More motorcycle content but Harley related

Looking at the latest prices for new Harleys which come from the USA, I was
wondering why the prices are so different between the prices in the USA, New
Zealand and Australia

USA, Road King....$US16,999
New Zealand $NZ30,850
Australia $AU31,490

Given the current exchange rate of 0.91241 US dollars to the Australian
dollar
The Harley price here should be $15,510, that means that if you buy one, you
are paying the importer an extra $16,000 for the privilege

At the current currency rate, the Australian buyer is paying $AU31,490 which
equates to $US 34,513, more than double

The cost for a Harley shipped to NZ is $30,850
The cost shipped to Australia is $31,490
The currency rate is 0.738 NZ dollars to the Australian dollar

The cost compared to NZ with the currency rate should be $22,791, seeing
that shipping to either New Zealand or Australia, should not be of that much
difference why should we pay an extra $9,000 for that little bit of extra
travel?

The cost of the same bike in the USA is $16,999 or the current currency rate
compared to the Australian dollar is $15,510
Australian buyers have to pay almost $16,000 for shipping from the USA to
Australia

At $$US16,999, someone could have a nice travelling holiday and pick up a
new Harley in the States for well under the price of what they are charging
for a landed one here.
Now, what would it cost for shipping from the USA to Australia, about $2000
at best ?
You could buy two for that price

As Prof. J.S.M. said, "Why is this so ?"

Maybe a trip to the USA is on the cards
or to NZ ?

 

Maybe Aussie Harleys need a different mounting bracket for the
harvesting attachment?

I expect there'd be some duties but nothing to that extreme, surely.

 

Don't be cheeky Yeebok
Just because Harley starts with the letter "H"
and Harvester also starts with "H"
doesn't necessarily put them in the cqategory
Otherwise, next thing, you will have a Hyosung in the same stable ?

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sun, 01 May 2011 19:36:37 +1000

The stock in the country now was bought at a different exchange rate.

The stock to replace that might be cheaper, but the stock to replace
*that* won't be.

If the punters are paying 30k now, why drop the price?

Zebee

 

Isn't a trip the USA punishment enough, without being forced to brig a HD
home with you?


BTH

 

The prices I quoted Zebee, are from the latest email I received this evening
from HD USA

 

Okay BTH, but you could also take a trip to NZ to buy one
Now, I ask you
which trip would be the the most punishment?

 

What do you mean, buying a HD would be punishment ???

 

The last time the dollar hit parity, back in 2007/2008 Harley Davidson
indeed did drop the price of their Buells (not sure if it was just Buell
or the entire H-D range) by a couple of thousand dollars.

I suspect that economies of scale play a massive part in the pricing.
In USA H-D are by far the largest motorcycle seller. They sell more
bikes than each of the Jap manufacturers in all market segments, and
only compete in one market - road bikes. You couldn't even imagine how
many Road Kings and other large Harley tourers you'd see every day
riding through the USA. They are everywhere, and seeing groups of 10-20
at a time crusing down the highway together is a very common sight.

According to http://knol.google.com/k/the-u-s-motorcycle-market# the
demographic of the average new motorcycle buyer in the USA is a married
male aged 40-60 years old. That also happens to describe just about
every Harley rider you'll meet there.

Motorcycle dealerships over there are huge affairs. I went to a Honda
dealership in Arkansas which alone was probably bigger than every bike
shop in Melbourne combined, and probably sold more new motorcycles per
annum than all of the bike shops in Melbourne, and they didn't even sell
H-Ds.

Nev..

 

if they dropped the price of their boat anchors, there would be a lot of
pissed off accountants and lawyers that have bought them in the last 2-5yrs
whose bike value would instantly drop +16k (if your suggestion of 16k for
the importer should be dropped)...

and as said, if fools are paying that much for junk, let em.

 

"George W Frost" wrote

It's a standard US 'rip off the foreigners' ploy. It's probably not
the dealer or the importer that makes the money. It all gets sucked
back to the US of A. Having spent 33 years working for a US
multinational I can vouch for ridiculous spare parts pricing. The
local branch pays 2.5 times the domestic US price for every part.
Because it is listed on the books as 'cost of imported parts', the
profit over manufacture cost is not taxed in Aus, and the US end has
it listed as foreign income on which they pay minimal or no tax.

I wanted to buy Adobe's Elements 9 recently. Download from the US site
for a 30 day trial. Listed in the US on-line Adobe shop for $99US, in
the Oz on-line shop for $135 AUS. No goods moved anywhere to complete
this transaction.

