As analysts try to estimate the number of dealer closures in the past year, Harley-Davidson and Polaris have commented on their own dealer counts in presentations related to their third-quarter financial filings.

Polaris expects its North American dealer count to fall by about 5 percent in 2009. U.S. dealer repossessions have stabilized, the company states in an investor presentation. Twenty dealers had their Polaris inventory repossessed in the fourth quarter of 2008. But that number has continued to fall to 13 dealers during the first quarter of this year, 12 in the second quarter and just nine in the third quarter. (These stores, of course, may have continued to operate.)

According to the Polaris’ 2008 annual report, about 1,500 dealers carried its off-road vehicles, 800 its snowmobiles and 315 its Victory motorcycles.

According to StreetInsider.com, Harley-Davidson commented on its dealer count during its Q3 conference call. An executive reportedly stated that four dealers and 10 secondary dealer locations have closed in 2009. But Harley stated that 15 to 30 “dealer points” could close during the next six months.

The online news service’s summary of the conference call does not mention a geographical region for the dealer closings.

In its annual report for 2008, Harley stated that it had 686 full-service dealerships in the U.S., 71 in Canada, 383 in Europe and 233 in other regions.

Harley-Davidson dealers also sell products through extensions of their main store. These extensions consist of Secondary Retail Locations (SRLs), Alternate Retail Outlets (AROs) and Seasonal Retail Outlets (SROs). SRLs are satellites that satisfy additional retail and service demand. SRLs also provide P&A, general merchandise and licensed products and are authorized to sell and service new motorcycles. AROs are located primarily in high-traffic locations such as malls, airports or vacation destinations and focus on selling general merchandise and licensed products. SROs also are located in high-traffic areas, but operate on a seasonal basis out of temporary locations such as vendor kiosks. AROs and SROs are not authorized to sell new motorcycles.

In the United States, Harley-Davidson had 101 SROs, 77 AROs and 12 SROs. In other regions, it had only a handful of these extensions.