I’ve seen this ad all over the web – Harley is advertising that you will get your full purchase price back on any Sportster model if you trade up to a bigger model within a year. Harley’s idea of riding free is a little different than my idea. You do have to pay for the Sportster, so “free” is not really the word most people would choose. It’s not true, but it is good marketing…
Considering that the promotion specifically mentions 08 and 09 models, it is pretty obvious that there are a lot of leftover 08’s to get rid of. (kinda like the auto industry right now!) At any rate, there are a couple of things implied in a deal like this. First, we see that Harley realizes that people are not spending money right now. So, getting the guy who really wants a Fat Boy to buy a Sportster is good marketing since the guy is thinking “I can move up to the Fat Boy next year when the economy is better”. The problem is that the economy is probably not going to be better in a year- certainly not better enough for most people to justify spending 20,000.00 on a new motorcycle. But in the mean time, Harley does get to clear out some inventory by dangling a carrot in front of the guys who always wanted a Harley. My question is this- How bad are Harley’s resale values going to be hit with a flood of used Sportsters on the market as well as the flood of repo’ed bikes they are now seeing? Lets face it, when it’s crunch time, the bike is the first thing to go. I foresee a very difficult 2-3 years for Harley coming up with huge discounts needed to attract buyers.
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