Re: Pro-Italia

[Rick Damiani <rickd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2000 09:20:56 -0700 , Eric Sheley <eric@xxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>With a limited supply I can only assume that those dealers that support the 
>entire line will get a better selection of high demand bikes than those 
>dealers that only want to sell one or two models.

I'm sure that is the case. I can understand Triumph's position on
wanting their dealers to carry the full line, especially since Triumph
doesn't have the overwhelming dealer presence of, say, Honda.

>It would be a different story if Triumph was not selling out at wholesale.
>
>I still can't see why a dealer would opt not to take bikes from the retro 
>line - there are plenty of people that love that style of bike.

But those people are not Pro-Italia customers, nor are they all that
comfortable with the performance-orented stance of the dealership.
Remember - their main product line is Ducati.

When they first took on Triumph, they sounded pretty enthusiastic
about having a complete range of motorcycles - retro, off-road,
touring and so one - that would allow them to generate some
non-traditional (for them) sales. They even had some of the retro
bikes in the showroom. The T-Bird sport sold OK, but two years later
they were *still* trying to get rid of an Adventurer.

For example: Traditional Harley-Davidson dealers have some trouble
keeping Buells moving [1]. Imagine the difficulties they would have
with something like and RC-51, a 996, or a YZF-R6.

[1] Saleswise that is. The reliability issues are a 'service' problem.


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