Motorcycle Sales Cratering in 2009

As I mentioned before, the economy isn’t good.  And since motorcycles are a luxury good for most people, they are being hit especially hard.  The MoCo had a 91% drop in profits last quarter, Suzuki’s sales numbers have collapsed…it’s bad all over.  And I can prove it now.

The Motorcycle Industry Council is reporting their collected sales data for the first six months of 2009, and I can’t find any good news in it.

Scooters took the brunt of the fall in sales, decreasing over 67% year to date compared to the same period last year and an incredible 77.5% in June 2009 over the same month in 2008…

Dual-purpose motorcycles fell nearly 47% in year to date sales compared to 2008 while the month of June saw 58%, or 4,431 fewer motorcycle sold than the year before…

But not all of the drop can be attributed to motorcycles falling out of favor with the would-be riding public. Many buyers complain about trouble finding financing for their new motorcycle purchases.

Regardless, looking at the year to date number, a staggering 177,650 fewer motorcycles were sold in the first six month of 2009 compared to the year before.

So, the good news is that a lot of motorcycles are just sitting on showroom floors, waiting for someone to buy them.  The bad news is that it’s getting hard to get motorcycle financing.

And I don’t think it’s gonna get any prettier any time soon.