by Jeremiah Smith

Created on: October 17, 2008

High gas prices drive up motorcycle sales due to the fact that motorcycles get more than double the gas mileage of many cars. Why spend $40,000 on an SUV getting 14 MPG when a $10,000 motorcycle will get net at least 40 MPG? It is only logical that when gas prices increase, and maintain the higher price, that eventually people will look to a more efficient mode of transportation. This is where motorcycles come in.

Although gas prices have begun to drop recently, their reluctance to do so for an extended period of time has caused many an adventurous soul to turn to motorcycles. Until the recent change in the availability of credit, qualified individuals were able to walk into the majority of motorcycle retailers across the country and ride home a brand new bike with little or no money down. I think we can all agree that it is much easier to get a no money down loan for a $7,500 starter motorcycle than it is to get a similar loan for a brand new automobile, even an entry level model. This fact made the motorcycle route much more attractive to quite a few consumers.

According to some reports (tallied in April 2008), the sales of motorcycles has gone up in some classes, but not in others. The amount of lower end motorcycles went up considerably, by 64%. This is the class including most scooters and mopeds, as well as dirt bikes of smaller displacement. Oddly enough, the amount of motorcycles sold in the middle class of motorcycles has gone down about 5%. For higher end and performance motorcycles (wherein most street bikes are classified), sales have gone up by about 10%. In comparison, sales for cars went up 5%, while sales for gas-guzzling trucks were down 7%. This is truly a trend that will be continuing for the foreseeable future, as it will become hard for many people to receive loans for automobiles with the economy in the state that it is.

While the numbers do show an increase in sales across the board for the motorcycle family of vehicles, too many variables are involved to determine exactly which number of those sales were from consumers who didn't even consider a car as an option, who sold a truck or SUV and changed to a motorcycle, and how many sales were attributable to return buyers of motorcycles. All things considered, motorcycle transportation has obviously become a more attractive option to many commuters, but to what extent, it is difficult to determine at this point. Therefore, we should refrain from making too big a deal of the recent exodus of consumers to motorcycles.

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