Comments on: MV Back in Italian Hands: Harley Completes Sale (News)

By: Roberto P

Roberto P — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:48:39 +0000

HD continues to be fascinating. It is normal to look around for investments and new markets. To meet luck and serendipitous opportunities one has to move, even affording the risk to loose money on some ventures. However I’m really wondering why HD do not uses proprietary know how and glamour to develop more human motorcycles by downsizing both their motorcycles and engines. Just make a small 500cc scrambler and make lots of money worldwide by selling it at no more than 4.000 dollars! It seems the current worldwide economic crisis is not going to quit soon: it is time to downsize. The bad accident in the gulf of Maxico also suggest to go towards this direction. Turning to the moving: it seems to me the leading models to be followed today are not missiles manufacturers but other fascinating brands like Royal Enfield.

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By: Vroooom

Vroooom — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:22:37 +0000

Man that had to be a financially disasterous transaction. I had been thinking that while MV and Buell were not a fit, they might have resulted in some trickle down technology helping make Harley’s a bit more interesting to the younger crowd. Frankly I hated going to Harley dealers to check out Buell’s, the sales staff treated you like you were going to pay with food stamps. I see Harley continuing as always, but with market share dwindling except for the “image” wear, with bandanas, t-shirts, and truck stickers continuing to grow exponentially.

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By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:14:34 +0000

WOW! HD made more money on the MV sale than the Buell deal! HD continues to go down the tubes! The supply of old fat guys with 20K to waste is running thin these days! Good luck to MV. It’s a shame that HD didn’t sell Buell back to Eric for a buck!

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By: Rick

Rick — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:08:21 +0000

One wonders why HD didn’t crush the MVs into coffee table cubes? I glad to see that HD is going to concentrate on it’s core business….selling T-shirts!

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By: mpolans

mpolans — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:18:30 +0000

This isn’t true. Also, Harley really screwed Buell by selling the in Harley dealers, who usually knew nothing about Buells and frequently tried to “up sell” potential customers to a Harley.

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By: MIke L

MIke L — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:58:01 +0000

“A little love” is all Buell needed? Sheesh, they lost about a BILLION dollars on Buell

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By: morpheus

morpheus — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:31:42 +0000

The Italians don’t need any help to screw up a business.

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By: jerrylee

jerrylee — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:58:32 +0000

Gee just when I was hoping for a “Willie G” signature F4! My guess is they were never able to get the ape hanger clip-ons to work the way they wanted.

I hope they can patch up differences and get Tamborini back.

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By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:12:02 +0000

If Harley had bought MV Agusta in mid-2007 or earlier, I might have been encouraged. Back then, expansion and the opening of new dealerships was part of their business model. Buell and MV Agusta under the same corporate umbrella was enough to get excited about, even anchored to H-D. Harley provides a solid brand that is always going to be able to sell something to somebody just because of their image, and all those t-shirts and bandannas would keep the cash flow going while real American sportbikes were being developed.

But now that the boom economy has taken a complete dump all over whatever plans the MoCo had, Harley is looking to contract.

But how they expected to make good off of this purchase in 2008, after the downturn was clearly in effect, is a mystery to me. Is there anybody out there who can explain how this was a good idea?

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By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:00:18 +0000

I agree with you to a certain extent. The Porsche SUV and four-door sedan are just awful. I personally wish they would just stick to making rear- and mid-engined sports cars. But Porsche is such an upmarket brand, they can sell to people with a lot of money.

But this: Porsche now use water-cooled engines in all models. They’ve always been ahead of the curve technologically, except for that little piece of nostalgia in the back end of the Carrera for all those years.

Not that there isn’t room for air-cooled engines on modern motorcycles; I’m simply suggesting/hoping that Harley take an interest in all the technology they’ve been avoiding over the years.

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