[Infidel!]

Originally Posted by huckinfog

whatever the reason, it's driven by stock holders, f the customer.

Statements like this really make me laugh. Without the customer the stock is worthless, no matter how much profit is made on P&A. No company purposefully turns off the customer. To think otherwise is just ignorant.

It is not the MOCO driving the anti-internet policy forward, it is the dealer network. Harley did what it did because a majority of it's dealers, which is their primary method of distribution, complained about a very small minority of dealers who pursued a business model of high volume versus higher margin. How do they know that? Because of the customers that go into the dealer, look at the price and complain to the dealer "I'm can buy that online from Zanotti's for 20% off". The average HOG member RUB will always frequent the dealer and pay MSRP, so that part of the base is secure. However, the knowledgeable consumers will spend their money wisely, and find the lowest prices for what they want. Unfortunately, for most dealers the knowledgeable consumer is the one more likely to spend gobs of cash.

Harley sells great jackets and quality parts (mostly). I love my FXRG jacket, and I don't care where it was made. However, I'm not stupid. If I can buy it for $450 with free shipping and no sales tax rather than pay $650 + 8.25% tax that's just a no brainer. That's $200 my dealer won't get in profit and knows it when I walk in with my nice new jacket I didn't buy from him. Again, my point is it's the dealer crying that is driving the attempted policy change.