2024 Yamaha snowmobile releases, March 14, 2023

[VK540V]

You don't even know what the 24's are yet.
You may very well be right that there isn't much, but no other manufacturer brought much else new for 24 either.
So should they all 'fold up'?

Yes, I actually do. It should be painfully obvious to anyone else as well. If Yamaha had something new. Anything new. They’d be promoting and hyping up that something was coming. Instead he’s apologizing for late deliveries on 23’s and making excuses why Textron won’t be allocating many machines to Yamaha. There most certainly won’t be a blue Cataylist for ‘24. There are no more Japanese built sleds like the VK, Venture or VK Pro. Your choices will be blue Sidewinders and a few, blue 400cc sleds.

Regarding other OEM’s, have you looked at Polaris or Ski-doo? You must not have looked hard as Doo has a methonal injected, turbo charged 850 trail sled and Polaris increased the number of sleds carrying the boost 850. Also, the bigger news for this site is Polaris offers a 4-stroke, 1000cc twin across more models for ‘24.

The ‘24 Yamaha release will be new stickers on 13 model year old Pro-cross chassis sleds. Yay.

 

[yamajammer76]

Yes, I actually do. It should be painfully obvious to anyone else as well. If Yamaha had something new. Anything new. They’d be promoting and hyping up that something was coming. Instead he’s apologizing for late deliveries on 23’s and making excuses why Textron won’t be allocating many machines to Yamaha. There most certainly won’t be a blue Cataylist for ‘24. There are no more Japanese built sleds like the VK, Venture or VK Pro. Your choices will be blue Sidewinders and a few, blue 400cc sleds.

Regarding other OEM’s, have you looked at Polaris or Ski-doo? You must not have looked hard as Doo has a methonal injected, turbo charged 850 trail sled and Polaris increased the number of sleds carrying the boost 850. Also, the bigger news for this site is Polaris offers a 4-stroke, 1000cc twin across more models for ‘24.

The ‘24 Yamaha release will be new stickers on 13 model year old Pro-cross chassis sleds. Yay.

The SRViper will be back because the ZR 7000 is back, but there will be exactly one variant of that sled. A 137” trail sled. All of the other manufacturers offer 50-50 versions of their 600+ class sleds, but not Yamaha. If I wanted to replace my 2016 SRViper MTX 141” 2.25” 40” mountain front with sway bar (Cat High Country of the time equivalent) I have to go to another manufacturer. The SRVenture will be back for touring because the Pantera 7000 is back. See how this works? lol

I think you’re also forgetting the re-badged M8000… err I mean Mountain Max 800. I bet Cat will build a few of those for Yamaha again. It’ll be the last year though because the Catalyst Mountain with an 800+ engine will be coming for 2025 and I can guarantee that’ll be a Cat exclusive. In fact, Cat already stated the Catalyst is an Arctic Cat brand exclusive. Will they eventually change their minds and paint them blue? Who knows maybe down the road. It’s possible the end game for the Yamaha snowmobile division is just a handful of 2 stroke Cats painted blue sold and serviced by a Yamaha dealer.

I have always tried to stay positive, but the Yamaha snowmobile division is a skeleton of it‘s former self. Japan has cut ties completely except for a little cash to keep the lights on. If the current manager has more than a dozen people reporting to him I’d be shocked. Probably a few marketing people and a designer or two for new graphics. The engineering is 100% Cat now. I mean they might have an “engineer“ on staff to act as liaison between Yamaha and Cat on product issues, but as far as I know most were let go. If there ever is a 4 stroke Yamaha powered Catalyst it’ll be because Cat designed it and wanted it.

So that’s the sad current state of affairs. The 2024s are likely to be good snowmobiles and if you want one order one. All I’m saying is the snowmobile division is just an afterthought at this point living on life support. If Yamaha Japan cuts the funding or Cat says no more contract manufacturing it’s done.

