Quote:
Originally Posted by TIGGER
I don't know you so I will acquiesce to your greater knowledge of Harley's long range plans for MV. I personally don't know. I was arguing your assertion about HD being able to lower the price of an MV thru volume. You seem to know more about it than I do. Do me a favor and tell Wille G I said hi at the next HD board meeting you attend.
To answer your questions,YES I BELIEVE HDs ARE A LOWER QUALITY MOTORCYCLE THAN MV!!!!! Who doesn't? Yes I think that MV uses better components (brakes,rims,suspension,electronics,etc) than Harley. Yes I believe that MV motors are made from materials that HD suppliers don't even deal with. Yes, I believe that MVs outperform HDs in every catagory aside from comfort. I also think that Suzukis,Yamahas,Hondas,Kawasakis,etc are also inferior to MV. I would have the same concerns if Suzuki had purchased MV. Although,at least Suzuki knows how to build a high performance motorcycle in the first place. Oh and please explain why you all think that Buell and MV will have anything to do with each other? There's no way that these two makes could be any more different!
News flash the very second that this buyout was announced 50% of the motorcycle buying public stopped considering MV "a quality,sought after motorcycle marque". Hence the original post. Out of 5 forums,the only people that REALLY believe this is great own Buells. Everyone else is at best "cautiously optimistic". FYI when AMF bought out HD alot of people said the same things you guys are saying about volume,cost savings,quality,etc. I owned two Sportsters from that time... JUNK!!! My friend bought one.... broke down before he even got home! Do you really believe that HDs are made to the same standards as a MV? I don't. Besides,you quote my posts but I don't think you read them....
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I am not sure as to the long range plans. I have no inside knowledge of HD specifically.
My background is in finance, economics, and corporate management. Yours appears to be on the manufacturing end (I could be very wrong on that.) I believe we both have valid points on this merger. I can only comment on what, corporately, a merger of this type would mean internally to HD and MV from a management standpoint.
It could all go horribly off the rails, or it could be one of the best things for MV. I have to believe that MV didn't view this as a hostile takeover. There was a reason MV would be willing to approve this merger. MV could have easily fought this and it would have been very public and very messy. They didn't.
I don't know if you are familiar with market segmentation as a concept, but many times companies produce products of two or three grades at two or three price points. The goal is to generate profits across a wide variety of price ranges. Sometimes Nabisco produces products under store labels that are exactly the same as the name brand products. Same product, two different prices. They make a smaller margin off the lower priced product, but they expand the quantity of goods sold.
HD may be looking to do some of the same as well. They have both Buell and MV. Two different grades of motorcycle. Two different price points.
We shall see. I hope that MV remains a high quality marque. Having lived the AMC days first hand, I can't imagine HD wanting to propogate those same impacts on MV.
They are a bunch of assless pant wearing knuckle draggers, but they ain't dumb.