Eric,
I’ll probably make two separate comments here: one about motorcycles and one about cars. First the motorcycles.
Harley is being very myopic here. I don’t know if you’re aware of it, but they recently ended production of the air cooled Sportster. That’s right; for the first time in decades, there is NO NEW Harley Sportster that one can buy! It’s been replaced by the “Nightster”, which has a water cooled engine. The smaller engined Nightster starts at like $14K-$15K? WTF can afford THAT as a new motorcycle? Even if one can afford that, how does that represent a good value for the money spent? AFAIAC, H-D bikes are overweight and overpriced machines that are the antithesis of what motorcycling is about: back to basics minimalism, freedom, and coolness.
Oh, and don’t tell me that H-D dropped their air cooled engines due to emissions regs. India based Royal Enfield is building clean, air cooled, and affordable bikes by the TENS OF THOUSANDS! And they’re doing so while meeting stricter emissions regs than what we have here. India’s emission regs are BS-6, which is roughly comparable to the Euro 6 regs; Euro 6 is beyond any emissions regs here, including those in CA. So, don’t tell me that air cooled bikes can’t be built due to regs! Royal Enfield is doing it every day, all while meeting stricter regs than what the US have.
Speaking of Royal Enfield, they’re doing what most motorcycle makers, including Japan’s Big Four, are no longer doing: building good looking, fun, reliable, and easy to service bikes at a price both they and their buyers can live with. WOW, what a concept! The Big Four are trodding the same path that H-D, BMW, et al are; the only difference is that they’re not quite as far down that path. The most expensive Royal Enfield, one of their 650 cruisers, is less than $7,500, whereas a comparable Big Four bike starts at that price point. And, the Jap cruisers in that class, e.g. the Kawasaki Vulcan S, have NO PERSONALITY WHATSOEVER! They’re fine bikes, but that don’t have that “wow factor” a bike should have. OTD, a RE motorcycle can be had for less than $10K.
What’s more, with the introduction of their 650 cruisers (the Super Meteor 650 and the Shotgun 650), RE have bikes that not only competed for the same buyers with the now departed air cooled Evo Sportster; they’ve done so with a bike that costs less than the Sportster ever did. Furthermore, one can BUY one of RE’s stylish and fun cruisers for less than half of what H-D’s Nightster costs. NO WONDER RE IS CLEANING UP! Building good looking, basic, easy to service, affordable bikes is a good business model; it’s also a long term one.
If you’re not into cruisers, RE has you covered; they have their Interceptor and Continental GT bikes that hark back to the 1960s and 70s. Do you want go anywhere dual sport? RE has you covered with their Himalayan, base price less than $5.5K; OTD, you’re looking at perhaps $7K or so. Are you just getting into motorcycling? Are you looking for your first bike? RE has you covered with their 350s, the Classic 350, the Meteor 350, and the Hunter 350; they’re all priced well under $5K, and can be rolled out the door for less than $6K. RE makes a bike you can start on, and they make bikes you can move up to; they make bikes to get you in the family and keep you in the family. If only they punched out that sweet, J series 349cc engine to 500cc or so…
Oh, and RE bikes are as basic as a new bike can be today and still meet gov’t regs. Their bikes have EFI and ABS, and that’s about it; they have everything you need, and nothing that you don’t. None of their bikes have a co*ckpit that would be more at home on the Starship Enterprise than on a motorcycle. They have screw & locknut valve adjustments, so anyone with any competence with hand tools can service the bike themselves. Indeed, that’s a big reason why I bought an RE: because I could save a ton of money servicing it myself vs. taking it to a shop. Besides, servicing your own bike is part of the RE ownership experience… 🙂
There’s one more major problem with H-D’s business model and product line: at some point, as riders get older, many of us DOWNSIZE; we no longer want a big, heavy, and ungainly bike! Many of us, as we get older, don’t want to push around a big, heavy bike in the garage or on the driveway. We don’t want to worry about navigating a parking lot or traffic jam at slow speeds and possibly dropping a big, heavy, and expensive bike. We want something that we can easily manage ourselves, even as our bodies age.
I remember how, back in the early 2000s, looking at a Kawasaki Vulcan 2000 cruiser. For grins and giggles, I sat on one. I could BARELY get it up off the kickstand! I was like WTF, can you imagine having to MANEUVER this monster in your garage or a parking lot? NFW! As an older guy now, I couldn’t really manage a big, heavy bike like that, and I don’t want to. Yet, big, heavy, and unwieldy bikes are H-D’s bread and butter. Even if we wanted a H-D and could afford one, many of us don’t want to push around a two wheeled tank as we get older.
I’ll give you a personal example. About three years ago, I was looking to get back into motorcycling. I saw Royal Enfield’s then new Meteor 350, a stylish, small cruiser harking back to the 1970s and 80s. Fully fueled, it weighs 420#; it’s heavy enough to be stable on the road, yet it’s light enough to move around and maneuver at low speeds. It has a simple, 2 valve thumper. Thumpers are easy to work on, plus they’re cool anyway. My bike SIPS fuel! An all day ride will set me back $10-$12, even at today’s unnecessarily high gas prices. I mainly ride the local back roads, cruise along the river, or cruise the streets of my city; I don’t need anything much bigger. I thought it was cool, so I bought one. A few weeks later, my retired neighbor got his own Meteor 350. We’d both had bigger bikes when we were younger, but as retired guys, we don’t need or want a bigger bike now. We’d been there, done that, and we don’t want to go back there now.
In closing, H-D is not only going to lose their present buyers; with their cheapest bike selling for nearly $15K, they aren’t going to get any new ones. Given the price/value ratio of H-D motorcycles, no discerning buyer will give them a look, even if they can afford a H-D. Also, as many riders get older, they’ll often look to downsize, as they don’t want to move a big, heavy bike around; in many cases, it’s too difficult to move a big heavy bike around. With my arthritic knees, that’s an issue. As I thought about it, RE is using the same playbook that Japan’s Big Four used back in the 1960s and 70s when they took motorcycling by storm; they’re building good looking, fun, basic, and reliable bikes at a price both they and their customers can live with. One can make money by selling reasonably priced, good looking, and fun motorcycles, and they can make money doing it. Just look at Royal Enfield; they’re doing it every day. The other motorcycle makers can and should take note! Car makers need to do the same. If they don’t, their bottom line will be impacted.
