received a letter from victory today.

[cuznjohn]

hi folks, today i received a letter from victory, being i owned a victory kingpin. it basically said that they are going to back the bike for warranty and parts, parts for 10 years. but one paragraph i found interesting said.....

We realize many of you will have questions about the impact of this news regarding your Victory motorcycle. Please rest assured that Polaris will be here to support you. We will continue to honor Victory warranties and we will supply parts for a period of 10 years ( and here is what i found interesting ) to those dealers who choose to remain servicing dealers. Polaris is a strong partner with our dealers and we won't walk away from the people who have helped grow our business. As our dealers work through their options going forward, we would like to extend a personal invitation to call our customer support with any concerns you may have.


so i guess if you have a victory, and the dealer say's I'm out of here, your screwed, and need to find another dealer for any service work.

[Trbayth]

I guess that's fair. If the dealer says "I don't want to have anything more to do with Victory" then you would still have to find another dealer, even if it wasn't because Victory is shutting down.

[Bob Denman]

Roger is right: This sort of thing happens every day, and for a myriad of reasons. :dontknow:

[jaherbst]

Federal Law requires that after withdrawal from the market all manufacturers must supply parts for 10 years. Few people know this.

Jack

[Firefly]

Federal Law requires that after withdrawal from the market all manufacturers must supply parts for 10 years. Few people know this.

Jack

Exactly... so they're not doing anyone some big favor.. they're simply following the letter of the law as it currently stands.

[marty1096]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.autoblog.com/amp/2017/01/19/victory-motorcycles-polaris-indian-analysis/

[marty1096]



SPECS / REVIEWS*FOR SALETWO WHEELS*Jan 19th 2017 at 9:00AM26

Why Victory Motorcycles was defeated

David Boldt

If, in 1998, you were a devoted fan of Harley-Davidson or one of the so-called metric cruisers, the arrival of American-made Victory Motorcycles probably appeared on your personal radar. However, based on the quiet market reaction, a new Victory didn't make it onto many shopping lists. Fast-forward 18 years, and a last-minute emphasis on performance didn't change any minds. In early January Victory's corporate parent, Polaris Industries, announced it would be*closing Victory Motorcycles. While the purchase of the Indian Motorcycles brand was the final nail in the coffin, the corporate suits at Polaris say they're tired of bucking the market headwinds with Victory and anxious to invest in Indian.*

While in its 18 years Victory had never gained what could be termed real sales momentum, Indian – reintroduced by Polaris Industries in 2014 – has been on an absolute roll, combining expressive design and relatively nimble platforms with the inborn charisma that comes from a long (albeit semi-contrived) history.*

But Victory didn't have to go down like this. The brand's launch in 1998 was filled with promise. The Clinton-era economy was rolling, and with plenty of money and/or personal credit, who wouldn't like the idea of an all-new V-Twin, designed and built in Middle (Spirit Lake, Iowa) America?*

Regrettably, while Harley was building and selling motorized machismo, the all-new Victory 92C was, in a word, awkward. And while functionality has been long admired in Beetles and Jeeps, back in 1998 and 1999 baggers hadn't evolved into what we know now, and the adventure motorcycle scene exemplified by Ewan McGregor's*Long Way Round*hadn't been even remotely anticipated by BMW or KTM. The Victory's massive V-Twin looked to have been taken from an industrial air compressor, while the frame and bodywork lacked design continuity. Instead of an architecture offering soul or purpose, Victory took a design-by-committee approach. And the committee didn't know what to do.*

Even so, some riders in the motorcycling community were willing to give Victory a try, and with those sales some early market momentum was established. Five years later Victory launched the Vegas, a production custom that, despite offering essentially the same V-Twin powerplant as the 92C, did a decent job of disguising its somewhat basic intentions with a healthy dollop of chrome, paint and lipstick.*



A more substantive move was made in 2008, when Victory introduced the Vision, a concept aimed at 21*st*century touring. Ten years after the first Victory bikes went on sale, it was at the very least Victory's own vision and not a tepid interpretation of another motorcycle. Regrettably, the launch of a high-end touring bike on the cusp of a crippling economic downturn was unfortunate at best. Despite its promise, the Vision will be little more than a footnote in the evolution of two-up touring.*

More recently, the announcement of Victory's performance program (and subsequent competition at Pikes Peak) made it seem like the product and marketing execs at Victory had belatedly hit the reset button. This was 2013, some fifteen years into the building of the franchise, and so any attempt to redefine the brand at this point would have been both arduous and expensive. Even with more performance, a dynamic Victory would not have morphed into an American iteration of Ducati, but given the time, money and necessary insight it might have evolved into a denim derivative of something like Triumph. And from all indicators (sales, dealer count, and brand visibility) Triumph is doing very, very well.*

What sealed Victory's fate was the acquisition of Indian Motorcycles by Polaris in 2011. Able to build on an established design idiom and notably not needing to come up with one of their own, Indian's 2014 relaunch was perfectly timed to catch the wave of the economic turnaround. Riders across a wide demographic had something new and tangible to get excited about. And while T-shirt sales at Indian dealerships may not compare to Harley-Davidson apparel sales, the Chief and the smaller Scout are selling in healthy numbers. The brand is positioned well to take advantage of more resources promised by Polaris for product and performance development in the aftermath of Victory's closing.



