Comments on: Is Harley Doomed?

By: FriarJohn

FriarJohn — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:02:21 +0000

I’m sure they will survive, but a lot of what is happening now is of their own making. I think they could’ve done things smarter. Of course that’s easy to say as a detached observer with 20/20 hindsight.

By: Swag

Swag — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:58:09 +0000

Doomed? I don’t think so. They would be doomed if they were sitting dormant and not responding to the economic woes. At least they are taking steps to survive… if those steps are right or wrong I guess remains to be seen. And as far as Buell goes… can we really blame them. Don’t get me wrong, I love Buell bikes but I think it had been coming for some time.

By: FriarJohn

FriarJohn — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:45:19 +0000

I think they have overly saturated the US market and now it’s biting them in the ass. I don’t think they’ll go away completely (although stranger things have happened) but it will be interesting to see what they look like in 5 years and 10 years. By contrast Triumph has been growing slowly and steadily ever since it’s rebirth in the mid-90s. As a result (and many other reasons) they had a good year even during a shit economy. There’s something to be learned there.

By: Faceyman

Faceyman — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:34:49 +0000

Interesting and I am not sure what the future holds for HD…it is clear that the recent recession has hurt them significantly and we will see how they rebound. I was really disappointed with the dropping of Buell, but then again, I do not know if Buell generated revenue or not! We do know that HD has a loyal following and they are an American Institution, so asking is Harley doomed might be premature? Thoughts?