 

[74Nitro]

Yes, I actually do. It should be painfully obvious to anyone else as well. If Yamaha had something new. Anything new. They’d be promoting and hyping up that something was coming. Instead he’s apologizing for late deliveries on 23’s and making excuses why Textron won’t be allocating many machines to Yamaha. There most certainly won’t be a blue Cataylist for ‘24. There are no more Japanese built sleds like the VK, Venture or VK Pro. Your choices will be blue Sidewinders and a few, blue 400cc sleds.

Regarding other OEM’s, have you looked at Polaris or Ski-doo? You must not have looked hard as Doo has a methonal injected, turbo charged 850 trail sled and Polaris increased the number of sleds carrying the boost 850. Also, the bigger news for this site is Polaris offers a 4-stroke, 1000cc twin across more models for ‘24.

The ‘24 Yamaha release will be new stickers on 13 model year old Pro-cross chassis sleds. Yay.

Technically, yes the Catalyst is a 24 model, but they let that Cat out the bag a long time ago.
The Doo is a flatland version of the mountain model with a meth kit....zzzzzzzz.
BNG from Polaris.
Again, hardly anything new or ground breaking.

 

[jjmoneysauce]

Some day I would honestly like to know the inside story of how Yamaha went from dominating the industry in the 80s and 90s to being the shadow it is now, losing its reputation, flopping into the trail market, and begging Cat to build them some trail units on an old chassis.

 

[74Nitro]

Some day I would honestly like to know the inside story of how Yamaha went from dominating the industry in the 80s and 90s to being the shadow it is now, losing its reputation, flopping into the trail market, and begging Cat to build them some trail units on an old chassis.

Not that hard to figure out. The people behind launching product in those times were better at their job than the ones that took over around the early 2000's. And no, it wasn't the four strokes that hurt them, it was a tank of a chassis and lack of bringing new product to market fast enough.

 

[Yamajon1]

And a tsunami

 

[20/80]

Yamaha seems to sell out every unit they put out and then some, can't see them folding up their tents and pulling out off the snowmobile business because they are selling out every unit they put out, a change is coming but what that will be who knows, Yamaha is so very tight lipped, was on a snowmobile trip seen a few winders and accouple vipers but Ski Doo rules the trails, they are everywhere with one heck off a pile of different models it seems, lots of 4 stroke turbos, didn't see to many 850s this trip though.

 

[yamajammer76]

Yamaha seems to sell out every unit they put out and then some, can't see them folding up their tents and pulling out off the snowmobile business because they are selling out every unit they put out, a change is coming but what that will be who knows, Yamaha is so very tight lipped, was on a snowmobile trip seen a few winders and accouple vipers but Ski Doo rules the trails, they are everywhere with one heck off a pile of different models it seems, lots of 4 stroke turbos, didn't see to many 850s this trip though.

The question though is how many sleds are they actually contracting Arctic Cat to build. If it's even 10,000 that's one thing. If it's 500-1000 that's something completely different. Take away the Sidewinder and the one model of Viper and the rest of the line is just a 100% re-baged Cat. I ride a Yamacat and I think it's a good sled, but if they are going to have Cat build them they at least need to try to have some styling and features differentiation. At least with the 2014 SRViper it actually and some unique styling with a different hood and headlight. Anyhow the Procross is 12 years old and Cat is moving on with the Catalyst. Where that leaves Yamaha is anyone's guess. I guess we'll see what happens in the next couple years.

 

[VK540V]

The SRViper will be back because the ZR 7000 is back, but there will be exactly one variant of that sled. A 137” trail sled. All of the other manufacturers offer 50-50 versions of their 600+ class sleds, but not Yamaha. If I wanted to replace my 2016 SRViper MTX 141” 2.25” 40” mountain front with sway bar (Cat High Country of the time equivalent) I have to go to another manufacturer. The SRVenture will be back for touring because the Pantera 7000 is back. See how this works? lol

I think you’re also forgetting the re-badged M8000… err I mean Mountain Max 800. I bet Cat will build a few of those for Yamaha again. It’ll be the last year though because the Catalyst Mountain with an 800+ engine will be coming for 2025 and I can guarantee that’ll be a Cat exclusive. In fact, Cat already stated the Catalyst is an Arctic Cat brand exclusive. Will they eventually change their minds and paint them blue? Who knows maybe down the road. It’s possible the end game for the Yamaha snowmobile division is just a handful of 2 stroke Cats painted blue sold and serviced by a Yamaha dealer.

