"Harley-Davidson: At Last" featured in Hartley's Marketing Mistakes and Successes presents the circumstances surrounding MH's near-collapse and has since achieved almost mythical success. This case is a great example of marketing shortsightedness; HD considered itself a "full-size motorcycle" manufacturer, not in the transportation or entertainment business. They believed that no one purchased motorcycles for transportation, but rather for leisure use. Like the auto industry of the time, Harley-Davidson assumed that its customers would buy its products over those of any of its major competitors, primarily because they were all foreign. . Interestingly enough, this was true, annual HD drive sales never changed; they simply did not grow with either the market or the population. In the 1950s, motorcycle sales were around 50,000 units per year, of which HD accounted for 70%. By 1971, nearly 4 million motorcycles were registered in the United States, and the HD's market share had fallen to 5 percent. Harley-Davidson was founded in 1903 by four men in a wooden shed experimenting with the internal combustion engine. By the early 1960s, HD had virtually swept away all of its domestic competitors. His motorcycles were used by nearly every police department in America. The situation would soon change. Harley-Davidson's then president, William E. Davidson, was the founder's son. He believed that light motorcycles posed no threat to Harley's business. By the mid-1960s, HD realized their mistake and attempted to compete in this segment by importing motorcycles from Italy. These were no better quality than the motorcycles Harley produced in its factories, and nowhere could they boast the quality of the market-leading Hondas of the time. Harley-Davidson went public in 1965, eventually becoming a division of AMF, a manufacturer of recreational and bowling equipment. After losing money for more than a decade, Harley-Davidson was sold to a group led by Vaughan Beals, the division's vice president of sales. Beals and Willie G. Davison, the founder's grandson, who was also vice president of design, decided to reorganize the company. They attend rallies, talk to Harley owners, and discuss their likes, dislikes, and complaints. This laid the foundation for the future of Harley-Davidson. The biggest challenge Harley-Davidson faced was poor quality. Beals and other managers visited Japanese plants, as well as the Honda plant in Marysville, Ohio.