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What do you think??

mqhybrid

Active Member
I was out shopping the other day and i happen to run into a fellow that use to work at the harley dealer here in calgary. We talked about bike the ecconomy you know things that are on everybodys mind. I was telling him that i was suprised that harley had raised there price's on some other there bikes like the touring models. He tells me that harley did this because there trying to go after the upper class type of people (people with money). I have a hard time beliving this. I figured the price raise was to mabye recover from this past year.
 
MOCO is accountable to the bottom line and it's stockholders, and as it is bleeding red ink for the past few quarters, it is easier to raise prices and lower expenses to remain solvent...a one-two punch to try to erase the huge losses.:(
 
I also live in Calgary and hate going to the dealerships to buy stuff that costs at least 30% more then our U.S. brothers pay, most of the time it's closer to 50%. Our dollar is about 10% less right now but a 2010 Ultra in the U.S. is $21,000 and $29,000 in Canada. This is all from Deely Imports who are getting stinking rich from a deal Fred Deely made with Harley Davidson over 50 years ago. I would like to vent more but enough already, Just what to say I have a U.S. model Ultra and will never buy a bike in Canada even if I win the lottery!
 
Kind of off the subject...but a friend of mine was in Brazil, South America in 1999. Back then an 8,000.00 Sporster sold in Brazil for 16,000.00 Hence buying a Harley in Brazil was for the affluent and elite. IMHO.

Even when there was a two year wait for a new Harley in 1995-1997 or thereabouts H-D still exported 35 percent of all cycles out of the country and overseas. From what I was told, the out of country dealerships is what kept the company afloat during times of low sales in the USA, so, there was a loyalty to the overseas dealers to keep them in cycles.
 
A group of riders from Lyon, France were in town a few weeks ago. They were buying all sorts a stuff. They were amazed at how low priced the bikes were compared to France. In the Harley world we still have a better price structure that most of the rest of the world.

Standard business practice in the high end retail world is to raise prices and decrease other overhead to please the stock holders or owners. Actually does work in the short order, but backfires in the long run.

RR
 
Supposedly a U.S. dealer can not sell a unregistered bike to a Canadian. He can sell a previously registered bike to us. If I can register the bike in the States that is fine but I can not bring the bike back to Canada and register it here. I have bought American bikes and brought them back no problem just a bit of running around with paper work. If the dollar is fairly close to par it really works in our favour but if the spread is to grat we might just as well buy it here.
 
Please don't talk about Harley prices in Europe!!!
:bigsmiley19:

I made a computation about one year ago for the accessories:
  • take the price in dollars
  • change the currency in euro leaving the SAME number
  • multiply the value by 1.5
example:
100 $ -> 100 € -> 150 €

assuming an exchange rate of 1.4$ per 1€ you have a multiply factor of

X 2.1 !!!!

:wall

And this is the price we pay in Italy (Prices in Europe include VAT) where the VAT is 20% but there's little difference throughout Europe.

For the bikes the price increase is lower but to give you an example, a Street Bob costs 12,999$ in US (no taxes I think...) and 13,700€ in Italy (VAT incl.)

Now you understand why when we travel to the US or find a friend going there we "order" all possible accessories to be bought there, put in a suitcase and brought here!! :s

Ciao
Ugo
 
When it comes to buying parts I will try to get them on ebay. Or from the dealers in cali when i vist there every summer. As for buying a new bike the dealers are not allowd to sell us nice people in canada a bike. unless its used
thats because of dealy and dealy sets all the prices for all of canada
 
Is it Harley are is it...Import export taxes to Harley from outside the US....Folks price a American Made car oversea...and guess what????..Its not the US makes a bad product..its coz there in "NO Fair Trade " agreement...trust me if we taxed the imports ..what they tax our products across the pond ...they would never sell another foreign car to the middle and lower class coz we would not be able to afford it....A chev Malibu in Japan would be a normal car here but at a luxury price overseas.....I do wish our Canadian, Australian, German, Great Britain and all others could buy at our price...a "Far Trade Price"
 
Another thought about the higher price's in Canada is the economy here is alot better then in the U.S. Maybe Harley wants to make up the money they're losing down south by charging us Canuck's more. I think in the next couple of weeks I will have to do some phone calling to Deely Imports and Harley of America to see what the official line is.
 
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