I have always tried to stay positive, but the Yamaha snowmobile division is a skeleton of it‘s former self. Japan has cut ties completely except for a little cash to keep the lights on. If the current manager has more than a dozen people reporting to him I’d be shocked. Probably a few marketing people and a designer or two for new graphics. The engineering is 100% Cat now. I mean they might have an “engineer“ on staff to act as liaison between Yamaha and Cat on product issues, but as far as I know most were let go. If there ever is a 4 stroke Yamaha powered Catalyst it’ll be because Cat designed it and wanted it.

So that’s the sad current state of affairs. The 2024s are likely to be good snowmobiles and if you want one order one. All I’m saying is the snowmobile division is just an afterthought at this point living on life support. If Yamaha Japan cuts the funding or Cat says no more contract manufacturing it’s done.

I forgot about the SRViper, kinda like everyone else in the sled industry. Ha ha
I don’t understand why Yamaha doesn’t do much for updates on it?

Technically, yes the Catalyst is a 24 model, but they let that Cat out the bag a long time ago.
The Doo is a flatland version of the mountain model with a meth kit....zzzzzzzz.
BNG from Polaris.
Again, hardly anything new or ground breaking.

The Cataylist is the only new chassis from any of the OEM’s. But, just like the Kawasaki/Suzuki agreement back in the early 00’s, neither shared their latest and greatest products with each other the first year they came out. With that arrangement, at least both companies were bring things to the table. Yamaha brings 2 engines, with the 1050 being something that Cat sometimes offers, sometimes doesn’t. Since Textron took over you are seeing more and more that Cat doesn’t need Yamaha but Yamaha sure needs Cat. Yamaha is currently begging at the table for scraps and that’s just depressing.

BNG from Polaris? OMG! Take your blue glasses off and fricking look around. They have a 4-stroke. A 4-STROKE, 1000cc twin that is in their modern and current Maytrx chassis. Yeah, that’s nothing.

Ski-Doo has something for everyone and I won’t be surprised to see their much lighter weight turbo 850 winning fastest sled awards over the long in tooth Sidewinder. But yeah, that’s nothing either.

The question though is how many sleds are they actually contracting Arctic Cat to build. If it's even 10,000 that's one thing. If it's 500-1000 that's something completely different. Take away the Sidewinder and the one model of Viper and the rest of the line is just a 100% re-baged Cat. I ride a Yamacat and I think it's a good sled, but if they are going to have Cat build them they at least need to try to have some styling and features differentiation. At least with the 2014 SRViper it actually and some unique styling with a different hood and headlight. Anyhow the Procross is 12 years old and Cat is moving on with the Catalyst. Where that leaves Yamaha is anyone's guess. I guess we'll see what happens in the next couple years.

It definitely don’t think it’s 10,000 as Yamaha has the lowest market share. Worldwide in ‘22 there were only 130,644 snowmobiles manufactured. https://snowgoer.com/latest-news/exclusive-2022-snowmobile-sales-data-shows-winners-losers/30784/

Ski-doo’s market share is over 50%, Polaris is around 30 something% and Cat is higher than Yamaha. I read in a forum that someone said Yamaha was in the single digits for market share and I believe that. Their biggest selling sled in Russia was the VK540 and they dropped it. I’m wondering if Yamaha sells so few sleds now that Textron is reconsidering the agreement as they are stealing sales away from their Cat dealers by selling the same sleds.

 

[TURBLUE]

It’s is pretty crazy that Yamaha would be ok with painting a AC blue and calling it a mountain max. So who’s making the money on that deal? Cat or Yamaha. Guessing Yamahas profit is tight and only doing it to add a mountain sled to their lineup.

