[wi-winger]

Scooters and duel purpose bikes are selling.


http://motorcycles.about.com/b/2009...es-upswing-for-scooters-and-dual-purposes.htm

What's your take and the future of a 900 lb. touring bike?

Seems like a discontinuing of our beloved Goldwings is near.

 

[ReRide]

I'm hoping that is good news as compared to auto sales, being off by almost 50% or more in some cases. Maybe it's pretty good for a down economy. Hopefully things will keep going!

 

[Farmer Jack]

Future of the Goldwing

With the world economy and restucturing of our economy and future life styles changes as a result of it, the sales of non essential big ticket items will most like be the kiss of death to the Goldwing as we know it.
Once Marysville production stops, annoucements could be forth coming on the future of the Goldwing.
Glad I bought my 2007 when I did.

 

[vettesherps]

Well I really doubt that they will stop manufacturing the wing. If by some small chance their marketing people are paying any attention to the public, they would realize that wingers will continue to buy. Sales may have been off last year, but remember many are waiting for Honda to bring out a new model wing with all the features everyone here is talking about. Worse case at least my wing should last me 10 - 15 yrs if needed and by that time someone will have come out with a bigger, better touring bike (hopefully Honda).

Remember when reading all these studies: Figures don't lie, but liars figure.

 

[3putt]

I think one of the reasons that scooters etc. are selling at a faster rate than the larger cruisers is that our big bikes last a very, very long time, so unless one is putting hundreds of thousands of miles on a Wing, there is little reason to change other than change itself. Also, more people(new riders) are drawn to the scooters due to the gas prices and the economy which is probably a good thing given the energy situation.

 

[jon bolin]

Interesting post,but I wonder where the thought related to the wing comes from. Offroad bikes fell 30 percent, this says people are being carefull with descreationary funds. Cruisers and touring only off 5.6 percent is a very small percentage when compared to auto losses.

I higly doubt that you will see the wing go away. Anything is possible but
it is still the only real flagship bike honda can use as a claim to fame.
The wing may change but they will always have one.

Valkyrie while an awesome bike did not sell
VTX - wharehouses full both 1300 and 1800
Shadow to small
and the new Fury no way it takes off.
DN-01 here in the states will never take off price is crazy

These are of course all matters of opinion and like everything else we all have one.

 

[Lucky 777]

The salesman who sold me the Wing said he's moving large ticket items IF he can get the buyer financed. Smaller ticket items however are just sitting there. :shrug:

 

[Kevin Perry]

Well I plan on keeping the 06

till 2026

Cathy will be buying me a new on for my 65 th :lol::lol:

Either in Candy RED

Or pearl White

 

[Tony in AZ]

the Goldwing will never be dropped from the line up... never :coffee1:

 

[jon bolin]

Darn when i mentioned Valkyrie I did mean the rune.

 

[cosmic_chariot]

I think its very possible that the Wing will go the way of the dinosaur..
not solely because of the economy... prolly because Honda's internal problems..
Honda's handling of their warranty issues.. coupled with a poor
dealer network.. to handle these problems..

cosmic

 

[EAGLEFAN67]

Just because the Wing has been around and is loved...don't think they won't discontinue .

People just aren't buying $25,000 bikes every day like they used to...
I go to my local bike shops and see the same Wings sitting around for months...it may be a logistical thing maybe not .

Profitability ...it will take years for Honda to see a return on a new model , sure it may sell hot for a year or two , but then what ?

I have read many threads...where people where angry that they couldn't
get a deal and have to trek across the country to save $1,000 bucks.

When and IF a new model comes out..prepair to pay ! maybe over MSRP

Personally... I'm going to keep my rig...and be happy, it'll be paid for in 2 years and it only has 10,200 miles on it , and looks new.

I'm not doing that 1-2 new model year thing again...where flaws
and issues are bound to exsist...did it twice and was pissed both times.

 

[goldwing fan]

the Goldwing will never be dropped from the line up... never :coffee1:

:agree::agree:

Cheers :thumbup:

 

[Rider Steve]

Once corporations finally down size their ego's things will start to get better again. Could take a while.

