2020 Release

[74Nitro]

What it may mean is that Arctic Cat as we know it today is gone. And Yamaha snowmobiles as we know it are gone. It would explain all the Yamaha house cleaning this year and next.

Then a new line of the merged company can be released, and the AC faithful and Yamaha faithful could possibly co-exist. This is the perfect time to release a new chassis, and possibly a new powerplant that was co-designed under a new name. That way nobody can pull the "we designed it" "they designed it" card or blame card for poor design.

Yamacat, or Catmaha may be closer to reality than we want to admit.

BUT PLEASE, let's move away from the late 80's Dayglow, purple and Ditch Pickle colors!!! For F-sake!

Your last sentence is so true. What on earth are they thinking with some of these colour schemes? Just awful.

 

[sxr70001]

If Yamaha did buy cat I would be happy if they kept the procross chassis for now, but refined it by building in Yamaha quality in the fasteners, engine placement, gear cases, drive train and all the cheap crap parts in general.

 

[Deeppow16]

I have seen on a post on this forum that the sled line of Cat was in trouble, if it holds true your buddy maybe right, Textron did this to Polaris back in the day, so the big announcement for 2020 maybe that Yamaha is taking complete control and ownership of the Cat plant and their line of sleds, now does this mean that the Cat sticker on the pro cross is gone or does Yamaha keep going with the old pro cross chassis with the Cat stickers on it and produce a all new chassis just for Yamaha and fade Cat out down the road, Cat brand sleds does have a big brand loyal costumer base, but the sled department still seems to struggle, Yamaha will gain more market share for sure if all this holds true.

I don't know how they can be struggling. Do you know how many Alphas sold last year? A LOT! It even converted a lot of people and from what I hear its the best sled in the mountains right now hands down. For Cat(Textron) to sell out now would make zero sense unless Yamaha took over the sled side of the biz.

 

[journeyman]

BUT PLEASE, let's move away from the late 80's Dayglow, purple and Ditch Pickle colors!!! For F-sake!

I have never been a fan of those colors either. The only green sleds I liked were the black and medium green " Z" sleds of the '70's or these retro Procross ones.

 

[biffdotorg]

It's all retro, I get it. As those color bring back nostalgia of their first sleds, or favorite sleds. I get it. Hell, I'm more embarrassed at the ski clothes I wore in the late 80's, early 90's.

On a similar note, the two stroke Yamaha they released overseas with the dark Yamaha blue on Black is damn sexy! I think this thread should be transformed into what the new merged/partnership should be called.

What are some new names to consider for these new sleds as a brand and model?

Enticing Puma
SXR Cheetah
Maybe bring back the leopard seat on a blue sled?

HA!

 

[Deeppow16]

That's why I went with the orange and white and black scheme.

 

[20/80]

At the time Cat went up for sale Yamaha did not want all of Cat but was interested in the sled assembly plant and chassis to house their engines and supply engines, when Textron bought Cat this would open the door for Yamaha to take over the sled part of Cat without purchasing the whole company, with a partnership signed with Cat before Cat was sold to Textron, Yamaha already new what was on the horizon for Cat, Yamaha's deal was already in place and Textron honour the partnership after they purchased Cat, wondering why Textron honoured the partnership? Yamaha was set to test run a 5 year agreement to assemble chassis and supply engines for the pro cross, in return Yamaha had a new chassis now in their line up, all of this was a test run to see if it would be in Yamaha's best interest to purchase the Cat line of sleds and assembly plant in the future, which means Yamaha new that Textron was never interested in the Cat line of Sleds but Textron had to stay face with the sled line to keep its brand loyal customers base till Yamaha takes over, now what happens next may be revealed in 2020 or 21.

 

[Deeppow16]

At the time Cat went up for sale Yamaha did not want all of Cat but was interested in the sled assembly plant and chassis to house their engines and supply engines, when Textron bought Cat this would open the door for Yamaha to take over the sled part of Cat without purchasing the whole company, with a partnership signed with Cat before Cat was sold to Textron, Yamaha already new what was on the horizon for Cat, Yamaha's deal was already in place and Textron honour the partnership after they purchased Cat, wondering why Textron honoured the partnership? Yamaha was set to test run a 5 year agreement to assemble chassis and supply engines for the pro cross, in return Yamaha had a new chassis now in their line up, all of this was a test run to see if it would be in Yamaha's best interest to purchase the Cat line of sleds and assembly plant in the future, which means Yamaha new that Textron was never interested in the Cat line of Sleds but Textron had to stay face with the sled line to keep its brand loyal customers base till Yamaha takes over, now what happens next may be revealed in 2020 or 21.

Well maybe in March we will find out.

 

[VX1R]

One question that I have regarding Yamaha (or anyone else) buying the sled division of AC from Textron...

The factory in TRF is where the AC ATV's and UTV's are made in addition to the sleds, so the production lines run year round. How could Textron possibly sell just the sled division to Yamaha? I'm pretty sure that Yamaha would have zero interest in the AC 4-wheelers, and doubt that they could keep the production line running year round making sleds.

Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see how this could play out.

I will speculate that for 2020 one of two things will be happening with the new Yamaha sleds:

1. With the very slow start to winter 2018-2019 Yamaha will be taking their typical conservative stance and will make some minor changes in their line up. They've done this many times in the past, when they've had some new sleds ready to go but pulled them from the line up due to poor snow/sales conditions the previous year. I believe this is what's going to happen in 2020, and that we'll all be let down once again. With the current sad state of the so called snowmobile division of Yamaha I can't see anything new coming out. I hope that I'm wrong because I'd really like to see a ground breaking sled from them again, whether it's a pure Yamaha or another Yamaha/AC joint venture.

