Dear Harley Davidson,

Look at these price differences!

MRP New XL883 in Spain: 8,495 EUR (13,484 USD)
MRP New XL883 in UK: 5,195 GBP (10,290 USD)
MRP New XL883 in US: 6,695 USD

With the dollar so weak you are missing a great opportunity to increase sales in Europe and 'grow the brand'.

You are also p***sing off a lot of riders who can see you would rather take the profit..

:)

Amen to that, brother! :frownthre:frownthre:frownthre

How does it work between countries over there? Can you buy in France and register/license in Spain (for example) without much hassle?

Yes, you can, but it costs to get a new licence plate. In Spain you have to pay 4% of the value of the vehicle.

I was going to buy my bike in the UK because of the price difference and bring it to Spain with British plates, but then road tax and road worthiness tests (MOT) would have to be carried out in the UK.. big hassle.

Anyone want to start up a Harley parallel import company? The bikes could be sold cheap, the only thing the buyer would miss out on would be the 2yr guarantee..

How does it work between countries over there? Can you buy in France and register/license in Spain (for example) without much hassle?

I'm not sure how it works on mainland Europe, bu I don't think it's that easy! I seem to recall one of the Dutch guys writing on the XR1200 thread that bikes are cheaper in Germany than in Holland, but he can't go that route for some reason. Tax laws differ, because we're not the United States of Europe (yet!).:frownthre

In the UK, our speedos are still calibrated in mph rather than km/h like the rest of Europe, and lights dip the other way, because we drive on the wrong side of the road. A few years ago, we used to see quite a lot of "grey import" bikes on UK roads - mostly second-hand imports from Japan - but that seems to have fizzled out recently. Maybe the taxman closed a loophole :dunno

true! we do pay the bike double in europe, compared to us-citizens (in the us of a that is)...

I think you are blaming the wrong people. HD is not the ones who are causing their bikes to be so expensive. It is your governments that adds approx 25% duties that make them so expennsive. call your local customs agents and complain to them about the high prices!

Last summer a service rep from SEW Eurodrive (German company) was over helping us trouble shoot some issues with our newly installed manufacturing line. He really liked my 1200N and looked into the cost of North American purchase and shipping. All said and done from what I understood it was not worth the little cost savings and shipping BS. Last I had heard he ordered an 08 in Germany.

It's not just the price of the bikes, the price of spares is rediculous!!

Well, to ship a bike from the states on your own would be expensive (more than $1,000), but that is not the price the moco is paying. They fill a shipping container with bikes and it must come out around $200 a piece..

Import duty is not 50% in any country, so the company is taking the profit. These prices might have been ok a couple of years back when the dollar was worth €1.20, but they are not justifiable when the $ is only worth 80 euro cents.

The truth is that the moco has left the pricing structure from a couple of years ago in place to make some easy money, and they won't chnage that until they start getting complaints or the sales dry up.. start complaining!

And they are also missing a spectacular opportunity to sell affordable bikes in Europe. Every new Harley rider must be worth tens of thousands of $ to them because we know that people buy again once they've been bitten by the Harley bug, but the moco is more interested in short term profit?

Wrong strategy!

They should lower the prices in South America too.
The 883 is about 12,000 USD and the 1200 C is +18,000 USD
And the spare parts are uber expensive : 600 USD for a Screaming Eagle pipes

Also, the nighster version that came here is a piece of junk, came with long suspension, Citroen 3CV sound pipes, and the stupid japanese like plastic license plate holder instead of the side license holder. No wonder why they are collecting dust @ dealer.

Import duty is not 50% in any country
On any serious country. Here is from 80% to 100% to company that don't agree with gov (like Harley. The japanese bikes are way way cheaper).
BTW, I take the chance to say: Argentina goverment sucks, they are a bunch of thiefs. Thanks to their taxes, we pay a crappy Ford Ka more expensive than a brand new Ford Mustang in the US.

This is all about the mighty TAX. You guys are VAT taxed at a rate that far exceeds our rates, Additionally, you pay import taxes on bikes that we don't pay any tax on. I suspect that your governments are making the additional revenue and not the motor company. I believe they would if they could charge more but with crazy tariffs and high VAT takes care of the tariffs.