 

[Mikalbike]

I believe the earlier writer. With all the adders they created a bike that is becoming too expensive for the masses. Also the dip in gasoline prices is only going to be short lived. The goldwing don't get the mileage the Prius and other hybrids get. Something is going to change....

 

[laen]

Never say never. If the Goldwng is dropped. I will buy the last year made

 

[cycledude]

Interesting post,but I wonder where the thought related to the wing comes from. Offroad bikes fell 30 percent, this says people are being carefull with descreationary funds. Cruisers and touring only off 5.6 percent is a very small percentage when compared to auto losses.

I higly doubt that you will see the wing go away. Anything is possible but
it is still the only real flagship bike honda can use as a claim to fame.
The wing may change but they will always have one.

Valkyrie while an awesome bike did not sell
VTX - wharehouses full both 1300 and 1800
Shadow to small
and the new Fury no way it takes off.
DN-01 here in the states will never take off price is crazy

These are of course all matters of opinion and like everything else we all have one.

a week ago i would have agreed the Fury would be another flop but after seeing all the interest in the Fury at the motorcycle show last weekend i'm not so sure.............................
the VTX sure Honda has a lot of brandnew ones sitting around but overall i think they must have made a lot of money on the VTX line, seems like VTX's are everywhere
Shadows another very big seller
Rune yes i think that was mostly a big flop

 

[NJREF]

After more than 3 decades of success I don't see Honda doing away with the Goldwing....similar to the Chevy Corvette

With regard to warrenty issues, dealer issues and other negativities....while I do think they exist to some extent, I firmly believe they are taken out of context and seemingly more prevalent than they are

I suspect there are thousands of completely satisfied owners that do not frequent these boards

If everyone woud post frequently on how satisfied they are, I would think the number of "positives" would far outweigh the "negatives"

Personally, if I was not satisfied with my Goldwing it would be outta the garage and replaced with a HD, BMW or some other touring motorcycle

 

[OnRamp]

The dealer, here, couldn't keep scooters in stock, the demand was so high. Why would this be a surprise? With gas at 4$ a gallon, last year. They are boasting 80 mpg on the Honda Silverwing. Not sure I believe that, but even at 60 mpg, this would be very attractive. At $8,000, it’s a little steep though.

What I am seeing is a lot of the ‘150s’ and some ‘250s’ running around. They are just right for ‘in town’ commuting. I have seen them on the interstate, but not that often. We may be seeing an evolution of motorcycle riding. People who would, normally, never climb on one, have now because of economy (or trying to be more ‘green’).

We looked at scooters a few years ago. Only way this would have worked, is if Mama Bear got one too. She didn’t want too. So, this meant we would need something ‘bigger’. I’ve been all over the world and scooters are very much entrenched in other countries. I can see this happening here.

I’ve been at the dealer when some folks were trying to buy a regular motorcycle, but couldn’t get the loan. Came as a big shock to one guy. The interest is still there, the financing is not.

HD is a good one to watch. All they make (and sell) are street and touring bikes. That is the people they market too – it’s all they’ve got. Honda, on the other hand, has a much larger ‘market’. So it will become – which one do they chop? Kind of like a hot air balloon. The balloon is going down. You can either add more hot air, or start throwing things over the side.

The over all trend is to throw things over the side. This isn’t going to keep the balloon up very long. At some point the pilot will have to jump and the balloon will crash. Adding hot air will keep the balloon up, it does have to land to get fuel, but this is better than crashing and does not require throwing everything over the side.

So what is Honda going to do? They have a lot more ‘bags’ to throw over the side, before they crash. Which ones will it be? Or will they find a way to add more hot air?

 

[Lazyboy]

Yeah, Right.

Honda is going to drop the one line that has dominated the industry for over 30 years. If things get really tight, they can just extend the current Gold Wing, which has all the R+D and tooling paid for....oh wait, they've already done that.

Why are these gloom and doom speculations/hallucinations so much more believable to some people than pie in the sky speculations/hallucinations, or more to the point, reasonable extrapolations based on corporate interests, which despite what some of you believe, include customer wishes, employee satisfaction, their fiduciary responsibility to their stock holders, etc.