Jay Eilts

That said, I've yet to find a dealership that's as devoted to customer service as Frontier Harley-Davidson in Lincoln.

Today I got an e-mail from Jay Eilts, the sales manager of Frontier Harley-Davidson. He's just one of the great people that I talked to on my visit to their dealership on the 11th of June.

Here's the e-mail:

Jeff,

Sorry it’s taken me so long to get back with you. I want to thank you for taking the time to visit our dealership. We are a proud group of Harley-Davidson professionals and always appreciate a strong referral from a customer.

Despite the fact we don’t have the exact model/color you were searching for in-stock we are more than anxious to earn your business. Still sold on the FLHRC in Antique/Turquoise? When you are ready to pull the trigger let me know and I’ll hunt one down for ya’! Or we can go to work on either the Pewter or Flame Blue I’ve got left in-stock.

Even if we are unable to secure a bike deal with you I hope that we set a good impression with our staff and dealership. If you know of anyone looking for a Harley and feel we could serve them well I will be grateful for the referral. We have a great selection of 2009s and are getting more and more aggressive in their pricing as we get closer to the 2010 model year.

Once again, thanks for visiting our store and we hope to see you soon.

Regards,

Jay Eilts
Sales Manager
Frontier Harley-Davidson/Buell
www.frontierhd.com

Like I said before, Frontier Harley-Davidson staff "gets it" when it comes to treating their customers like family. I'd say that if more Harley dealerships nationwide took this stance when dealing with people that walk into their stores, we'd be seeing a lot more Harley motorcycles on the road and a lot fewer imitations.

While I'm probably not going to buy my Harley from Frontier Harley-Davidson, it's not due to any deficiency on their part. Just a matter of logistics and the stock they had at the time.

The bottom line is, if you're looking for a new or used Harley-Davidson in the Midwest, within driving distance of Lincoln, Nebraska, you really owe it to yourself to check out what the guys at Frontier Harley-Davidson have in stock.

One, we were going to meet up with my wife's friend, Brenda, and her 3-month-old baby - whose name I have already forgotten.

I will probably pay for that later.

The girls shopped up a storm at the Lincoln mall. From what I can tell, we looked at every single place in the mall where baby clothes could be hidden, and then some.

It took three hours.

I didn't complain once.

I might have been a little touchy towards the end of the visit to the mall. A nice elderly gentleman who happened to be stuck in the same elevator as myself, two women and two fussy babies was informed (by me) that; "There are still some baby clothes that we haven't seen yet in the world and they're on level three."

View from second floor inside Frontier Harley-Davidson

I was especially looking forward to this visit because Jay Eilts, the sales manager for Frontier Harley, had taken the time to respond to an e-mail that I'd sent him. In my experience, a business that will take the time to respond to a friendly e-mail is a business that'll take customer service seriously.

I wasn't disappointed.

After I had him paged, Jay came up and made me feel at home. I found him to be a really easy guy to talk to. We talked a little about what I was looking for and he walked me around the showroom a bit. After I told him I was interested in a Road King Classic, he told me to check out their "museum" upstairs and their custom Road King they had on display.

Not A Discount Dealership

After talking with Jay, it became apparent that, if you're looking for a discount on a Harley, Frontier Harley Davidson is not the place to go. If you're looking for a Harley dealership that has an absolute fetish for good customer service, however...Frontier Harley will fit the bill.

Jay gently explained that they're a strict MSRP dealership - they stick with the MSRP that Harley sets on their bikes. That's good for customers if Harley sales are good and there's a lot of people out there looking for bikes. There are a lot of dealerships out there who think nothing of adding a few thousand dollars worth of mark-up over a bike's MSRP.

That's not so good when sales for motorcycles in general - and Harley-Davidson in particular - are tanking. Like right now. From the word of things, Harley dealership sales are off about 30-35% from what they were a year ago. Sales are off so much, in fact, that Harley-Davidson is going to be making considerably fewer bikes in 2010 to maintain a good supply/demand ratio.

I have no problem paying MSRP. I'd be happy with a little bit off the top and some store credit. I've heard that some Harley dealerships are discounting around $1000 off MSRP and giving around $1500 in store credit. If I'd been offered something along that line, I would have jumped on it and signed right then and there...but I wasn't.

To be fair, the deep turquoise and antique white two-tone paint scheme that I was looking for wasn't available. It's the end of the 2009 model year for Harley-Davidson, they're not making any more 2009's, and Frontier Harley only had two 2009 Road Kings in stock - and only one was a RKC. If they had to do a dealer trade, they would have had to pay a premium to another dealership and that wasn't an especially appealing idea for them.

As the 2010 bikes show up on their sales floor, Frontier Harley might have a bit more leeway in their prices. For me and my situation, with what I want being something they don't have anyway, it wasn't an ideal situation to get a bargain. Your situation might differ.

I Get The Tour

View From Second Floor Into Frontier Harley Service Department

Well, yeah. Why not?

So with the wife kicking back with the baby in the lounge, Mike and I wandered around, with Mike showing me a few choice places to snap pictures with my iPhone, all while pointing out some features Frontier provides to their customers and generally explaining why his dealership was the best.

Some points that he made:

• Frontier Harley has their own Dyno and a lot of experience with it
• Frontier Harley has five Certified Masters of Technology working in their service department
• Frontier Harley services Omaha's police motorcycles
• Frontier Harley has a very nice H.O.G. chapter, complete with a huge clubhouse/meeting room

I enjoyed the tour, which ended with Mike showing me his own bike and making a few recommendations for accessories I could pick up for my own when I finally pulled the trigger and bought it.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my visit at Frontier. The guys were great, the service department was eye-catching and you could tell that the people who work there love their jobs. I'd definitely think about using their service department if I decided to have some engine upgrades done, like the 110 cubic inch upgrade.

I bought some shirts that were on sale up on the top floor. Check it out if you're looking for a bargain.

If you're looking for a deep discount on a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Frontier Harley isn't the place for you. If, however, you're looking for a dealership that'll treat you like a member of the family, I'd definitely recommend Frontier Harley.

Frontier Harley Pictures

Here's some pictures of two bikes that really caught my eye in Frontier Harley's upstairs museum:

Highly Customized 2003 FLHR at Frontier Harley

Here is what the sign on that 2003 Road King reads when you're up close

View from behind and to the left of the 2003 Road King

Another Awesome Custom Motorcycle At Frontier