Rising Gas Prices Hit Home At H-D

One would suspect that rising fuel costs would have consumers flocking to motorcycle dealerships in groves. After all, even the most technologically advanced hybrids don’t come close to the fuel sipping nature of most of today’s production bikes. Despite these truths, a continued sluggish U.S. motorcycle market has pushed Harley Davidson’s third quarter profit down 15.3 percent. What’s worse is that H-D says things aren’t looking to improve for next year either.

“Domestic buyers are seeing oil prices rising and the home market crumbling, so they’re being cautios about spending,” said Chief Executive Jim Ziemer about the situation.

Here in the U.S. sales were down 2.5 percent in the three-month period ending September 30, while the overall market fell 4.4 percent. Interestingly, Harley’s overseas sales were up 8.8 percent proving that this slowing is indeed a result of instability in the domestic economy. To put a dollar figure on this situation, revenue dropped 5.8 percent to $1.54 billion from $1.64 billion last year.