Can you say India?

 

Just for the sake of discussion - take a look at what Japanese bikes are going for nowadays...they're creeping up into Harley territory. Check out the V-Max at $19,500, Yammy Royal Star Venture 'S' is $20k, the Raider 'S' is $14,790 base, Honda VTX1800 is $13,700 base, ST1300 is $16,500 base....

The UJMC is no longer selling for ~$6500-7000 anymore either is my point....

Motorcycles, with some exception, are no longer considered 'cheap transportation', esp for most of us - they're 'toys', for lack of a better word. 2nd or 3rd vehicles that we ride when we feel like it, when we don't have to transport whatever (including family) or can't or don't want to be exposed to the weather (excessive heat, cold, rain, etc.). I qualify using the term 'toy' because I know it offends some...that is not my intention. If it's your sole means of transportation - ride on, brother.

I've also seen the Indian bikes on display, most recently at Daytona...and as someone else said, once you breech $30k and up for a motorcycle that's where you start getting ridiculous, IMO.... I could buy a pretty nice brandy-new Ford pickup for that kind of scratch. That's my .02.....

 

Just sit back and think for a minute!! How much would our Harley cost if the MOCO didn't out source some products used. You gotta do what you gotta do.

 

This country is in ruin....we are bankrupt. Companies like Harley have to outsource to survive thanks to our politicians and the economy. Face it folks, we are headed for 3rd world status. Our debt is soon to be more than our GDP. Our taxes, regulations, overbearing government, and lazy workforce are sending jobs outside the borders that will never come back. This same incompetent government is allowing illegals to freely walk in and take jobs here and politicize any effort to enforce border patrol. The idiots and mornons have taken control of the government and every decision is for political gain. Hate to say it but the economy and unemployment aren't going to turn around. This is why Harley and others are continuing to downsize.

 

We absolutely deserve our current and future status as Americans. We have only ourselves to blame for the incompetent and naieve leaders we've elected. More pain is coming and we deserve every ounce of it.

 

I am from York. I used to work at HD in 78-79...they always imported parts for the bikes from foreign sources...Japan..etc. But never outsourced labor. That was AMF. Not sure what they are going to do now, though. If HD cannot be competitive anymore, that would truly suck. Maybe my 2010 is one of the last of the US bikes?

 

Well...look on the bright side..if they go **** up...and you own HD now, your bike will be worth much more than it is now...

And then my my next bike will be another Ducati..LOL..Keeping my HD, of course..

 

I believe when Clinton was president an signed the nafta agreement, that was the beginning of our country's problems. It took a while for it to take affect, but now we can see the results. Allowing all the foriegn countries of the world to come here and dump their products at prices , we could not compete with. That's the way to ruin an economy. So the solution is for everyone to take a 50-60 % paycut, and be happy they have a crappy job with no benefits or security? Oh yea, and keep buying all those high end product that keep being pushed at us. $20k motorcycles, $30k cars and trucks, where I live 300k gets you a older starter home. But alls well, we can all get those $8-$10 an hr jobs that the good employers of the world want us to take. I just don't see why people are leary about spending $$$, When they've worked for over 20 years at a job and get let go without a thought as how they'll get by, so some teenager in south america or korea can have a job. Here's a thought, if everyone keeps supporting foriegn countries economy's , in 5 years where will your kids get a job?.,,

 

Yup, life here in Detroit is really something with the UAW. I know tons of people that have made well over 6 figures for decades. And when asked what they do.....they push a button on the line twice a day, check that everything is in spec and hit the breakroom. They freely admit it. They also clearly state that if a piece of garbage falls on the floor they cant even pick it up because it isnt there job. GIVE ME A BREAK.

When Delphi went bankrupt the new CEO came in and his quote was "Would you pay someone $60/hr to mow your lawn? No, and we shouldnt be either." I'm not saying that this applies in anyway to HD, but if someone doesnt think the unions have been greedy and been major instigators of a lot of these problems your sadly mistaken. And yes, I work within the industry everyday. I went to college and still dont make nearly what any of my buddies at GM and Ford make that got Jobs straight out of High School - - of those that still have their jobs. And yes, those guys that are the younger generation of the union will agree that sh*t was ruined for them.

 

Sorry to say but NAFTA wasn't the problem then and it's not the problem now. Jobs would have gone overseas for economic reasons whether we had NAFTA or not. It's not like we're buying any Mexican or Canadian bikes instead of Harley's as a result of NAFTA. No....I'm afraid to say it's all about spoiled Americans that think they can have high wages, high pensions and now they want to have European-like health benefits to go with the rest of the package. And then they've elected leaders that will try to give them all those things.

All those things have high costs. And those high costs will result in much higher taxes over time, particularly when we elect leaders that think the solutions to all our problems is another government worker (that gets even higher wages, benefits and pensions that private industry).

The writing is on the wall that companies in the US will no longer be able to be competitive. Don't let all the wild-eyed optimists thaaat support the current administration's "spend, spend & spend" approach to our problems, fool you.

When it comes time to pay the piper on this spending ...AND IT WILL COME...things are going to get far more ugly in terms of jobs being shipped overseas. Tell you're kids to learn Madarin Chinese in school. No different than when my G'Parents decided to pack up and ship out to the US from Italy as their parents told them to learn English. They went where the jobs were, just as future generations of Americans will unfortunately being doing as they look to opportunities in Asia.