[Martinjlm]

Originally Posted by ariZona28

Sometimes I can ramble so you may have missed my point. That being a large number of people have continued to purchase the big HDs over the past 50 years even though they are not as fast, reliable or as economical as their import competitors. While their reasons may vary the individuals I socialize with do so for the overall riding experience. I know the majority of auto buyers purchase their vehicles as a means to "just get around" and the segment that considers their car more than just a transportation appliance is very small and may indeed be shrinking.

I totally got your point. Thing is, performance cars with V8 are a drop in the bucket on the automotive landscape. And dropping fast. The fact that GM dropped Chevy Cruze at a point that they were selling about 200k vehicles a year and kept Camaro which has been cruising ( ) along at @ 30k/ year is some small evidence that they at least understand the need to be present in the segment.

If you add up all the Mustangs, Chargers, Challengers, and Camaros that are sold with V8 engines, the number is small and dropping. In your Harley scenario, there’s a fairly sturdy volume of product sold just because it’s a Harley. Not so with V8 performance cars. They could (and will) completely go away and most of America would never notice. Sad, but true.

I find it interesting that Ford is saying “we’ll keep making V8 as long as customers are buying them” when they see the same data that I’m seeing that’s showing that number dropping year after year after year. Just positions them for a clear explanation for when they actually do drop V8.