Buying a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle guide

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Buying a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle guide
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Buying a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle guide

Buying a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle guide
How to expose second-hand flops

The business with new and used Harley-Davidson motorcycles is booming in Germany. Which tempts some dark men to trade in second-hand cucumbers. But you can actually defend yourself against it very easily.

Klaus Herder

08/28/2014

We old Europeans like to accuse the Ami himself and his authorities in particular of a certain surveillance paranoia. Probably rightly so. You can get excited about it, make fun of it – or you can use it. Especially if you are planning to purchase a used vehicle that has previously lived in the United States of America. The key to information happiness is called VIN, Vehicle Identification Number, in this country called the chassis number.

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How to expose second-hand flops

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But while with us the chassis number is mostly only used to clarify ownership and to enable the spare parts trade to allocate an exact vehicle, the VIN in the USA is the ultimate access to almost all information that has ever been collected about the vehicle in question. And this is completely legal, because diligent data collection is the primary duty of the authorities in the USA, but viewing this information is also a sacred civil right.

Milwaukee twins market is booming

And so it happens that since 1981 – the year the standardized 17-digit VIN was introduced – accident reports (mandatory reporting in some states), insurance processing, legal proceedings, property transfers, loan guarantees, workshop protocols, reports from monitoring organizations and much more have been assigned to the respective VIN – and can of course also be called up if you are interested.

Potential buyers of used Harleys should have such an interest at the moment, because the booming market for Milwaukee Twins, the large inventory in the States and the still relatively cheap US dollar have attracted some adventurers who are interested in the Importing motorcycle pickles that want to make big bucks. While only ten or 15 years ago Harley-Davidson specialists were mostly taking care of the import of second-hand twins, it is now often people from outside the industry who often do not (want) to know exactly what they are selling for little money at auctions in the USA and used as by-catch to fill up containers that are not yet fully utilized.

Find a Harley-Davidson dealer near you.

At the moment there is an incredible amount of scrap coming to Europe

To make it short: There is an incredible amount of scrap coming to Europe at the moment, especially to Germany, which is still solvent. But you can defend yourself against this, and this is where the VIN comes into play. Anyone who has this can obtain a “Vehicle History Report” based on the data from a service provider. The world’s largest provider and recently established its European headquarters in Munich is Carfax (www.carfax.eu). The name stems from a time when the reports were sent by fax – the company has existed since 1984. Today this is done electronically, each (English-language) report costs just under 40 euros.

But it’s also free, because the German Harley-Davidson dealers use their good Carfax contacts (and by the way also the packed Harley intranet) to tell potential used Harley buyers what they deserve their hard money for Want to cut euros. Who already one Harley-Davidson has, of course, can also ask. The information is only available verbally at the dealer counter, because Carfax wants to earn money with something. But cucumber info remains cucumber info and can save a lot of money.

Interview with Harley-Davidson dealer Matthias Meier


Buying a used Harley-Davidson motorcycle guide


Harley-Davidson Frankfurt

Matthias Meier (45), managing director of three Harley-Davidson dealers (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden, Hanover) and active on the board of the German Harley dealers’ association on the subject of US cucumbers and the awareness campaign.

Why is the Harley-Davidson dealership becoming so involved in educating about US used imports?
Meier: For around two years now, customers looking for help with machines have been increasingly appearing in our stores, some of which have come into the country on quite adventurous routes – also from Eastern Europe – and which, on closer inspection, turn out to be nasty craft shops and / or as Badly repaired or not at all repaired accident machines turn out to be. The customers are of course angry and easily inclined to condemn the brand itself. We have to keep an eye on the brand image, also out of self-protection, of course, and hope that this campaign will save many a child before they fall into the well.

How high is the cucumber hit rate in your research, and what do extreme examples look like?
Meier: With practically every second inquiry about used imports, we receive information that is surprising to the customer – rarely positive. 20,000 accident-free kilometers from private hands turn out to be 80,000 rental motorcycle miles with three accidents, to name a hard case.

What do you need to be able to reveal a little more about the potential object of his desire to someone interested in Harley-Davidson?
Meier: The 17-digit chassis number (VIN). Then it’s best to take a photo from the side to be able to say whether the model actually corresponds to the promised series status.

You offer the security check free of charge. Out of pure philanthropy, or what is the ulterior motive?
Meier: A few minutes on the computer can save the customer a lot of trouble and tedious and annoying “Harley sucks” conversations – so the time is pretty well invested. And a satisfied used Harley-Davidson customer might want to buy a new one at some point. It’s great when you already know each other.

A final piece of advice for potential bargain hunters keen on cheap imports?
Meier: There’s a truism: Nobody has anything to give away. The hook is lurking somewhere – and we’ll help find it.

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