Ducati Hasn’t Departed from Gengras

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

It’s a story that keeps changing, depending on who’s talking and what day it is. However, for the moment, the Ducati brand continues to be sold by Gengras in East Hartford. RIDE-CT visited the Harley-Davidson, BMW, Ducati and Triumph dealership today and learned of some substantive changes that are underway, including a return to separate general managers for the Harley and the BMW-Ducati-Triumph operations.

Jim Taylor, who is g.m. of the Euro store, reports that, yes, Ducati’s future was tenuous for a time. The Italian bike maker had requested a while back that a minimum order for 2011 models (with accompanying signage) be placed and Gengras wasn’t prepared to do so because of unsold inventory. Who wants to buy an unused two-year-old or year-old bike for the same price as a 2011 model?

“We were sitting on a ton of ’09 Ducatis,” Taylor said. Much of that inventory has now gone out the door. Consequently, the dealership wants to keep Ducati. “We haven’t terminated. We’re still an authorized retailers and service center,” Taylor said. And what about the disappearance of the Ducati logo from the Gengras website. Taylor explained that Gengras’ home page includes both car and motorcycle franchises and a need to get another car logo on the site resulted in the Ducati logo being mothballed.

As of today, Gengras has a newly-redesigned website for its Euro brands at gengrasmotorcycles.com. More info on the changes at Gengras will found in RIDE-CT this Saturday in “The Republican-American.”