Most parts that are produced require very little man hours per item. The actual man hour cost to build value added goods is a small percentage of the cost of the item produced. When you consider the productivity of the American worker, which is second to none, the difference is even smaller. I doubt the price would change much, if at all. It doesn't really matter though. As long as there's the perception of an economic benefit to outsource, no matter how small, that's the direction the shareholders gravitate to. This is what happens when you have no national industrial policy. It's funny, Germany has an industrial policy, a vibrant manufacturing base and economically, they're now working to bail out Europe. I wonder if we can learn something from that.

 

That is about as relevant as Since when is China in America.
I wonder when they (HD) is going move Head office to some province in china?
Anyway you slice it, it sucks, especially during a traditionally slow time of the year.
Rob

 

see below

 

Amen to that

 

that's actually pretty easy to answer - I believe Indians are 100% (or close to it) American-made. They cost about $15000 more when compared model to model.

 

wont be long before harley will be just like a honda and the promos will read "assembled in America". Heck, it should probably read like that now as most of would be shocked at just how muck of their bikes and boutique items are made elsewhere. It wont be long before a harley will have to directly compete with any metric bike and harley will then have to step up their game to do that.

Dont even get me started about the great "unions" that once were needed and are now the reason big business had to seek cheaper labor!!!!!

 

Greedy companies? So I can safely bet that when you decide to buy something, you don't pay any attention to the price and just pay for the most expensive item despite lower cost products are available.

 

Indians cost that much more because the market is very small and manufacturing and parts sourcing reflect the small numbers. Afterall, a victory actually is priced less than an HD.

 

yeah...I'm sure that all these people complaining about "greedy companies" would GLADLY take a pay cut so we can all get cheaper goods and services, right?

 

the reason that market is so small is because their price is so high because their parts and labor are more expensive. By your logic, Victories would ALSO cost $15k more because their market is smaller, where, in fact, they cost HALF as much because they save a whole bunch of money by sourcing a lot of parts from China and Mexico...the market size has nothing to do with this.

Believe me, if Indian could drop the price of their bikes $10-15k, they would because they could sell a lot more bikes.