“Where are the rest of the Yamaha snowmobiles?” and speculating about our future.

[vodoo child]

I agree that this letter is sort of an easy let-down for loyal Yamaha customers. It is designed to give just enough hope for a future with the brand that people will still buy the left over sleds. I predict the plug gets pulled on the snowmobile division around February-March 2019. By then the dealer inventories should be low enough a few orphan sleds won't be a big deal. With most of them being Yamacats parts should be available for many years so even though it's an orphan line it should still be a safe purchase.

A Very Big X2, Good move on there part to help out the dealers. But there done ""PERIOD""!!! If they were too move production of an all new sled to there Georgia plant someone would of heard of it, or been rumblings in the power sports trade papers bye now! As far as the big news a while back of moving to Toronto! ""BFD""!!! Take's real commitment to lease a building and hang a Yamaha sign on it! So for 19 we get less of the same for more money! As Mr. Tew said last year in the Sno-Trax interview ""YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET""!!! Well he wasn't kidding! END OF RANT!

 

[Farmer 73]

You're probably right and we are all just wishful thinking to ease the pain a bit when you know an old friend is going to die. I think they will wait to make the announcement about the discontinuation of snowmobiles until February-March 2019 to help sell all the inventory they can until then. It's coming. We all know it, but don't want to admit it.

This is exactly what I see and it does hurt! The sponge will be squeezed long and hard enough to get every drop of water out of it for both Cat and Yamaha! Then they will both dry up and blow away off into the sunset!

 

[MrSled]

But here is the strange thing.. Yamaha is still producing, venture MP, VK Pros, Venture etc. For Europe as 2019 models.

 

[yamajammer76]

A Very Big X2, Good move on there part to help out the dealers. But there done ""PERIOD""!!! If they were too move production of an all new sled to there Georgia plant someone would of heard of it, or been rumblings in the power sports trade papers bye now! As far as the big news a while back of moving to Toronto! ""BFD""!!! Take's real commitment to lease a building and hang a Yamaha sign on it! So for 19 we get less of the same for more money! As Mr. Tew said last year in the Sno-Trax interview ""YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET""!!! Well he wasn't kidding! END OF RANT!

Maybe Mr. Tew just messed up when he said that and really meant to say... "YOU WILL SEE NOTHING!!!" instead of "YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHING YET!!!"

It also appears that the entire Skeptical family was right "2 Stroke 4 Life" is what most customers have remained and that drove about 75% of all customers right out the door.

 

[jjmoneysauce]

But here is the strange thing.. Yamaha is still producing, venture MP, VK Pros, Venture etc. For Europe as 2019 models.

Yes, that occurred to me too. The NA market is probably the larger world market, but Yam clearing out some slugged NA inventory in a responsible way does not necessarily mean that they are on the verge of exiting the snow business altogether worldwide. I really don't think that is their vision. In contrast, this year alone I've seen three Poo dealers with yards full of crates; they push their dealers to take higher numbers and push out the volume. BRP kind of acts like they're doing you a favor by selling you a sled. There are different approaches to getting products out there. You'll see the same contrast in cars and trucks. Some domestics jam their lots and blow them out a year later to make room for the next crop of glut. Others have a more lean strategy of matching supply to demand, and focus on quality. Yamaha's approach looks to me to be more of a lean philosophy, in keeping with what I would expect from a Japanese-rooted manufacturer. Overproduction is wasteful, and hurts balance sheets. The glut in the market drags down Yamaha's resale value as much as anyone else's. It's a challenging market, and Yam's all-4 decision has probably been a challenging one to ride out, as riders continue to prefer 2 strokes in many cases. I've gotten off topic, but I think it's premature to predict Yamaha exiting the snow market altogether.

 

[blueironranger]

The are Right about an industry wide problem, quick peak on Craiglist show many dealers of different brands attempting to DUMP 2 and 3 year old stock. Looked at a few used Viper last spring from private parties and really felt sorry for them as they were ALL asking far more then what I payed for a demo sled from a dealer. The dealer had a bunch of new in crate 15’s and 16’ they were offloading over 5k below MSRP. That’s not healthy for business. 4 stroke is the other issue, people expect them to last for years and don’t “upgrade” often. For me a “new sled” would need to be a significant jump in performance/ handling for me to upgrade anymore.

