Harley USA have sacked 200 workers as sales have fallen by 2% worldwide and 6%in USA. Lets hope the new motor helps pickup sales for them

Try dropping there prices instead of putting them up (tourers) might help .. just getting ridiculous what there charging Aussies,, Dynas are not bad price wise but say a road king , you can buy a good car for less

I wonder If there's any truth about the rumors that the Vrod will finish in 2017 ?

Dynas have come down in price , but they needed to , its competetive out there the tourers well its just price gouging pure and simple , I certainly don;t feel there doing us any favors , If you get sucked into the whole Harley lifstyle thing your gonna pay and pay through the nose ,,, They know excatly who there targeting and what there charging ,,, Don't think for one minuite that they say a RK cost us x amount and we want 10% profit , they employ consultants and physciatrists to work out what the masses will pay , and what they can gouge is what they want .
They sell a lifestyle , and a dream , and they know Aussies will pay more well a lot of Aussies anyway ,,, not this one

I still don't get the huge new price difference between Aussie and US bikes. It doesn't correspond to the value of the Aussie dollar. We're being screwed here.

If HD are doing what many Australian companies are doing now, that is increasingly paying higher dividend ratios to flattening company earnings and in many cases, borrowing to pay higher dividends, translates to not so much fat on the less than fatted cow, meaning more jobs losses and less for R and D if there's a further downturn in earnings or a financial market mini crisis's.

Even so, I paid $32000 in 08 for a custom softail and didn't give a rats arse, still don't. You want, you pay. I did pay just shy of $15000 in 1984 for an evo custom softail when they were released, so i suppose they have doubled there price plus a couple grand in24 years. I have noticed over the last 10 years or so, there genuine accessories have become way overpriced with a significant decline in quality which is why I rarely buy oem accessories any more.

I should of added, if hd continue to raise accessory prices with question quality and feed that into the production line, then they will only have themselves to blame if they starve the fatted cow to death

Ive seen harley heaven in Syd have been through a heap of staff in the past 6 months.. been through a fleet of Sales staff .

HD need to wake and adjust there models , they seem to aim at drag racers market , but they are the lowest horse power engines , they need to go back to XR s and FXRS -sp s , and tweak there handling department , there is nothing with any good ground clearance in the model line ups , i just brought a 16 low rider , the last one i brought 26 years ago a fxrs-sp was good straight off the show room floor blow of a lot a jap bikes in the twisty stuff , this new one i scrapped most of the chrome off the pipes on the first corner out of the showroom with the wax still on the tyres , a couple moths later and a lot work and 1/4 of the bikes price i got me ground cleance and handling back , hd would get back a share of the sports bike market just tweaking there handling dept , and shouldnt affect the price

Remember wages are lower in the US as well.

All this whinning that we are being ripped off is crap, yes we pay more than USA for the bike but have a long hard think why that might be.... give you a clue....tax.....shipping.....conversation rate......local transport......local cost of warehousing for importer......wages......gst......holding finance cost for importer now thats just a start. Dealers generally have a 8-10% profit margin to work with so that when you take your old bike in for a trade he has the ability to try to bridge what you think its worth with the real wholesale price is. 

So what your saying Pauly, is no one should post any critique or criticism regarding decisions made by company execs that directly effect supporters of there products. Particularly supporters who are probably more enthusiasts as there not just spending their hard earned on just anything to get them from A to B. Harleys, I presume the bikes are a lifestyle choice as well a vechial to not just get around on for many, but tour, ect ect

True story, Had a HD dealer fit a rear tyre and cause I was in lazy arse mode, I had them fit front brake pads. (l usually) do the pads meself). When it rained, the front brakes squealed big time. Pulled the pads, couldn't find anything wrong. Rang dealer, Told them ide bring bike in so they could rectify. They said, no, don't bring bike in, pull the pads and file them. I paid them to replace pads. I didn't pay them so I would have to file pads. I will leave it to you to imagine how many "fuck" word expletives that I said to that dealer. I had a win in the end. I refused to accept that shit.

Should I have said, I will buy a diffent brand of bike, sell my Harley, and not criticize them.

Thats what sheep would do.

And I forgot to mention, the HD dealers are the companies representative. At least that's what I would of thought.

Here in the U.S. the Heritage is aout the same price as a Road King and the R/K comes better equiped than the Heritage. If you add the front and rear crash bars and cruise control the the Heritage, it's actualy more that the R/K. Does Australia add a tax tarrif to Harley's?

Haha...We live in a capitalist society, where anyone is entitled to make a profit if they give it a good go, and the open free market dictates what we can sell a product for. The only reason Harley can get away with charging what some are calling over the top, is that consumers are still happy to pay the price. This means that it is not over the top, in fact, they have met the market, otherwise they would not make the sales....Unless some of you guys that have been "ripped off" were forced to purchase the HD against your will? Profit is not a dirty word, and it is limited by what the consumer will allow a business to make. If the product is too expensive, then there is one solution that will always solve the problem - Dont make the purchase!