Harley-Davidson, which makes heavy bikes that price as a lot as vehicles, amongst different autos, reported its first-quarter earnings final week, and made extra money than Wall Street anticipated but additionally, worryingly, stated that gross sales in North America have been down 17 p.c. Harley additionally stated that its “credit loss rate” was larger than regular, that means that it encountered some hassle repossessing bikes of homeowners who fell behind on funds. They attributed that, partly, to a scarcity of repo brokers, however a narrative Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal suggests one other contributing issue: that repossessing a Harley from an proprietor who might or is probably not cooperative seems like a ache within the ass.
The “credit loss rate” for Harley within the first quarter of 2023 was 3.2 p.c, or up from 2 p.c, which the WSJ says is extra regular for Harley. A spokesman for Harley defined that the speed tends to go up within the winter, as a result of, apparently, it’s frequent for bike homeowners to make fewer funds in months when the climate will not be conducive to driving. Another issue is the “declining residual values” of bikes typically, which is one other manner of claiming that new Harleys are shedding extra worth whenever you trip them off the lot than they have been earlier than.
More attention-grabbing are the tales on the bottom from repo brokers making an attempt to repossess a Harley. The job is extra sophisticated than repossessing a automotive for non-payment of a mortgage, as a result of many Harley homeowners deal with their Harleys as one may deal with one’s personal kids, or not less than a beloved pet, saved within the storage and zealously guarded.
[Vaughn Clemmons, who is president of Automobile Recovery Bureau in Houston and head of the American Recovery Association] stated the pandemic prompted a few of his colleagues to place their tow vans to much less annoying and extra worthwhile use, resembling roadside help.
“Who wants to back up in a driveway at 3 a.m. and get shot at?” he stated. “You can make the same money doing something else.”
[…]
Motorcycles are tougher to get well as a result of riders sometimes maintain them within the storage, that means a repo man should go away his truck, knock on the debtor’s door and ask for the bike’s return.
Those conditions don’t at all times go easily, stated Jeremy Cross, proprietor of International Recovery Systems in suburban Philadelphia.
“Have you met some of the people who ride motorcycles?” he stated. “They care more about their motorcycles than their work trucks or their family vans.”
Mr. Clemmons stated one memorable case got here when a Harley rider he had pursued for months lastly agreed to surrender his bike.
“We get to the guy’s house, and it was in 3,000 pieces,” Mr. Clemmons stated. “It took us 2 ½ hours to get all those pieces cataloged and delivered back to the lot.”
I consider it was Oscar Wilde who stated that “each man kills the thing he loves,” and Oscar Wilde was undoubtedly pondering of males and their Harley-Davidsons when he stated it.
Source: jalopnik.com