| Author | Message | ||
     Sik_s |
After reading so many threads about how the local H-D dealer dropped Buell like a cat in a red hat, I was just speculating whether Buell would be able to sell any more bikes besides those from the sponsors and the used ones that everyone wants. What are your inputs? I have no problem supporting Daves and Al, and other sponsors, but it seems like I am on the downward turn of a bad deal? Sure tell me to get rid of my bike or whatever, but that is not my plan. Shit I like the new Norton and they don't sell it here, but that wouldn't keep me from buying it...just speculating what Buell's plan is. | ||
| Stretchman |
Easy formula. UgLY, and SS models sell like hotcakes. More business, means more money for HD. Buell is a subsidiary, or something to that effect. Pressure from heap bigum Moco to sell Buellys in stores again, and service said same. When demand increases, and it is, then more people will pick the line up again. Oh, and BTW  SO who cares? Stretch | ||
| Sik_s |
Interesting concept...and those who care are those who own Buells and wonder where the products direction (if any) is going. The whole selling/servicing Buells again will not be added to dealerships anytime soon. If anything more dealerships will drop the brand as the trend indicates. | ||
| Rpmchris |
I'd rather have 1 dealer in my area who really WANTS to sell/service/otherwise support Buell than several who feel they "have to" do it (we actually have 3 out of 6 in Dallas). Buell riders are not as plentiful as HOGs, nor will they ever be. And most Buellers don't walk into a dealership and "discover" the bikes - we do research, read articles, and use BBs like BadWeB for our support structure. HOG has over 1,000,000 members now. BRAG has only a handful. HD is a well run business. The decisions they make with their dealers will change over time as demand increases. | ||
| Fastfxrs |
A few years ago when the Motor Company started mandating larger floorplan boutiques for H-D dealerships, the small shops had to pay up for remodeling or possibly loose their franchise. I might be wrong here, but I remember hearing that a certain amount of floor space (tiny) had to dedicated to the Buell line. Our local dealership nearly doubled its floor space and number of bikes on the floor but they only have 3 Buells on the floor at a time. Just like before the remodel. My dealer said he gave me a good deal on my Uly because he wanted to get the word out on the new model and he knows I pile on the miles and talk to a lot of his customers. I hope they keep selling Buells. I also hope the service dept. gets more up to speed on working on them. The answers I've gotten to some simple questions have been scary. Tim | ||
| Elvis |
2005 - Buell sold more bikes than they have in any other year. 1st quarter of 2006 - Buell sold more bikes than they ever have in any 1st quarter. | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
Yes, but about half those sales are in export markets- here in the U.S. Buell sales and service continue to flounder. | ||
| Bodyshot1 |
according to what I've heard from the Ocean County NJ dealer..they're selling very well this season... like mentioned above, the Uly & Ss are moving.. | ||
| Spike |
There were a few anonymous postings about the dealers dropping the Buell line a while ago. Basically, it wasn't a random occurrence of many dealers getting out of the Buell business, it was a planned "thinning of the herd." They set out to allow the dealers who weren't really interested in Buell to get out of the product line while keeping the better dealers in an effort to improve the quality of the Buell dealership experience. It used to be the case that I would walk into supposed Buell dealerships only to find one or two bikes stuffed in the corner with no other Buell products and no knowledgeable sales staff. Usually the sales staff was happy to inform that the Buells weren't selling well. It wasn't a good representation of the Buell line. As it stands now, there are two Buell dealerships within an hour of me that stock Buells, have at least some selection of Buell merchandise, and have at least one member of the sales staff that can tell me about the bikes. While there are currently less Buell dealerships than there were 2-3 years ago, the remaining dealerships should offer a better representation of the brand. | ||
| Court |
>>>I remember hearing that a certain amount of floor space (tiny) had to dedicated to the Buell line That is an inaccurate statement. >>>we do research, read articles, and use BBs like BadWeB for our support structure. That is an accurate statement. Buell prospects tend to arrive at MOST dealerships more knowledgable than the dealer staff. Savvy sales folks are smart enough to let the prospoect talk, learn and make the sale. >>>here in the U.S. Buell sales and service continue to flounder. That is an inaccurate statement. Buell sales are robust, recently accentuated by the "oversold" condition on the recently released XBRR. USA sales will always be less than Euro/overseas sales where the Buells are an absolute hit. | ||
| Daves |
Buellgrrrl Where did you get that info from? Sales in the US floundering? I think not. The Ulys and the rest of the XB line up are selling well and gaining recognition that will lead to more sales. Getting rid of dealers that suck is the best thing Buell has done for everyone. Good dealers and customers alike. Now if we could just get rid of the Ebay and the "let's just give them away so we can win a Pegasus award" dealers that kill everyone's resale $$ and lower Buell image in the market then Buell could really make a leap forward. In many area they had 5 or 6 Buell dealers within miles of each other. If you think of a pie that represents all the Buell customers and potential Buell customers of a given area. Cut the pie into 2 pieces and it makes it worth the $$,training,tools,inventory to be a Buell dealer. Cut that same size pie into 5 or 6 pieces and then the pieces aren't big enough to bother with. So in those areas you would usually have one good dealer and the rest of the 5 or six would just give the bikes away to get rid of them. Thus making it impossible for even the good dealer to make any money on Buell no matter how hard they try. That isn't fair to the dealer that is trying to do a good job. It also isn't fair to the customers or potential customers that got the shoddy treatment at one of the poor dealers. Having a lot of bad dealers is not the answer. That cost Buell many,many sales over the years. Imagine telling a customer that the bikes you are supposed to be selling "don't sell around here" | ||
