The folks in the Polaris Indian forum think Harleys day's are numbered.

Beary

 

The would know...Indian went under in 1953


Mike

 

They first went under just after WW1! And changed hands several times up to 1953. They were even British owned for a while and we can still buy new Indian Fours over here as a result.

 

The number count of H-D dealerships now as compared to early 2000's, can be traced
to the fact that a lot of mainstay long time dealers opening a second shop. A few dealers
closed their second shops, while some long time owners closed everything down to retire.
When the economy took a slow down it hurt the whole Country, luxury items took a big
hit, people lost jobs, and big corporations also took a hit. Harley one of them, along with
GM, Chrysler, Wall Street, and Housing.

 

Harley also changed dealerships to a larger footprint that's supposed to offer more of a "full experience" as opposed to tiny shops that only carried one or two bikes and a few cases of oil. Those smaller shops wouldn't cut it in today's retail environment.

So... Fewer dealers? Yes. More sales per dealer and more sales overall? Yup.

 

I have no idea how close Harley has gotten to filing for bankruptcy, but I certainly remember that in 1982, Harley-Davidson Motor Company and Harley-Davidson York, Inc., filed a request for escape clause relief from the damaging imports of heavyweight motorcycles into the United States, whereby tariffs were levied against Japanese manufacturers.

"The action was exceptional for protecting a single American company, the Harley-Davidson Motor Company of Milwaukee, the sole surviving American maker of motorcycles." - NYTimes

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/02/bu...torcycles.html

 

Harley likes Govt money also http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/568/86...-from-Fed.aspx

 

And about 3 or 4 more times after that with various owners before Polaris bought the rights. Indian had money problems long before they went under too.

Don't know Indian's sales, but I sure don't see very many of them on the road. I certainly hope they stay in production though, along with Victory, and the rest. Was sorry to see Excelsior-Henderson go **** up. That factory was only about 20 miles from here, and if I recall, was built with some government bucks. Sat empty for years.

Why some are so eager to see a business go under its beyond me. Competition for customers is a good thing. And how many banks needed government help to stay solvent, lets not forget the huge loans GM needed as well. Chrysler over the years too.

 

Around the same time, a limit was placed on the amount of imported cars coming into the US, can't remember the exact details, but Detroit was getting it's butt kicked by fuel efficient cars from Honda, Toyota, etc.... I remember that limit created enough shortage it allowed the imported car dealers to add "additional dealer profit" of several hundred or more dollars to the price, you had to pay over sticker if you wanted an import from Japan.

That went away when the limit was lifted.

Lots of industries and companies get assistance of some sort from the government.

 

The Fed made a lot of loans between 2008 - 2010 to businesses because there was scant money to be lent privately due to the economy at the time. The difference between Harley and companies (like GM) is that Harley has paid the money back with interest. We, the taxpayers, theoretically made money on the deal. Of course, Warren Buffett made out like a bandit being paid back at 15 percent interest for the short-term bonds he issued to Harley. Businesses depend on credit lines to float them through down times to pay salaries and other obligations until business picks up. Big financial institutions that had the ability to lend multi-millions weren't doing so because they had lost the butt in bad real estate, so the Fed did the right thing and stepped in. Harley should at least get kudos for paying back the money.