And that overseas move itself was a result of this trend, not because of Trump’s tariffs. When H-D claims that the tariffs are the reason, they are being disingenuous.
Of course, this article riffing on this years-long trend as if it just started appears to be blatant pro-Trump propaganda.
Nearly 100 years ago, HD made the best, the fastest , and most tecnically advanced bikes in the world. For decades now, they haven’t.
Lots of other choices out there.
Some company should make a standard model for tall (6ft+) riders.