As previously reported on paultan.org, Harley-Davidson (H-D) will be opening a showroom and 3S service centre at The Gasket Alley in Petaling Jaya, Selangor. This was confirmed by Johan Kleinsteuber, H-D’s managing director for Asia Emerging Markets during a visit to check on progress of the new facility.
While Kleinsteuber was not able to confirm an official opening date for the new H-D showroom, he said it will be soon, and the service centre will be accepting H-D motorcycles for service beginning the end of this week. Technicians in the new official H-D service centre are trained in the H-D training centre in Thailand.
Aside from the flagship centre in Petaling Jaya, two more showrooms and service facilities will be opening in Malacca and Penang come 2018. These two centres will be operated by official H-D dealers, with support coming from the brand.
With regards to new H-D models, Kleinstuber said efforts are being made to bring the entire 2018 model range into Malaysia, but this is still in planning. What is confirmed for next year is the Softail and CVO range of H-D cruisers will be in the showroom by early next year.
Speaking on the cost of H-D’s bikes in Malaysia, Kleinsteuber did not deny that Malaysia is amongst countries with the highest pricing for motorcycles, but this has to be accepted due to the tax and duty structure that has to be adhered to. However, he said that with the opening of the assembly facility in Thailand at the end of 2018, it is hoped that pricing will be brought down to more attractive levels.
This is good. Infact HD should open directly in Malaysia, even better.
The same with car companies. Better for them to open directly in Malaysia cause of local distributors, mostly GLC (like UMW) do not work hard and like to goyang kaki
Implying that local distros in tomyam & indomee respectively r like to goyang kaki.
Theres something about having the company itself open in our country. I would feel more secure, more confident in purchasing and such. By having the parent company establishing its own labour and force allows better services and products. I had a ford, under Sime-Darby, and i had a major issue with my Ranger. After calling SDAC Ford for someone to come and check, the guy knew NOTHING about the Ranger. Had to look up owners manual and plenty of calls to conclude he could not do anything and SDAC were to tow my truck.
There would also be a uniform level of service and customer support available, where someone in Kelantan would receive similar care as with someone in the heart of KL.
But apart from services, imagine the plethora of products available. Faster availability of newer global vehicles, accessories, etc.
Giving the example of Apple (out of all examples, sorry) if they were to establish Apple Inc in Malaysia, the availabilty of services would satisfy every needs. Problems? No fret, genius bar is there everywhere. Need a replacement? There you go. Refund, yep, here.
Authorised resellers are full of crap. They try so hard to make it look legit but the service is under par.
We don’t accept the pricing!
Bull effing shite. Bolt 950 and 883 iron retail around USD9000. Over here Bolt is RM50+K and 883 Iron is RM90+K.
Explain that!