It is fun to watch Harley do the dance. On the one hand, the Sportster is the future of the bike market. They dare not lose in this market segment if they want to have a future. You see test reporters denigrating the biggest bikes and giving accolades to smaller models. You hear the same thing about sport bikes over 600cc.

On the other hand, Harley makes their big bucks from the big twins. They want to convince every Sportster owner that they must trade after six months or risk the derision of their buddies.

Marketing is deadly serious and Harley does it with the best of them. Stand back and watch the fun.

 

Harley is really pushing this "Ride Free" program, and just a few minutes ago I was watching television and it was the first time I saw their commercial dealing with the program.

Don't remember it word for word but it was something like; "A Sportster is the lowest cost way to get into the world of Harley Davidson, and get your purchase price back when you trade up (to a Big Twin)"...

Almost like they were pushing the Sportster as an entry level beginner bike to get your feet wet before moving up to a BT....

Interesting.....

 

Well I think that used Sportster's will get cheaper, not rock bottom, but cheaper. I mean they have to. Your going to put a more than normal amount of used Sporty's on the market, of course your going to drop the price. If I had an 07 I would trade it in and not think twice about it. If I am going to spend a bunch of money to dress up a bike I would like to dress up a BT.

 

Harley did their homework. Having a surplus of sportsters will be a way to get new riders into the MOCO's world. Some will stay, and trade for a big twin. Either way its going to be a motorcycle people will be more able to afford as the economy gets worse, so dump the big twins now, and sell the sportys later.

 

I'm dealing with this right now.

I own a 2006 883 Custom Sportster. I'm trying to work a deal to buy a Super Glide from my dad but I need to sell the Sportster first. I can't sell it outright to a dealer, they dont seem to want it since they have a large inventory of sportsters from the buyback program. So I'm forced to sell it on my own which is going slower than I would like.

The good thing is I can undercut the dealer cost of this same bike by a fair amount. So if anyone is looking to buy a Sportster then they have that much more incentive to try and buy privately rather than from the dealer. I think. We shall see!

 

When I was in F&S yesterday, they had about 20 or so used ones. None of them were priced cheaply.....which I figured

 

Harley "stealers" here in Phoenix are a bunch of crooks. I called about trading my 2007 Roadster in on a Super Glide. They quoted me a price of $8,955 trade-in for my bike. I asked if I would receive anything extra for my aftermarket pipes, Mustang seat, windscreen and leather saddle bags. Their answer was "no", that those things might actually subtract from the $8,955 price. When I suggested that I would be better off removing those parts and selling them on e-bay or craigslist, they balked at that idea. So obviously, they are talking out of both sides of their face. They also said that I would have to pay sales tax on the entire purchase price of a new Super Glide instead of the difference. They ended up wanting "$6,000 to $7,500" to trade up to the Super Glide. Obviously, I told them to "screw yourself" but the dealers here are coming up with new ways to earn their nickname.

 

Doubt it will "tank" the Sportster market per se, but it will probably bring the resale prices down of used Sportsers a little. Think about all these traded in Sportsters that the dealerships have collected. They're going to want to move them at some point...the best way to move product is to reduce prices. Don't expect much "dealing" on a new Sportster if that particular dealership has many used ones for sale...Also, wouldn't be surprised if HD cuts production on the new ones...Reducing production on the '09s will definitely help sales on all these used ones.

 

H-D knows what they are doing. They are making money off the v-twins and making money off the used sportsters. Sportsters are the best selling bike the moco has. They pride themselves on there products and i dont think they would ever do something to deface there resale values, although it might temporarily though. but they will even back out in no time.

my opinion though

 

I'm not sure what you mean by Sportsters being the 'best selling bike the moco has', but if you mean in annual sales that is a misleading statement.

The following information was posted earlier this year, and the figures are taken from Harley's Year End Financial Statement:




As far as sales of model groups, below is the total year to date sales for both 2007 and 2008;


Touring ~ (2008) 101,887 (2007) 114,076

Custom ~ (2008) 140,908 (2007) 144,507

Sportsters ~ (2008) 60,684 (2007) 72,036

Buells ~ (2008) 13,119 (2007) 11,513