Has everyone heard about harleys new leadership and what he's doing? 1) closing 40% of dealerships just like GM did. Just got back from a ride to chicago and my dealer in chicago i grew up with was closed along with one more plus two more may be on chopping block. another area (cannnot say) is currently on edge because they make be cut (they have not found out yet) York plant was forced to cut 700 Union jobs and Union was told to accept it or we will move company to kentucky. PARTS- all going up right now a HD battery is $170.00 last time I paid $96.00 and i thought that was high. another thing ,if you use after market parts on your HD to enhance perf HD will VOID warranty. The power programer was used as demonstration. I am glad I sold my Harley stock. Thats all for now, check with your dealer to make sure they ain,t on chopping block. right now I have to travel 100 or 200 miles to nearest dealer and if they close these then I guess I'll be sht out of luck and have to go aftermarket with everything or buy a differant brand

 

It sounds like they are offering an opportunity to Victory/Indian.

 

I just bought a Sportster AGM battery for $104? Lead has gone up a lot so I didn't kick. Are the batteries for the larger bikes 70% more?

 

Do you have any proof to back up these stats and info you are throwing around?

I mean I know you would never do it, but I read that 87.38% of all unsubstantiated statistics you read on the net are made up....

 

What Chicago dealer closed? There is one major owner.....Wildfire HD that now owns City Limits, Illinois and Fox River (formerly Zylstra). Other then that....I don't know of any that were "closed" just under new management.

 

What he is descibing is information that is a year old. See the link:

http://www.portfolio.com/business-ne...-restructuing/

Here is their most recent 10Q filing:

http://investing.businessweek.com/re...HTM_TX175262_4

It appears their credit operations is the major contributor to cash flow.

I could find no evidence that H-D has made a predetermination to close X nuimber of dealerships or sent out notices similar to Chrysler and GM to accomplish the task.

What Harley has done is let capitalism take its toll and those dealers that finacially counldn't make it through these hard times, allowed them to fail and close.

The fact that Harley has made the changes necessary to insure future profitability in these very difficult times is a testament to their management team. This recession bankrupted many larger companies including GM and Chrysler. Harley and Ford made it the old fashioned way using a sound business plan and doing what is needed to insure the continuation of the company. They are struggling, but still alive and kicking.

My next bike will likely not be a Harley, but that decision has nothing to do with their corporate management.

 

From my experience, most of the posters that start threads like this and have very few posts are just trolls.

Just sayin,,,

 

87.38%....that sounds totally made up.

 

Maybe there are too many of them, just as there were too many car dealers around. Have you looked at a map of harley dealers. Sheesh, there are 23 just in the so. cal. network alone. Maybe they should close some of them. Anyway, you can order parts and have them delivered to your door and if you can't do the wrenching there should be somebody around your area who can, for a nominal fee. I mean this ain't rocket science. I have an '04 Dyna that has only been back to the dealer once and that was less than a month after I bought it and had a problem with the alarm system. I do all the routine maintenance and hang my own aftermarket parts on it and the one time I needed "professional" help for a shifter seal replacement I went to an Indy. It will take more than a few closed dealerships to put me on a metric again.

 

IMO When HD began losing $ in '09 they did what most companies do... they focused more and more on credit financing. Harley financial services is the principle reason they creeped back into profitability. A bit disconcerting when you cant make money on your primary products (bikes) but make all your $ on lending. You remove all the merchandizing and credit services the HD motorcycle business is seriously upside down.