Harley Dealer closing shop

[Flat Dog]

My local got rid of several employees, and is not hiring. The place looks like a ghost town most days...

[Tomahawk]

Our one and only dealer here on Vancouver Island is getting one of those Texas Size buildings for his dealership. With our Can. $ dollar falling, he may have some lean times ahead, as well economy dictates buying toys.. our closest dealer is on the mainland in Vancouver BC however I think they have enough stability to take the hit for a year or two. Should be lots of late model rides up for sale here in the next 6 months or so, good for the used bike buyer, not for the financed seller. Welcome to Harley owner world. Think I may be looking for a newer ride and keep my old dependable 91 Heritage.

[harleyjt]

Not too many years ago, a Harley dealer was almost guaranteed to make a lot of money - in reality, most were making a fortune.  For the most part, a dealer really had to be just plain stupid to lose money.  There were a lot of dealers that made money in spite of themselves.   But, it's not that way anymore.  They have to work smart, manage the business properly watch expenses and get lean.  If they don't, many of these guys will be in real trouble - in a hurry.  Lots of them have a huge nut to crack every month just due to their facility overhead.  They can lay off people, reduce inventories of bikes, parts and motorclothes, etc, etc, but they're still paying on that Taj Mahal they built a few years ago.  That could put some of them under as discretionary spending on luxury items continues to decline.  I've seen it happen in the car business, and its not any different now in the Harley business.  Just like in the car business, I expect to see many of them add additional lines or merchandise to sell.  You'll likely see some combo deals in the marketplace.  A Harley dealer may take on Honda for instance or some other manufacturer.   Or he may take on some other power sport merchandise to sell.  Harley won't like it for sure, but in some cases it may come down to whether Harley has dealer representation in the market or not.  Revenue is the key to survival, and unfortunately it is in these hard times that customer service usually suffers.  Unfortunately, much of the time, the Dealer mentality is very short sighted.  They tend to look at customer service as an expense, and try to minimize it.  Those stores that had good people and good service - may not have all those folks there now to take care of you.  Just like where you work - they're gonna have to cut back.

[HV]

At our store we have gone to closed Mondays too .. at least for the winter months ...

[wfolarry]

   Seems to me some of the problems dealers are/ will face is directly related to the mothership  requiring all those fancy new HUGE buildings and clothing sales space.  Even if they did in house financing for them it will be the corporate bottom line over the individual bottom line that wins.

mark61

I have to agree with this too. I know of another dealership that just opened up their new "huge" store last year & ain't doing so well. The smaller ones that are bought & paid for will survive.

[Skullfork]

Back in the 90's, my local dealer, Neidengard's, was also selling Yamaha bikes and ATV's and they shared a big part of the floor space.  But as the big Harley Boom took off they went H-D exclusively ...now I wonder as HARLEYJT states, if a lot of dealers will go back to selling other brands to survive.  Also, alot of dealerships left a bad taste in a lot of customers mouths with the price gouging that went on and they lost that customer loyalty aspect and they won't be back ...

[vbftuc]

Our local dealer here in Tucson opened there new location on the I-10 last spring. Things must be tough because if you can believe this besides Harleys he also a Vespa Scooter Dealer. Has it painted right across the front windows facing the interstate. Times are definitly tough.

[lasmittys1]

 Ten years ago I lost my job at a dealership, Smittys H-D in Moundsville, W VA. The dealership was there for 45 years. I worked there for 12 years.
The only thing the new dealership wanted me to do was kiss their butts and be happy that I had a job. What the new people didn't know was my boss,
Martha Smith, gave me everything. The only thing she asked of me was "keep Smittys alive". Sometimes life is fair! 

[Tex_Bagger]

No dealers closing here right now but Alamo City Harley in San Antonio just sold to Cowboy Harley out of Austin.  Last time I was in there business was flat out booming, place was packed with literally hundreds of new Harley's in stock and there were people everywhere, lines at the registers too of parts and clothes.  I counted no less than 6 solid white Street Glides and about 25 Ultras of varying colors.  I heard the new owner bought up extra Harley's all around the country to keep up with demand.  He kept most all of the old staff and even hired more sales guys from one of Alamo's other shops. 

Still looking good in south Texas! 

[Faast Ed]

The fancy store with great location wassn't that bad of an idea (duriing good times - the profits were magnified).

But now they have the high overhead during a credit crisis where many of their customers are losing jobs.
We have not seen the last of the closings, is my guess.

[Ultrashovel]

Besides the poor business conditions right now, I suspect that the dealers who sell on the internet are having an effect on the local dealers who don't sell like that. There are ten or fifteen companies that I'm aware of that sell at 20% discount online. These companies are drawing a lot of business away from the dealers.

Without naming names (you all know who the internet sellers are) I don't even bother to call the local dealer for parts prices anymore. They are just straight list price oplus tax. Instead. I just go online and get a quote. Generally, I can save money even paying shipping.

Companies are going out of business now right and left. These are really going to be difficult times and, without getting political, I don't see any help for a long, long time.

So, to keep this thread on track, I'm not the least surprised that a Harley dealer or two will bite the dust. I'm in the Sacramento area and three local Ford dealers have gone out of buisness in the last year. Chrysler is teetering as are GM, Ford and others. Hang onto your hard hat.

[crazybastid83]

I work at a small dealer, not one of those huge boutiques. We have cut back to 11 employees. This dealer is newly owned, after the last owner ran it into the ground. I know the overhead is like 40K a month. That is with a small old building and few employees.

[Princess Butt]

I just bought stuff at Lake Shore HD, and it was shipped to my office. Great service, better than Chicago HD.

I'm sure they're not hurting the local dealerships that badly. If they did, the dealerships would really complain to Mother HOG to get them shut down. There's not that much profit in flipping parts inventory; the big bucks are in service department labor and motorclothes.

There's a lot of dealerships who don't stock parts anymore. My neighbor went to buy a battery for their 2002 Ultra, and the local dealership had to order it. If I have to order it anyway, why don't I just order it online and get it shipped to my door, at a better price?

A lot of people who don't work on their own bikes expect to take it to a dealership and wait 2, 3, 4, or 5 weeks for their bike to be fixed, because they're waiting on parts. I don't have that luxury. I rely on mine for transportation.

Around here, most of the dealership business is military folks coming off deployment, or hard core, long term riders. The yuppies are gone.

BnEUC