Hindsight won't allow Polaris execs to belatedly redirect resources or find the creativity to save Victory. That ship has sailed. But if the lessons learned in the terminations of GM's Saturn and, later, Toyota's Scion had been absorbed by the Polaris execs responsible for Victory, their dealers, customers and investors might have enjoyed a different result.*

Young brands typically need a strong, singular vision along with a clearly defined product. At Saturn the defining vision and intense customer loyalty was squandered as the brand strayed from its original mission. And while Scion launched with an xB-induced bang, once the product team brought in the focus groups the handwriting was on the wall. Not only had the unique selling proposition been allowed to evaporate, Scion's lead North American executive at launch was by that point running Lexus.*

Ultimately, Victory might still be standing if there had been something of a managerial learning curve applied to the brand during its almost 20-year run. Thankfully, with the purchase of Indian Polaris' executive team has acquired a store-bought identity. With a strong brand, a solid core product lineup, and fresh investments on the way, the days of Polaris pushing a product uphill should be over. That's good news for Indian, even if Victory went down in defeat.*



THIS VERSION OF THE ARTICLE CONTAINS ADDITIONAL CONTENT THAT CAN'T BE RENDERED HERE. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ORIGINAL.

26 COMMENTS

Plants/Manufacturing*Motorcycleindian motorcycles*polaris industriesvictory motorcycles

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[IdahoMtnSpyder]

Federal Law requires that after withdrawal from the market all manufacturers must supply parts for 10 years. Few people know this.

Jack
All?? Have any reference you can provide? There have many cases in consumer non-durable products such as lighting fixtures that have never had parts available. There must be some serious qualifications in the law as to what kind of products are covered.

[IdahoMtnSpyder]

While looking to see if I could find the aforementioned law I came across this interesting article. http://trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Autoparts_Australia.pdf We cry about manufacturing leaving this country. Australia is probably really crying. ALL automobile manufacturing is ending in Australia by the end of 2017.

[Peteoz]

While looking to see if I could find the aforementioned law I came across this interesting article. http://trade.gov/topmarkets/pdf/Autoparts_Australia.pdf We cry about manufacturing leaving this country. Australia is probably really crying. ALL automobile manufacturing is ending in Australia by the end of 2017.

The Aussie gubmint (government) gives $hundreds of millions to the likes of Ford, Holden, Toyota etc in annual subsidies to make them viable against off shore producers due to the cost of manufacturing motor vehicles in Australia.....money that could be well spent elsewhere on local manufacturing. There are some pluses for us in not having local vehicle production.

People keep lamenting the fact that local production is diminishing and jobs are being lost.......but you don't see too many willing to shell out the extra dollars to buy something that is locally produced but more expensive due to local labour costs.......and then we blame the government for not doing enough to increase local production :shocked: I would imagine it is much the same in the US.

[eddieshep999]

Just because a manufacturer no longer makes and supports various models it does not mean the end of a particular model
You see many old bikes/Cars etc still on the roads today, They become classics and most are excellently maintained by there devoted owners
I am sure we will see Victory motorcycles still on the road in the coming years
You never know someone may buy the name and the Victory will be reborn, Just look how Triumph returned to the marketplace

[Diamond Dave]

There is plenty of people to service these bikes The vic shop , southern motor works , strokers, Arlen ness, just to name a few scattered across the nation.
Also many parts suppliers Witch DR, conquest customs, rusty jones etc..
the best part is Vic s don't break down very often. I will be buying 2 more used 1 s this year . not worried about it in the least.
FEAR NONE LOYAL TO ONE

[Rogue Hawk]

I had my eye on a Victory Octane. That is out now. I think dealers will still service them. Dealers make there money more on service.

[Bob Denman]

Now would be the time to buy one. nojoke
There's still plenty of parts available, and you have some pretty stout ammo, for when the time comes to negotiate with the dealer. :thumbup:

[Peteoz]

Now would be the time to buy one. nojoke
There's still plenty of parts available, and you have some pretty stout ammo, for when the time comes to negotiate with the dealer. :thumbup:

I am thinking very, very hard about a Victory Magnum, Bob 👍

[Bob Denman]

:clap: Let us all know how this works out; Good Luck! :thumbup:

[Peteoz]

:clap: Let us all know how this works out; Good Luck! :thumbup:

It's a matter of timing, Bob. I'd like to see $6-8k off the current price, but it's a fine line whether someone will snaffle it at the current $4k off.

142879

[kngfsh27]

It's a matter of timing, Bob. I'd like to see $6-8k off the current price, but it's a fine line whether someone will snaffle it at the current $4k off.

142879
You need to take a look. The discounting has already begun.

[Firefly]

Bummer they couldn't make it work.
I see the Slingshot following the same path in a few years... they're just not selling enough of them to make it profitable....

[Peteoz]

You need to take a look. The discounting has already begun.

Not quite sure what you mean kngfsh? I HAVE been looking, that's why I said it currently has $4k off. :hun:

[Bob Denman]

:D That IS a pretty bike! :clap: :2thumbs: