J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Yep Hoop, I was on a waiting list twice. The MOCO had my down payment for a 92 and a 97, Jack
Investment
- Thread starter IR Rick
- Start date
Yep Hoop, I was on a waiting list twice. The MOCO had my down payment for a 92 and a 97, Jack
Hoople
Account Removed
Jack, Could you order a color or did you just take what came in? Were the Chrome accessories
also hard to get?
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Got exactly what i wanted, in fact when I got my 97 FLHT it was late and I was moving to Florida so my dealer switched with a guy from Panama city Florida for me so I could take delivery before I moved. I still have the build sheet on that bike. It shows the exact time of assemby at each stage of the build
Hoople
Account Removed
Wow what a period of time that must have been. I also bet you could not leave a HD scooter alone without lots of chains & pad locks. Gone in 60 Seconds!
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Never a dull moment LOL
Also during that time period of HD's selling for over MSRP, many dealers would not sell you an HD unless you had a used HD to trade in on a new one. So, what do you do then? I know a guy who had to drive 2 hours to buy his 99 wide glide for $4k over MSRP.
J
Jack Klarich
Guest
Very true Joy, and if you didnt want the bike with all the add ons they didnt care. I got Lucky , I knew my salesman well, and he always took care of me, tho I didnt like The MOCO tactic of paying down payment to be on a waiting list. They had our money and we were at there mercy
Breeze3at
Experienced Member
Hoop; I remember during the early 90's when it was a standing joke about Harley shops not having Harleys on the floor, and usually only 1 or 2 used bikes. You could get your name on a list with a NON refundable deposit of $200. You got to choose what kind of bike you would prefer (softail,touring etc.). When one came in, you got a call. Yes or NO, that you were ready for it. No choice of color. Often, if buyers did not want the extended warranty, or $$$ worth of add on's, there would be a problem, and the next guy would get the bike. Almost all dealers sold way above MSRP with no apologies. This was when HD started pressuring dealers to build the huge botique dealerships.
If dealers didn't build, they got fewer bikes. When Rossmeyer built his first Daytona botique, in '95 -'96 there were few new bikes inside. Year old bikes were selling for MSRP (not bluebook), quickly.
And as for theft: A friend had his bike stolen from a busy restaurant parking lot while he was eating lunch in in Daytona during bike week.
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Porter
Junior Member
This is all quite an education for me, as I did not get my first HD until 2 years ago and though I am quite interested now, I did't follow the MOCO back then.
I don't mean to be rude, but always viewed a HD as a type of blue collar, American made, luxury. Not an investement to make money, but an investment in your happiness. A goal to say that you have "made it" to a certain level.....kind of like a "bucket list" if you will.
Given all of the dealerships I have visited in my travels and the economic environment, I don't see how they will stay afloat. I think many will close. The one confounding event may be fuel prices and the intrinsic fuel economy of the motorcycle. Given that the deveoping countries oil consumption actually ROSE during the last 2 years, while the US consumption dropped slightly (6M barrels/day) due to the depression/recession, when the US starts to come back on-line, prices will soar north of $100/barrel easily. Even now we are out stripping supply. Again, I would think that many of these boutique dealerships will close, but with fuel at +$5 a gallon, perhaps the the motorcycle market and HD will have niche that it can hang on to, similar to what I have observed in Europe. (many more bikes than the US). Perhaps then, an HD will be sort of an investment in your ability to cope with rising fuel costs.
I wonder if you could build a diesel HD....that may be an investment...:s
I don't mean to be rude, but always viewed a HD as a type of blue collar, American made, luxury. Not an investement to make money, but an investment in your happiness. A goal to say that you have "made it" to a certain level.....kind of like a "bucket list" if you will.
Given all of the dealerships I have visited in my travels and the economic environment, I don't see how they will stay afloat. I think many will close. The one confounding event may be fuel prices and the intrinsic fuel economy of the motorcycle. Given that the deveoping countries oil consumption actually ROSE during the last 2 years, while the US consumption dropped slightly (6M barrels/day) due to the depression/recession, when the US starts to come back on-line, prices will soar north of $100/barrel easily. Even now we are out stripping supply. Again, I would think that many of these boutique dealerships will close, but with fuel at +$5 a gallon, perhaps the the motorcycle market and HD will have niche that it can hang on to, similar to what I have observed in Europe. (many more bikes than the US). Perhaps then, an HD will be sort of an investment in your ability to cope with rising fuel costs.
I wonder if you could build a diesel HD....that may be an investment...:s
Hoople
Account Removed
Very Interesting. I had no idea.
Actually things have not changed too much at Rossmeyers. It's still MSRP plus dealer Prep, Plus dealer set up (which somehow is different than dealer prep) , plus shipping, etc. You may get a break on a New 2009 but still seems to be full boat on 2010's.