Glass’s Guide, which writes BDN’s monthly second-hand prices column, supplied an out-of-date version for the June issue. The correct version is as follows.
April was another month of very buoyant used sales, with retail demand continuing to run ahead of stock replacement. This generally served to strengthen dealer confidence when bidding for trade-ins and those higher prices in turn helped to generate yet more new sales. However, some subscribers commented that current owners looking to trade up often had a very optimistic opinion of what their bike was worth, while the few cash sellers that there were seemed in the main to have a more realistic mindset.
The influx of part-exchanges has been highly welcome, although, unsurprisingly under the present shortages, a smaller proportion of these than usual has been finding its way out into the trade-to-trade environment. Dealers typically expressed their reluctance to “give someone else a profit”. The continuing strength of the used market is now allowing some retailers the opportunity to firm up asking prices and enabled them to recover some of their margin that has been eroded by higher buy-in prices.
Recent demand for second-hand competition machines, if not exactly booming, has also been stronger than during recent years. This, and a smaller surplus of new machines, has generally helped to support transaction prices for used machines in retailers’ showrooms, although, here too, subscribers report that individual customers can drive a hard bargain and it is advisable to keep a close eye on asking prices in other dealers’ showrooms and on internet auction sites.
Under the name of the Rushmore project, Harley-Davidson has significantly enhanced the dynamics of the FL tourer range. Strong sales of the revised machines have attracted a large number of heavy-weight part-exchanges and caused a significant increase in dealer stockholding of those. With prospective used buyers also increasingly aware of these improvements, H-D dealers have expressed concern that the previous models may become harder to shift and need to be priced carefully; as a consequence they are reported to be treating further incoming stock with considerable caution.
Except where mentioned above, Guide values have generally been held for the June edition.