I own a motorcycle sales and rental company in the USA, www.USMotorcycleSales.com. We have a unique business model which is perfect for our Australian customers. We have a Fly & Buy program in place that allows us to sell motorcycles to customers that combine a motorcycle holiday in America with a new motorcycle purchase.
For example, if a customer wants a new 2011 motorcycle, we buy the motorcycle they desire. We then add it to our rental fleet. The customer arrives at our shop and they are the first person to rent the new motorcycle. The customer then goes on their holiday for as long as they want. The motorcycle is registered and fully insured while they ride it. We charge a small $20 per day administration fee, insurance is $35 per day and tax is calculated at 9.75%. The total cost per day comes to $58.32 to ride your new bike in America. A ten day holiday will cost you $583.20.
We have a recommended 10 day self-guided tour which includes San Francisco, Monterey, Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) to Santa Monica / Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley and back to San Francisco. Other customized tours are available upon request.
When the client returns, we sell them the motorcycle as a used motorcycle and we take care of the freight, ADR compliance, GST and all the paperwork necessary to get the motorcycle on the road in any state in Australia. We offer a true turnkey door to door service.
We also offer our expertise to clients that find their own used motorcycles on eBay, CycleTrader and Craigslist and other US based motorcycle web sites. We offer a brokerage service where we can find the bike of your dreams for you at a very reasonable cost.
We have ADR conversion partners in or near Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne. We ship the motorcycle to the ADR conversion company closest to the customer’s home. When the motorcycle is ready, the customer can pick-up the motorcycle at these facilities free of charge or we can have it shipped directly to their home at a reasonable cost.
This introduction is not meant as a sales pitch and I apologies if it offends anyone. I have been reading this forum for a while now and it seems like many members of this forum have been looking for a service like the services we offer but no one is aware that we or anyone provides this service.
It is not every day that you find a company with experience selling motorcycles from the USA into Australia that has a rental division that allows customers to travel to America, then buy a motorcycle and register and insure it so that you can ride it before shipping it home.
Being in the motorcycle business in excess of 10 years gives me a lot of insight into the motorcycle marketplace both in the USA and Australia. I am very open to sharing my experience and knowledge of the Harley Davidson marketplace to the Australian HD Forum community.
Hey Guys,
Thanks for the feedback. I am aware the Australian dollar is stronger than the US dollar but if you look closely at the quote above, the cost of the Wide Glide in US dollars is $18,069. This price converted into Australian dollars came to $16,871. This shows that the Australian dollar is stronger, around $1.06 to each US dollar.
I used Yahoo Finances Currency Converter to come up with that number. What you do is put in the cost in US dollars and tell the program to convert it into Australian dollars and it comes up with the cost in Australian dollars. If you look closely, the numbers are correct. You can also do the reverse. You can put in $16,871 Australian dollars and it will convert into $18,069 US dollars.
It will be easier to understand if you check out the Yahoo currency conversion calculator at this link…
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency-converter/;_ylt=AvKE8pZB8LD978sTWdB5UYuz0KB4;_ylu=X3oDMTE4dDg0ZjNhBHBvcwMyBHNlYwNjdXJyZW5jaWVzTmF2BHNsawNjdXJyZW5jeWNvbnY-#from=USD;to=AUD;amt=1
We suggest you call your local bank to get your actual cost of the bike in Australian dollars. Use the cost of the bike in US dollars to see how much your actual cost in Australian dollars will be. In the above example the US cost for the Wide Glide with delivery to Los Angeles is $18,069.
The way our quote system works is it broken into two halves. The top half is based in US dollars, the bottom half is based on Australian dollars. In other words, the bike, title fees and freight fees to the Los Angeles export agent is all paid in US dollars. The sea freight, customs clearance, GST and ADR conversion are all based on Australian dollars.
Our clients pay us in US dollars for the bike and delivery to Los Angeles. They then pay all other fees to our ADR conversion partners in Australia in Australian dollars. It makes the whole process a lot smoother. The GST fees are actually calculated on the day the bike arrives in Australia and they are based on that day’s exchange rate.
Our only profit is in the processing fees / commission. All other fees are sold at cost, there is no markup on sea freight, GST or ADR conversion.
Dave said “looks to me like not much if any saving on purchase here in Aus......but you may have more accurate info etc.” I guess “much savings” is subjective. Considering after all fees including Registration, Compulsory Insurance, Stamp Duty and Numbers Plate fees an Australian client would still save over $5000 AU dollars. In my opinion, $5000 is a significant savings. But that is my opinion. As they say, opinions are like ass holes, everybody has one!
I hope this clarifies the currency conversion process.
Gentlemen,
I would like to thank Rooster for helping to clarify the conversion fee issue. Rooster has brought up a good idea for a posting. I will make a posting to get feedback on which bank or financial institution to use to get the best exchange rate.
As Rooster said; the quote I have created is not 100% accurate because I am using the Yahoo financial calculator as an example to convert US dollars to Australian dollars. This calculator is a guideline but it does not include the fees a bank or financial institution will charge for the transaction. Whenever people contact me for a quote I tell them to contact their financial institution to get that day’s rate. The bank will include their fees when they give the customer that day’s conversion rate.
Rooster also pointed out that the description of the wide glide does say it includes the optional speedo change. I did this to show the prospective customer that this quote was for a bike that did have this optional item installed however the $350 cost is not reflected in the US cost of the bike because it is actually a cost in Australian dollars. I add that cost to the second half of the quote which everything is based on Australian dollars. Again this is a fee the customer will pay directly to the ADR conversion partner.
We cannot change the speedometer before the bike leaves the USA or it will cause the bike odometer history to be considered “Mileage Unknown”. Therefore, we leave the bike stock and the Australian ADR company does the change and this will keep the mileage history of the bike intact.
If you look at the Harley USA web site you will see that the MSRP of the 2011 Wide Glide with the optional security system comes to $14,869 and this is the fee we have charged in US dollars. The $350 fee is added later in the pricing. There is no double dipping / charging twice etc.
http://www.harley-davidson.com/en_US/Motorcycles/wide-glide.html#/specs
Hope this clarifies everything. Keep these good question coming, it helps clarify everything for everybody.
Michael
