I would say the R2R program is a good sales pitch to draw people that other wise need to buy from a dealer due to credit. I had never heard of this before.

 

No, all the dealer does is process the paperwork. You advertise your bike, make your deal, and then meet the buyer at the dealer. The dealer will inspect the bike, and process the sale for the buyer at the sales price you agreed on plus their fee.

 

That was my experience as well. I just let them do the financing to get the promo deal and then paid the bike off the first month, but the financing terms they gave me was 48 months at just under 6%.

 

I can see where I would use R2R if I found a bike I had to have but was a bit "cash poor" at the moment

get the deal done and buy the bike before someone else does

pay it off in the next month or two.... there is no prepayment penalty & their only fee is for the inspection (which I would want anyway)

 

I only did it because I had found the deal I wanted on the bike I wanted and the seller had it financed through Harley and still owed a little on it so using R2R was the most efficient way to get the deal done. At my dealer the cost was $500 which included the bike inspection. The seller and I split the fee and within about 2 hours he left with his check and I left with the bike.

I only did the financing deal because they were running a promo where if you did R2R and financed through Harley you got a $200 merchandise credit at the dealership. So I financed it, got the credit deal, then paid the bike off when the first statement came. Factoring the $200 credit deal in, I basically paid $50 for the dealer to inspect the bike and handle the tax, tag, and title paperwork. Well worth it for me.

 

My credit union won't finance a 10+ year old bike regardless of credit worthiness

R2R does not care about age, they would finance a 1903 model as long as it's a Harley

Their agenda is to maintain and perhaps even boost up BlueBook values of older HD's thereby making their current new prices more justifiable

 

UPDATE:...

I went to the Harley Dealer here in Fargo when they opened on Monday morning and they had a check ready and waiting for me.

R2R was quick and easy on my end as the seller

Went smoothly for the buyer as well, they took care of everything, Plates, Insurance etc. he even had the option of adding a warranty

the buyer put $0 down and his payment is under $200/mo

I now have my 09 RKC

 

Here's the real deal on rider to rider financing by H.D.. It sounds good, you do your own search and find a bike through a private party to save money, you get qualified through H.D. financial on line , they give you your limit and credit score, The problem, which is a big one, you have to go to a H.d. dealer to do the transaction. That's where you have obstacles. The dealership charges anywhere between $750. to $ 1000. The dealer will try to hammer you on interest rate(from personal exp. and i'm not trying to brag about my score i just want to give complete facts, i have 720 credit score). The dealer won't tell you the best rate. They actually try to sell you one of their bikes, can't blame them for that, but the dealer being what it is, is not all that eager to help you out. I know H.D. financial makes plenty of money, but they are losing out on a bunch more due to dealership greed. I personally refused to get suckered into dealership greed. I don't have a problem paying a reasonable fee, but $750 to $1000 for what amounts to be 30 minutes to maximum of one hour of paperwork is far to excessive. I live in southern calif, area and those are the dealerships i am basing my info off of....good luck folks..

 

I used HDF rider to rider financing last year. $150 paperwork fee, decent interest rate, took about an hour. No sales, no pressure.

 

I've never used the R2R program and I don't know anyone who has but I did overhear a salesman talking to a guy a couple of weeks ago and he mentioned a $400 "fee". I have a feeling that this a "regional" figure (higher in warmer states where bikes sell much faster) but that's jus speculation on my part.


If the fee can be split 50/50 between the seller an the buyer, and the buyer gets a bike that has been inspected by a professional mechanic, that sounds like a "win-win" plan to me.

From what I've read on this thread, the "deal killer" for me would be the outrageous interest rates.

I wonder if the same buyer could have a new bike financed at a lower interest rate, just like new cars are financed at lower rates than used cars?

There's a LOT of used Sportsters for sale at some very low prices and I'd much rather have an older one with no payment than paying 21% interest on a used, newer model bike.

Sometimes you need to hold off on discretionary spending and wait until you have enough cash in hand to work a better deal.