| Glitch |
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| Glitch |
It's been a while since a thread such as this has popped up. I remember when it was said Buell wouldn't last another six months, that was around the time of the release of that radical XB9R... | ||
| Midknyte |
Yeah, this thread is so last year... | ||
| Daves |
Actually it is "so every year"  | ||
| Earwig |
Edit from Bodyshot1: uhh..you forgot Ocean County HD/Buell on Rt.70, Lakewood/Brick NJ So that makes it 6 Buell dealers :P Hrm, maybe people in NJ are just lucky but... I just chose Honda to compare the # of dealers to Buell since I guess Honda is a huge motorcycle company right? Only 4 Honda Dealers in NJ and 6 Buell dealers... Buell Dealers Harley-Davidson of Edison 211 Woodbridge Avenue Highland Park, NJ, USA 08904 Liberty Buell 12 West Milton Avenue Rahway, NJ, USA 07065 Buell of Long Branch 671 Broadway Long Branch, NJ, USA 07740 Buell of Bergen County 124 Essex Street Rochelle Park, NJ, USA 07662 Kosco Harley-Davidson, Inc. 1149 Route 23 South Kinnelon, NJ, USA 07405 Ocean County HD/Buell Rt.70, Lakewood/Brick, NJ Honda Dealers Sport Honda 911 Middlesex Ave Metuchen, NJ 08840-2226 Burgers Motorcycle Sales & Service 749 Route 202 Bx 426 Three Bridges, NJ 08887 Freehold Honda 4413 Route 9 Freehold, NJ 07728-8364 Hanover Powersports 70 Route 10 Whippany, NJ 07981-2106 (Message edited by earwig on April 20, 2006) (Message edited by earwig on April 20, 2006) | ||
| Court |
>>>>Actually it is "so every year" Shame that Steve Beigler never gets credit (Denise and I are the only ones here who have been around Buell long enough to remember) for being the first one to predict the looming demise of Buell. I was a kid then. Erik was dreaming of someday building his 1,000th motorcycle. Someone a while back gave me the doom and gloom woe is Buell line. I asked where they were in the days of going "week to week", the night Elves stayed up all night to have an RS in the morning or suffer the consequences. I have to tell you that when I see numbers like 25,000 bikes I don't have a bit of problem remembering when there were less than a dozen in America. I think the Optimist Club should recruit more aggressively. The most important element of any dream is perseverance and adherence to principles. But...hey...that's just me. | ||
| Bodyshot1 |
uhh..you forgot Ocean County HD/Buell on Rt.70, Lakewood/Brick NJ | ||
| Earwig |
Bodyshot1, weird, they don't list that as dealer on the Buell website. | ||
| Hoax |
Take a step back and look at the big picture. Every year the average age of a Harley buyer goes up. Every year Buell sales go up, mainly to younger riders. One day I predict that every Harley dealership will gladly carry the Buell line. | ||
| Daves |
The smarter ones already do | ||
| Buellxb9s |
Does anyone have a link to where the numbers are at?? As far as the Profits and sales... I would really like to see it.. Also Daves you keep doing a great job.. Thanks for the Seat WOW what a huge difference.. I wish all dealers were even close to your service. | ||
| Buellxb9s |
HMM?? | ||
| Buellgrrrl |
Dave, I got my numbers from HD's last annual report which showed exports making up slightly over half of shipments. So while Buell looks to be havin a record year worldwide, U.S. shipents are down a bit from the pace of a few years back. | ||
| Whosyodaddy |
(we actually have 3 out of 6 in Dallas). Actually, there are only 2 Buell dealers now in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area. (And according to someone affiliated with one of those dealers, that dealer would just as soon be out of the Buell business altogether. Based on my treatment in that dealership, I don't find this hard to believe.) Buell.com needs to update their dealer list. | ||
| Rpmchris |
"Actually, there are only 2 Buell dealers now in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area." Dallas HD-Buell in Garland (just had my bike serviced there last week...) HD-Buell of Dallas in Allen (different dealer principal than DHD but same ownership, and they sponsor our new BRAG Chapter) American Eagle HD-Buell in Corinth (just before you get to Denton) I count 3, all of them within 20 miles of each other. Longhorn HD in S. Arlington shows to be a Buell 'ship but is not. Curious, 'daddy, which one doesn't want Buell anymore? (Message edited by rpmchris on April 20, 2006) | ||
| Whosyodaddy |
HD-Buell of Dallas in Allen (different dealer principal than DHD but same ownership, and they sponsor our new BRAG Chapter) Well, that's interesting. Just prior to the the '05 HD/Buell dealer show, the sales manager there informed me that they were not going to carry Buell from '05 forward. In fact, they ended up refunding me a deposit. Curious, 'daddy, which one doesn't want Buell anymore? AE | ||
| Alanshouse |
Buellxb9s - You can call, write or email pretty much any public company for an annual report. Or so I believe. | ||
| Whosyodaddy |
You can call, write or email pretty much any public company for an annual report. Or so I believe. You can get HD's annual report here: http://investor.harley-davidson.com/index.cfm?locale=en_US&bmLocale=en_US | ||
| Court |
>>>>So while Buell looks to be havin a record year worldwide, U.S. shipents are down a bit from the pace of a few years back. Precisely as prescribed in the strategic plan I'd bet.....I doubt HD sent Scott Miller to England for 2 years for pleasure. Europe, Japan and other overseas markets will always be the lions share of Buell sales. Has been for years. |
