U.S. to impose Import Duties for European Motorcycles

[OB_Cisco San Jose]

Check out the latest in the fight over U.S. beef export to Europe. See www.americanmotor.com/index.html
Thank the WTU for that one.Government interference.Oh well it's the small displacement motorcycles that will be target 50cc-500cc.

 

[DaveO]

What a political joke!!! Reminds me of the "HARLEY" tariff in the mid 80's.

Dave

 

[OB_Thradar]

Yeah, I remember that...save the decrepit, technological neanderthals (Harley) from the Far East Invasion. Crock of **** .

 

[Guest]

Actually, while I am opposed to government intervention 99% of the time, it was legally proven that the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers were practicing an illegal trade practice called 'dumping'. Thats where the product is sold at an artificially low price to hurt domestic competition. Now dont get me wrong. Im no fan of H-D and their complete disregard for any new technology is what got them where they were in the 80's. Damn near out of business. But they were able to prove their case in court because it was true. They were given 5 years tariff protection. It was the right thing to do given the trade violation.

 

[DaveO]

Tom,

I DISAGREE!!!! The only dumping I saw back then was an overabundance of bikes caused by a recessive market. If you were involved in the bike biz back then, you would know.

Thru the late 70's bike sales skyrocketed. Continued into the early 80's. Then the economy fell out, and the Japs overforecast the market, which resulted in MANY leftovers. This drove the price of new/used bikes down...hard.

And Harley's wonderful business strategy?...It saved their butt back then. What most people fail to realize is that for the last 5-10 years of HD's success, the prices were driven up because HD was allocating MORE units to Euro/Japan because of HIGHER profit margins. Thus creating shortages in the US which resulted in dealer's HUGE markups(can u say supply/demand). You wanted a sporty? That would be MSRP + $2K in my pocket..thank you very much.

Nobody but HD benefited (except our Goverment), when they raised the import tariff on 700+cc machines, from 4.4% to 44.9%. I really can't see how you can DEFEND that one. Everyone has an opinion, you hit a nerve.

P.S. It was also "legally" proven that O.J. was INNOCENT......


Dave

[This message has been edited by DaveO (edited 07 June 2000).]

 

[OB_Jay]

The big farce about that whole deal was that there was no competition for Harley Davidson®. The Japanese at that time were not building "cruisers". Harley® was able to convince a jury of people who knew nothing about motorcycles that the reason someone bought a Suzuki GS1150 was simply because it was cheaper than a 1200cc Harley®.

How absurd. The guy who wanted an 1150cc fast Japanese bike wouldn't have purchased a Harley® if it had been half the price of the Suzuki.

Harleys were a real piece of trash back then. It took a very serious effort at quality control to turn Harley® around. People had to discover that you could ride one from one end of the country to the other without having to have a top end rebuild mid-way. Thats is what changed Harleys® fortune, not the dumping thing.


Jay

 

[OB_cbxchris]

Harley`s day is near....take a look in the local bike trader....more harley`s for sale than all jap bikes together....image will only last so long and hollywood hasn`t been cranking out the saving image movies they did a few years ago....glad I don`t own harley stock.....

 

[OB_Mr Bear]

I got my GS1100E right as the tariffs were hitting in 1983. I paid $3,300 for it, from the dealer, new. The next year, a new Honda 1000 Interceptor or a Yamaha FJ1100 cost nearly 5 grand.

Harley always wanted their own little corner of the market, big V-twins. That turns out to be a pretty small corner. The dumping thing was wierd, a red herring. It hurt Japanese bike sales, but it probably didn't sell any Harleys.