The dust having now settled on the excitement that greeted Harley’ s rumored appointment of Goldman Sachs to explore Ducati acquisition options, in a rare outbreak of“ Unions do something useful, shock,” Volkswagen’ s hopes of selling Ducati have been scuppered by the powerful German unions( who account for half of the seats on the auto giant’ s advisory board) being united in opposition to the sale.

It has emerged that while several serious bids were indeed received for Ducati in response to Volkswagen’ s preliminary Offer for Sale, Bajaj Auto and the Italian Benneton investment fund were believed to have been favorites to win the bidding war. Some reports suggest that Royal Enfield( and Polaris joint venture partner Eicher Motors) increased its initial par bid of around $ 1.5Bn to $ 2.0Bn.

Talking of Unions, as has been widely reported, but probably not really noticed much as such, the United Steelworkers and International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have terminated their 22-year old agreements with Harley, claiming that the company has been“ systematically dismantling its hourly workforce” for some seven years. Harley spokesperson Pat Sweeney is reported to have stated that the decision will not affect how Harley deals with workplace issues.

As at August 2017 Harley- Davidson was in 6th spot in motorcycle market share terms in Germany, having sold 7,666 units for an 8.93 percent share; down from 9,252 units / 10.09 percent for the first eight months of 2016.

Harley’ s top-seller in Germany Jan- Aug 2017, and the 25th best-selling motorcycle in Germany for the first eight months, was the XL 1200 X( 884 units); the Breakout was the 31st best-seller in Germany( 804 units); Dyna Street Bob 34th( 787 units); and XL 883 Iron 43rd( 597 units).

In other German market news, Harley has done a deal with guarantee provider CG to extend its standard two-year warranty on new bike sales to four years.

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believe we are uniquely positioned to build ridership and strengthen the sport of motorcycling, not just in the U. S., but around the world. Our investments in new product and marketing are targeted to drive ridership growth. We have the strategies, plans and people to make it happen,” said Levatich. Harley-Davidson says it continues to expect to ship 241,000 to 246,000 motorcycles to dealers worldwide in 2017, which is down approximately 6 to 8 percent from 2016. In the fourth quarter, the company expects to ship 46,700 to 51,700 motorcycles compared to 42,414 motorcycles shipped in the year-ago period. Harley say the quarter was impacted by soft used bike prices and the hurricanes in Texas and Florida, though by the end of the quarter used

Income statements in THREE MONTHS ENDED NINE MONTHS ENDED $ 1,000s( except share) SEPT 2017 SEPT 2016 SEPT 2017 SEPT 2016

NET SALES REVENUE

Figures are shown THREE MONTHS ENDED NINE MONTHS ENDED in $ 1,000s SEPT 2017 SEPT 2016 SEPT 2017 SEPT 2016

MOTORCYCLE SHIPMENT DATA NOTE: H-D MOTORCYLE SHIPMENT DATA IS NOT THE SAME AS RETAIL REGISTRATIONS

6 AMERICAN MOTORCYCLE DEALER- NOVEMBER 2017 www. AMDchampionship. com