I was thinking about this buy back Promo on 07-09 models. I'm wondering if this will end up hurting resale on sportsters in the long run.

What do you guys think?

 

This was brought up in another buyback thread.
I think it will

 

While the promo is in effect? Yep. People will be more inclined to buy new instead of our used bikes.

Long term? No. The promo won't last forever. Once it's over, the dealers will have a large stock of used Sportsters up for sale at high prices that we could easily undercut. After somebody pays for the docking fee, handling fee, maintenance fee, taxes, etc. the dealers tack on they will be right back at MSRP.

 

i'm not quite sure how it will hurt the used market, since now with the buyback, dealers are giving top dollar for used sportsters (07-09), so i'm not really sure how it would hurt/ but one thing i know will get crushed is the accessories market for sportsters. I doubt many will spend big bucks on accessories on their sportster if they plan on trading it in within a year.

 

If it was going to hurt the sporty resale market HD wouldn’t be doing what they are. Remember that HD is paying the difference in market value and MSRP on all of the bikes traded in not the dealer.

 

It is my opinion that it will not. I think the guys at Harley Davidson know that they are doing. I believe the sporster is the best selling bike Harley makes. They can not keep these on the floor. Everybody wants a Harley but can not afford one. Now if they can get a used sporty they might be able to do that. Used sportys never stay on the floor. Hell they rarely ever even hit the floor. If anything it raises the value of sportys. Who would sell it for less when you can get what you paid out of it from the dealer?

 

Harley will end up dumping the used sportsters at lowered prices to liquidate them, making up the difference on the big twins.

Basiclly they are artificially situlating the market.

I may end up taking advantage though!

 

HD cant and won't liquidate them. The dealers have a larger stake in them than what HD has. The way the “trade up” program works is that the dealer ends up paying market value while HD is responsible in paying the dealer the difference between market value and MSRP.

What HD ends up getting out of this is increased sales for their more expensive bikes and HD financial services sees a boost in the number of loans and loan amounts.

What the dealer sees is increased sales in new and used bikes. The dealers being the ones that pay the bulk of the by back they will end up being the ones that determine the resale value. In other words don’t look for resale prices to drop.

 

I agree. The Ride Free Promotion appears to be a win-win situation for the Company, Dealers and Owners in a slow economy. The notion is to promote activity on the showroom floor without discounting like the car companies are doing which not only destroys the value of the new cars, but the resale values of the used cars. The resale value of H-D's has been a big selling point that MoCo does not want to harm. This program gives them some control on both new sales and resales. I just don't think the MoCo and Dealers have any plans to discount the Sportster trade-ins. They will make every effort to make money on every sale.
Probably the biggest hit on Sportsters and Harleys in general will come from distressed owners who have to sell. I have already seen some pretty low prices on eBay and Craigs list

 

True, I think HD being a big buyer in the market only keeps the prices/demand up, while the economy struggles. When the economy turns the corner (who knows when that will be?) people will buy bikes again and I think there will be a bunch of used Sportsters, ready for the buyers.