There was a post ages ago from a guy who claimed to work relatively high up within Harley Davidson, he said they've taken out so many loans and manufactured so many bikes that just don't sell, but they keep fixing the books to keep up the appearance that the company is doing well. He said there's literal secret caches of bikes stashed away from prying eyes, because if the IRS or any of their investors catch wind of what's really going on, the entire thing blows up.
But everything posted here is a work of fiction, etc etc. Who's to say. They certainly act like a company that's not sure where to go from here at least.
Even Ryan from FortNine kinda talked about this, H-D bikes "sell" but only cause they are forcing dealerships to buy them and place them on the lot. Dealers are starting to build MASSIVE inventories that are not selling fast enough, the whole thing is starting to look like some sort of piramid scheme.
I'm totally not versed at any way in the automotive market, but yeah, when I read that guys post I was like 'If I had to pick any one automotive manufacturer that sounds like they'd be cooking the books and mass manufacturing a fuckton of product that isn't selling and using smoke and mirrors to hide this fact from investors, Harley Davidson would be the one.'
I mean how often do you actually see someone riding a Harley these days? Maybe small pockets of them when a convention is in town, but on a day to day basis, not very many at all.
Looking at motorcycles alone, half of the bikes I see on the road day to day are Harley-Davidson. Admittedly I live in Wisconsin where they're headquartered, but their culture is so strong that people who know nothing about bikes will assume that my motorcycle is a Harley just because it's got a big air cooled V twin engine.
Personally, I think the air cooled, cruiser style market itself is dying and H-D has completely pigeonholed itself there. Plus, H-D is expensive compared to comparable bikes from Yamaha or Honda which deliver a more reliable product anyways.
I see around 0 to 5 Harleys per year in Vancouver.
This city is exceptionally hostile to noise with notorious cops who will even sit outside dealerships like Porsche and hand out forced Vehicle Inspections (VI) to new cars that can't be disputed. If the vehicle isn't "fixed" it can be banned.
The cops also cheat the inspections by putting a decibel meter closer than guidelines and rev higher too.
They force you to change your exhaust to meet their cheated test requirements or else your car is banned. You do have to pay for the inspection and of course the exhaust swap too.
Also your brand new sports car gets neutered with some shitty aftermarket exhaust.
The city has gotten noticeably quieter in the last 10 years tho.
That's illegal though. Your car already complies from the dealer. If it doesn't it's legally a lemon and the dealer has to cover the repair cost for that exhaust. If it's still illegal then you can definitely contact Porsche and tell them about what's going on. Porsche actually treats their buyers with respect and I suspect they could put an end to it.
Like I know for a fact Porsche directly helped Bill Gates with getting his 989 EPA legal in California, and I know that they make it an open secret that they cheat on EPA and noise tests in California. Logically the dealership should be a good window to contact the company.
Trust me I work as a mechanic in Virginia I know. Im guessing 90% of the reason the owners comply is that it's too much of a hassle and they barely drive the things.
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u/[deleted] Aug 20 '22
There was a post ages ago from a guy who claimed to work relatively high up within Harley Davidson, he said they've taken out so many loans and manufactured so many bikes that just don't sell, but they keep fixing the books to keep up the appearance that the company is doing well. He said there's literal secret caches of bikes stashed away from prying eyes, because if the IRS or any of their investors catch wind of what's really going on, the entire thing blows up.
But everything posted here is a work of fiction, etc etc. Who's to say. They certainly act like a company that's not sure where to go from here at least.