The risky lending—which forced Harley to take a $6.3 million write-down amid rising default rates and decreasing interest among buyers for its securitised loans—could foreshadow problems in other industries.
Companies from retailers to blue-chip manufacturers such as Caterpillar, Deere, and Boeing used finance arms to pump up sales and maintain an additional profit stream.
Image: Spectators look at Elvis Presley's 1956 Harley-Davidson motorcycle | Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Also read: College costs: Coping with the meltdown
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