I’m a big Yamaha fan and ride a 14 viper 162 MCX 190 (10000km) and a 19 sidewinder mtx….best Yamaha 4 stroke mountain sled ever….but getting tired of them not putting any effort in the mountain side.

I’m thinking of going to Doo as Yamaha gave up a few years ago.

 

[yamajammer76]

I forgot about the SRViper, kinda like everyone else in the sled industry. Ha ha
I don’t understand why Yamaha doesn’t do much for updates on it?



The Cataylist is the only new chassis from any of the OEM’s. But, just like the Kawasaki/Suzuki agreement back in the early 00’s, neither shared their latest and greatest products with each other the first year they came out. With that arrangement, at least both companies were bring things to the table. Yamaha brings 2 engines, with the 1050 being something that Cat sometimes offers, sometimes doesn’t. Since Textron took over you are seeing more and more that Cat doesn’t need Yamaha but Yamaha sure needs Cat. Yamaha is currently begging at the table for scraps and that’s just depressing.

BNG from Polaris? OMG! Take your blue glasses off and fricking look around. They have a 4-stroke. A 4-STROKE, 1000cc twin that is in their modern and current Maytrx chassis. Yeah, that’s nothing.

Ski-Doo has something for everyone and I won’t be surprised to see their much lighter weight turbo 850 winning fastest sled awards over the long in tooth Sidewinder. But yeah, that’s nothing either.

It definitely don’t think it’s 10,000 as Yamaha has the lowest market share. Worldwide in ‘22 there were only 130,644 snowmobiles manufactured. https://snowgoer.com/latest-news/exclusive-2022-snowmobile-sales-data-shows-winners-losers/30784/

Ski-doo’s market share is over 50%, Polaris is around 30 something% and Cat is higher than Yamaha. I read in a forum that someone said Yamaha was in the single digits for market share and I believe that. Their biggest selling sled in Russia was the VK540 and they dropped it. I’m wondering if Yamaha sells so few sleds now that Textron is reconsidering the agreement as they are stealing sales away from their Cat dealers by selling the same sleds.

In 2014 Arctic Cat was still a small independent company that needed the infusion of cash and additional manufacturing volume that the SRViper/7000 offered. It was a life-line that kept them going for a bit longer. The Sidewinder/9000 was also developed and had one season of production before the Textron acquisition in January 2017. Yamaha still had snowmobile engineering based out of Pleasant Prairie, WI and even test areas near there while those models were being developed. It was well documented at the time that Yamaha engineers spent time in Thief River Falls as well. That’s how a joint venture is supposed to work. Now it’s just a simple supply agreement of sleds that have long been developed. Yamaha phones in new colors and decals and when they want a new sled they just rebadge an M8000 or Blast and ask for a production slot to build a few sleds.

Textron is a Fortune 500 conglomerate that makes most of their profits in the defense industry. Arctic Cat was purchased mainly to beef up their distribution of all terrain vehicles. Some people from TRF must have lobbied hard to get Textron to fund development of the Catalyst and good for them. These days I’m guessing Jared Smith spends most of his time begging Textron execs for a few manufacturing slots on the calendar. Well that and overseeing a few marketing folks and graphics designers. lol

Anyhow back to the exciting release of the 2024 models. Good sleds if you want to update from something like a Nytro, RX-1 or early Apex/Vector, but offer nothing to people already on Yamacats.

 

[CaptCaper]

I forgot about the SRViper, kinda like everyone else in the sled industry. Ha ha
I don’t understand why Yamaha doesn’t do much for updates on it?



The Cataylist is the only new chassis from any of the OEM’s. But, just like the Kawasaki/Suzuki agreement back in the early 00’s, neither shared their latest and greatest products with each other the first year they came out. With that arrangement, at least both companies were bring things to the table. Yamaha brings 2 engines, with the 1050 being something that Cat sometimes offers, sometimes doesn’t. Since Textron took over you are seeing more and more that Cat doesn’t need Yamaha but Yamaha sure needs Cat. Yamaha is currently begging at the table for scraps and that’s just depressing.