2. That 2020 will be the biggest year for Yamaha in the past 15 seasons. With the knowledge that Gerard Karpik was contracted to do some work at Yamaha's R&D center in Minocqua, WI last year year it makes me wonder just what Yamaha hired him to work on. He is well known for his talents in suspension design and development so could we be seeing a ground breaking new suspension system coming on a new model(s)? Maybe we'll even see a real shot in the arm in their current snowmobile division with some fresh new talent that can turn things around for the better.

This is what I know for sure....

 

[ClutchMaster]

Then a new line of the merged company can be released, and the AC faithful and Yamaha faithful could possibly co-exist?!

No way! I’m not “High Five’in” any of those bright green & orange mentality deranged fools!
I already had to scratch off that dam cat sticker on my ECU..... now this?

 

[ClutchMaster]

Next thing will be Bears and Packers fans tailgating together!

 

[vodoo child]

After the Textron purchase of Cat for there dirt side I've been leary of there actions. The mass retirement's of the old guard at Cat and the limited amount of 19's offered by Yamaha and mostly spring checks at that, hence guaranteed orders. All in order to clear out floor stock. Maybe I'm just a Debbie Downer but IMO it looks like the plug is going to be pulled. Textron got what they wanted and the sleds were just an afterthought. According to my local Yamaha dealer, who indecently dropped sleds in 2015 after 40 yrs. Yamaha has way bigger problems then low snowmobile sales and building an all new sled. There medium and big bike sales are in the tank and there atv/utv SxS sales are only so so. I've asked this question before and gotten flamed but I'll ask it again! With ""ALL"" the variables involved in snowmobiles and snowmobiling, at this point does Yamaha even want or need to sell sleds? Flame on !!!

 

[ClutchMaster]

After the Textron purchase of Cat for there dirt side I've been leary of there actions. The mass retirement's of the old guard at Cat and the limited amount of 19's offered by Yamaha and mostly spring checks at that, hence guaranteed orders. All in order to clear out floor stock. Maybe I'm just a Debbie Downer but IMO it looks like the plug is going to be pulled. Textron got what they wanted and the sleds were just an afterthought. According to my local Yamaha dealer, who indecently dropped sleds in 2015 after 40 yrs. Yamaha has way bigger problems then low snowmobile sales and building an all new sled. There medium and big bike sales are in the tank and there atv/utv SxS sales are only so so. I've asked this question before and gotten flamed but I'll ask it again! With ""ALL"" the variables involved in snowmobiles and snowmobiling, at this point does Yamaha even want or need to sell sleds? Flame on !!!

Good point, not a stable market at all. Overpricing and low snow in the lower 48 has demolished the sled market, Forcing lower production numbers and higher prices. I don’t like these huge corporations anyway, they find new and interesting ways to “cheapen” there products to make more $$$$. I think you would get more for you dollar if a smaller corporation like redline were to start up. That’s all wishful thinking as global warming is going to pretty much destroy the sport in the next 10~15 years here in the states. Have fun while you can is what I say.

How’s that song go?????
Don’t worry, Be happy!

 

[hibshman25]

An 880 2-stroke!
This oughta get the juices a-flowin' in this thread.

Now we need a leak to figure if this a 2 or 3 cylinder.

The real problem with a new two stroke.....where do we discuss it! This is TY4 stroke.....do we have to go back to the old school original ty forum?? Ha

 

[20/80]

One question that I have regarding Yamaha (or anyone else) buying the sled division of AC from Textron...

The factory in TRF is where the AC ATV's and UTV's are made in addition to the sleds, so the production lines run year round. How could Textron possibly sell just the sled division to Yamaha? I'm pretty sure that Yamaha would have zero interest in the AC 4-wheelers, and doubt that they could keep the production line running year round making sleds.

Maybe I'm missing something but I just don't see how this could play out.

I will speculate that for 2020 one of two things will be happening with the new Yamaha sleds:

1. With the very slow start to winter 2018-2019 Yamaha will be taking their typical conservative stance and will make some minor changes in their line up. They've done this many times in the past, when they've had some new sleds ready to go but pulled them from the line up due to poor snow/sales conditions the previous year. I believe this is what's going to happen in 2020, and that we'll all be let down once again. With the current sad state of the so called snowmobile division of Yamaha I can't see anything new coming out. I hope that I'm wrong because I'd really like to see a ground breaking sled from them again, whether it's a pure Yamaha or another Yamaha/AC joint venture.

2. That 2020 will be the biggest year for Yamaha in the past 15 seasons. With the knowledge that Gerard Karpik was contracted to do some work at Yamaha's R&D center in Minocqua, WI last year year it makes me wonder just what Yamaha hired him to work on. He is well known for his talents in suspension design and development so could we be seeing a ground breaking new suspension system coming on a new model(s)? Maybe we'll see a real shot in the arm in their current snowmobile division with some fresh new talent that can turn things around for the better.

This is what I know for sure....

I am sure that Yamaha Japan knows exactly what there going to do in regards of AC assembly plant if this happens to plays out, I believe we are going to see Yamaha is going to be all in with the sled business or finally... all done!! and Cat/Textron takes it on, we will see soon enough