Theo

 

I didn't suggest that $16,000 be dropped from the price
I asked the question why there was a $16,000 price difference
But, your suggestion that $16,000 be dropped off the price is an excellent
idea

 

There's a Harley in a museum at Sturgis which has one million miles on
the clock. A quick google failed to find any other motorcycle marques
which could boast the same.

Nev..

 

"Nev.." wrote

Hardly surprising. Did you expect to find a Honda or a Triumph in a
museum in Sturgis?

OTOH. It was probably like my granddad's axe. It only had three frame
and five engine changes.

Theo

 

Actually the difference in duty and other taxes is probably more than
you expect. There is a 5% import duty and then a 10% GST included in
the price quoted in Australia. This figure is probably a ride-away
price I'm guessing.

The USA operates on a completely different model. Almost everything in
the USA is advertised at the tax-excl price. Even a can of coke in a
shop which says $1.00 on the price tag will cost you somewhere between
$1.05 and $1.15 depending upon the sales tax in whichever state you're
in. When it comes to vehicles, H-D cannot quote you the sales-tax
inclusive price because they don't know how much that will be. Even the
shop you buy the bike from won't be able to quote you a sales-tax
inclusive price because you don't pay the sales tax to them. When you
buy a bike in the USA (I believe this is true for all of the lower 48
states) you merely pay the dealer the price of the bike. They give you
a temporary number plate made of a thin piece of cardboard, I kid you
not. This is a 30 day permit. You then have 30 days to take the bike
to your local DMV office in the state in which you live. You have to
pay the registration fee to the DMV. At some stage you will receive a
bill for the sales tax levied at the rate at which your home state
determines. Then you need to pay your 3rd party insurance, and whatever
else is required.

So to compare, you're going to need to strip the Registration &
compulsory insurance ($550), GST ($2700), stamp duty ($750), import duty
($1350), probably a dealer delivery fee ($500), etc from the price of
the bike in Australia, so at a rough guess, your $31,490 ride away price
would probably be quoted at about $25600 using the USA method.

Then there's the cost of international shipping, and probably not
insignificant cost of insurance on the shipping, and all the other costs
of being so far from the factory and in such a limited market.

Nev..

 

I think it had more engine changes/rebuilds than that. Never mind
grandad's axe. How about your father's Model T? Still on it's original
rings after 85 years ?

Nev..

 

"Nev.." wrote

New rings, pistons, gearbox bands, the lot. The gearbox bands were
notorious and original ones would often require replacement at 1000
miles. They redesigned them so you could replace them without removing
the engine/gearbox assembly.

Some time ago Mercedes Benz was skiting that a 200D somewhere in the
Us had done more than a million miles without an engine rebuild.

Wiki has this one
A very long running car is a 1976 Mercedes-Benz 240D in Greece of
Gregorios Sachinidis that has reached 2,858,307 miles[8] before
retiring to a Mercedes-Benz museum in Germany.

And, from elsewhere
That's impressive, but he can't touch retired New York schoolteacher
Irv Gordon, who's in Guinness World Records for having driven more
than 2.5 million miles in his cherry-red 1966 Volvo P1800.

But that would have needed several paint-jobs to stay cherry-red.

Theo

 

Riding one would be punishment enough, let alone actually paying for
one (and the repairs to it when it hardly does it, son).

 

I would think that the MSRP price quoted, would be the ride away price from
the dealer, then you have to add registration costs of coarse, no matter
where you live

Nev, I can't find anywhere in the pricess, where they quote a price which
includes Registration & CTP

I can understand that there is shipping and delivery costs involved, but
when a company is shipping multiple items, it would cost a lot cheaper per
item, that what you or I would be able to do.
Not the $16,000 extra I said.

Peter Stevens offered a deal years ago, where if you bought a bike from
them, they would supply you with a return air tour package, taking you to
the USA, then to the H-D factory to pick out your bike, you watched it being
built if you were so inclined, then handed the bike, where you rode it
around the States for the duration of your holiday, then down to the
shipping depot, where they packed your bike.
You then returned to Australia, where you waited for your bike to arrive.
All this for the same price if you walked into Elizabeth Street and bought
one on the floor.
If they did that then in an all-included price
Why can't they do that again
or anyone else?

 

Sorry TimC, but the repairs, if any, to a Harley, would not cost as much as
most other bike repairs.
I have had my Harley for 25 years and the repair bill would have cost me
around $100
Not counting of coarse, the usual running expenses, fuel, tyres etc.
And I find the riding position of the Harley superior and more comfortable
than any of the other bikes.