BNG from Polaris? OMG! Take your blue glasses off and fricking look around. They have a 4-stroke. A 4-STROKE, 1000cc twin that is in their modern and current Maytrx chassis. Yeah, that’s nothing.

Ski-Doo has something for everyone and I won’t be surprised to see their much lighter weight turbo 850 winning fastest sled awards over the long in tooth Sidewinder. But yeah, that’s nothing either.

It definitely don’t think it’s 10,000 as Yamaha has the lowest market share. Worldwide in ‘22 there were only 130,644 snowmobiles manufactured. https://snowgoer.com/latest-news/exclusive-2022-snowmobile-sales-data-shows-winners-losers/30784/

Ski-doo’s market share is over 50%, Polaris is around 30 something% and Cat is higher than Yamaha. I read in a forum that someone said Yamaha was in the single digits for market share and I believe that. Their biggest selling sled in Russia was the VK540 and they dropped it. I’m wondering if Yamaha sells so few sleds now that Textron is reconsidering the agreement as they are stealing sales away from their Cat dealers by selling the same sleds.

Here in Northern NH I don't see any Yamaha's at all. There were dealers 15 yrs ago but there all gone.

 

[earthling]

In 2014 Arctic Cat was still a small independent company that needed the infusion of cash and additional manufacturing volume that the SRViper/7000 offered. It was a life-line that kept them going for a bit longer. The Sidewinder/9000 was also developed and had one season of production before the Textron acquisition in January 2017. Yamaha still had snowmobile engineering based out of Pleasant Prairie, WI and even test areas near there while those models were being developed. It was well documented at the time that Yamaha engineers spent time in Thief River Falls as well. That’s how a joint venture is supposed to work. Now it’s just a simple supply agreement of sleds that have long been developed. Yamaha phones in new colors and decals and when they want a new sled they just rebadge an M8000 or Blast and ask for a production slot to build a few sleds.

Textron is a Fortune 500 conglomerate that makes most of their profits in the defense industry. Arctic Cat was purchased mainly to beef up their distribution of all terrain vehicles. Some people from TRF must have lobbied hard to get Textron to fund development of the Catalyst and good for them. These days I’m guessing Jared Smith spends most of his time begging Textron execs for a few manufacturing slots on the calendar. Well that and overseeing a few marketing folks and graphics designers. lol

Anyhow back to the exciting release of the 2024 models. Good sleds if you want to update from something like a Nytro, RX-1 or early Apex/Vector, but offer nothing to people already on Yamacats.

Manufacturing slots will be in the contract either as an absolute number or a number relative to overall production, it would be a core leverage point for both sides, with some way to call more/less prior to committing to a number for a season. They aren't begging for sleds, the capacity is what it is.

 

[number1kyster]

Not that hard to figure out. The people behind launching product in those times were better at their job than the ones that took over around the early 2000's. And no, it wasn't the four strokes that hurt them, it was a tank of a chassis and lack of bringing new product to market fast enough.

I also think it was a byproduct of the industry being turned upside down by the rider forward movement.

Both Cat and Yamaha had new product launches in 2003 at the same time as the REV. Both brands have been on a downward slide ever since. It takes time to develop a chassis. By the time Cat and Yamaha had their bearings, Doo was dropping the XP chassis that was 40-50lbs lighter than the REV.

 

[yamajammer76]

Not that hard to figure out. The people behind launching product in those times were better at their job than the ones that took over around the early 2000's. And no, it wasn't the four strokes that hurt them, it was a tank of a chassis and lack of bringing new product to market fast enough.

I'll have to just agree to disagree. It totally was the 4 strokes that hurt them. I'll rephrase that. It wasn't the 4 strokes that hurt them, it was the fact the stopped offering 2 strokes. If they would have had 2 and 4 stroke engine options on a better in-house chassis (think Nytro handling fixed and lightened) they would still have much more marketshare. They are back to selling some 2 stroke sleds anyhow, but those are just rebadged Cats.

Maybe it's different in different areas, but everywhere I ride almost everyone still rides 2 strokes.