 

[nate007]

The problem with the sled industry is that it's one of the smallest segments in motorsports. That being said, it pays to have new wheeled vehicles hit the market every few years whereas the R&D costs to develop completely new machines is spread over fewer total units.
If you were seeing completely new chassis designs and lots of big changes from year to year, sleds would be $20k+ right now.
Could they listen to consumers a little more on what they want changed? Probably so, but when balancing the cost to make changes and the size of the overall market, it's easier to see why change is slower than wheeled vehicles.

 

[sk-rx1]

Kind of odd to me that there was no mention of the future. You would think something like "this will position Yamaha to better meet and exceed the expectations of our customers in future years". But nothing. It's obvious that many see the end of Yamaha snowmobiles. And many long time Yamaha buyers have already moved on, myself included. And many more are thinking about what to do. There is nothing here to tell people to look to the future.

 

[20/80]

$17,599 should help sell sleds!

that's a bargain here in Canada.

 

[03RX1-ER-LE]

Kind of odd to me that there was no mention of the future. You would think something like "this will position Yamaha to better meet and exceed the expectations of our customers in future years". But nothing. It's obvious that many see the end of Yamaha snowmobiles. And many long time Yamaha buyers have already moved on, myself included. And many more are thinking about what to do. There is nothing here to tell people to look to the future.

Well....I think if this was the end of Yamaha they would tell us like they did with the Apex. They are not going out of the market, Yamaha as a whole makes lots of money, not just in the powersports, they are huge in music. They are not going anywhere!

 

[jjmoneysauce]

Well....I think if this was the end of Yamaha they would tell us like they did with the Apex. They are not going out of the market, Yamaha as a whole makes lots of money, not just in the powersports, they are huge in music. They are not going anywhere!

Agreed, I don't think they would be mysterious about it for a year and then cut and run. They seem fairly transparent about not continuing to ram excess inventory into an oversupplied market in which sleds are getting old and selling at discounts.

Poo fans can spray and cream over the new 850 for just as long as it takes for their sleds to fall apart a few times, and then cream over the next shiny thing on their McSleds. I'll be saving up to get into new Yam rides.

 

[zr7cat]

I don't think so, I think they are moving away from Cat, they are trying to get rid of as many procross left overs as they can, the are not investing in the pro cross chassis anymore than they have to, new stickers, shock packages that's about it, Viper will be gone next year, but Viper guy's not need to panic what's coming to replace the viper will be cutting edge and pure Yamaha.

Wow, lay off the weed bro!!!

 

[MrSled]

Wow, lay off the weed bro!!!

Really? Let the guy post with out the comments like this.. its not really necessary. Not everyone is going to agree when its all speculation.

 

[SumpBuster]

Yes, that occurred to me too. The NA market is probably the larger world market, but Yam clearing out some slugged NA inventory in a responsible way does not necessarily mean that they are on the verge of exiting the snow business altogether worldwide. I really don't think that is their vision. In contrast, this year alone I've seen three Poo dealers with yards full of crates; they push their dealers to take higher numbers and push out the volume. BRP kind of acts like they're doing you a favor by selling you a sled. There are different approaches to getting products out there. You'll see the same contrast in cars and trucks. Some domestics jam their lots and blow them out a year later to make room for the next crop of glut. Others have a more lean strategy of matching supply to demand, and focus on quality. Yamaha's approach looks to me to be more of a lean philosophy, in keeping with what I would expect from a Japanese-rooted manufacturer. Overproduction is wasteful, and hurts balance sheets. The glut in the market drags down Yamaha's resale value as much as anyone else's. It's a challenging market, and Yam's all-4 decision has probably been a challenging one to ride out, as riders continue to prefer 2 strokes in many cases. I've gotten off topic, but I think it's premature to predict Yamaha exiting the snow market altogether.

Correct, the Japanese embrace six Sigma and lean production.
Then again, so does GE.

 

[Rich Kay]

$17,599 should help sell sleds!

For sure... not getting out of hand ...but is.