Harley Davidson Halts Production at York, PA

Harley-Davidson officials say the company is suspending production at its York County plant for the unforeseeable future. The company says it's temporarily halting all vehicle production and shipments at the vehicle assembly plant in Springettsbury Township due to a supply chain related matter.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/mot...-in-york-county-factory/ar-AAXrLNz?li=BBnb7Kz

Good information. I have always wanted to take that tour. Hopefully it will return by the time I get down that way.
OM

Probably a good time to do so, as there are quite a few bikes in the pipeline and on dealer floors already. Plus there are so many independent used HD dealers nowadays to keep most of the troops happy.

Motodan said:

Probably a good time to do so, as there are quite a few bikes in the pipeline and on dealer floors already. Plus there are so many independent used HD dealers nowadays to keep most of the troops happy.

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I read in a different article that it is due to the inability to obtain a certain critical part.

Motodan said:

Probably a good time to do so, as there are quite a few bikes in the pipeline and on dealer floors already. Plus there are so many independent used HD dealers nowadays to keep most of the troops happy.

Click to expand...

Not sure where you are at but every HD I have been in has almost zero new inventory and little used as well

Not sure if the production being halted Is due to chain supply issues, like microchips being unavailable or if this was part of the plan that CEO, Jochen Zeitz outlined previously to drive up demand by decreasing production as part of his Rewire strategy. Zeitz seems to have a very different outlook towards market share than the previous CEO. Zeitz is really seems to be leading with returning Harley to the days of when demand exceeded supply and consumers paid a premium just to be able to buy an HD.

I remember well during the late 80’s and through the 90’s that dealer inventory was limited, like it is now and the best you could hope for was to make a deposit just to be added to a waiting list. You would wait for weeks or sometimes months before your number was up. Oftentimes, because of the wait, consumers many times would opt for a model or color they didn’t order. “I don’t have a blue Softail, but I do have a red one. Want to buy that one?” That all changed obviously as HD eventually caught up with production and eventually seemed to have reached market saturation. Those who wanted an HD had one and there was a period of time dealers were struggling to move inventories

Zeitz has commented previously on positioning HD as a premium brand and introducing new product to bring new HD customers in to the fold. This seems to be a common talking point about HD customer demographics and how they’re aging and not buying their bikes anymore. The younger target audience isn’t interested as much in heavyweight cruisers. Hence the Pan America and Bronx models that were developed to appeal to new riders. Ultimately, the Pan America made it to production and seems to be selling quite well. The Bronx meanwhile, which would have been HD’s first naked sport bike was put on the back burner. There’s hope that bike may still make it to production in the future. For HD to survive and remain a global competitor, they need to continue evolving their product line. I think the response to the Pan America has proven that. Look at BMW sales! The GS in all its variants outsells all their other models. HD was very late to the party in recognizing the need for change.

As for current dealer inventories near me, there is only a very small selection of models and not all of the models are represented on the showroom floor. There seems to be more used inventory at my local dealership than new. Given the above, it’s not surprising.


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