| I really can't believe that 3 (or is it 4) years on from the introduction of the 999 the debate about the 916 shaped bikes being better is still droning on. God it's boring.
Ducati owners are not to blame for Ducati's financial woes, only the Ducati management team are responsible for that.
People report that the 999 shape isn't selling as well as the old bike but that overlooks the fact that most of Europe is in recession and in the UK (and the US) the financial community is now very worried that personal borrowing is at an all time high. When people are mortgaged up to the hilt and credit cards are bouncing off their limit there are no bikes today that are selling as well as they were a few years ago - you only have to look at the number of dealers that have gone under to see that, not just Ducati dealers but Jap dealers as well.
The other thing that the simplistic "Ducati are in trouble and it's all the 999's fault" arguement fails to recognise is that it's only in the sportsbike obsessed UK that that arguement may have any validity. Elsewhere it's always been recognised that the Monster has always been Ducati's biggest seller, even in the 916/996 glory years and lately the Multistrada has been the biggest seller in France and Germany. Not surprisingly, other manufacturers have seen the success of those bikes and climbed on the bandwagon. Whereas a few years ago if you wanted a bike like a Monster, you bought a Monster 'cos it was pretty much on it's own as a soulful Italian naked. Now you've got Benelli, MV, Moto Morini, Aprillia all wanting a slice of market share to name a few. And the Multistrada has got new competition from KTM, BMW's have even got a bit funky and the Japanese are falling over themselves to get into that 'do anything' niche.
Selling motorcycles is a tough market with intense competition as the customer pool dries up and Ducati are on the receiving end with less resources to fall back on than the Japanese manufacturers - whose motorcycle divisions are all at the tip of a industrial conglomerate iceberg.
I don't have the answer. If I did, I'd be in the marketing department of a major bike manufacturer earning big bucks for going on press days on exotic sunny racetracks instead of being behind this desk  |