They were down in 17 to just under 5 bil. Sales are dropping q to q but the stock is holding up and HD is addressing the issues. There is also a stock buyback underway and plant mergers in the US.
This one is worth 150k but I didn't see one in his garage.
Eff Harley for what they did to Buell, the head guy at the time said people won't buy sport bikes and hemmed up Buell, and then guess what, they buy MV Agusta, and couldn't run that.
Harley shouldn't be in this position if they paid attention. It's not like reading palms. We'll see how good they are of addressing the issue, like closing plants...One of the main issues is that they sell to an old base, who can afford high price lifestyle bikes (that offer no real technological advances), but that base is dying off. They make the same old, same old, and don't really diversify. They are a lifestyle brand, that hasnt learn to adapt like two other lifestyle brands---Triumph and Ducati. They don't have a competitor to the widely popular Ducati Scrambler or have a Bobber type bike as sexy as the Triumph Bonneville Bobber/Bobber Black. Also Triumph is the engine provider for Moto GP2.
Again, this is Harley's chickens coming home to roost for what they did to Erik Buell, their failure to adapt, their reliance on the Babyboomers, being too much of a lifestyle brand, buying MV Agusta...
It's too harsh to say that I hope that they go under, because that might mean desperation, and that may mean
Chinese money.
BTW, I don't think VW will sell Ducati anytime soon, unless another scandal erupts, or Ducati starts losing money. Ducati is another jewel in the crown, and can prove valuable for testing out electric motorcycles---especially sport bikes.
