Another Yamaha dealer closes in Maine

[coolio]

What has become of the company? They barely sell any sleds in Maine anymore. The dealer in Newport closed a couple years ago and now the dealer in Old Town has closed. What do they expect when they only offer a couple different versions of the same model sleds and those are Cats with Yamaha stickers put on them. Where is the innovation that they were famous for? Where is the excitement? It's all gone! Why don't they just walk away from sleds all together? When I'm tired of the ole Apex XTX I'm going Doo 4 stroke. At least I'll have a dealer within a hours drive and a company that is passionate about snowmobiling.

 

[josnow]

Agree, I’m south Maine but my dealer of choice closed a fair number of years ago. Nearest dealer is over an hour away now. Yamaha closed shop in the Burg quite a while ago which is where I do most of my riding. No plans to get rid of my Yamaha but picked up a Doo 1200 this year. Just got tired of waiting and seems like the writing is on the wall.

 

[20/80]

Yes its pretty discouraging, Yamaha only builds 3 sleds Venture touring, VKPRO, VK540, the rest are painted Cats, sorry to here about your dealerships closing but you still can get your sled serviced you just have to drive farther, my Yamaha dealership does not sell sleds anymore or have a sled display like before, just sells everything else Yamaha but could get a sled if you wanted one, its a a hour drive for me also, but I am staying positive about Yamahas sled division have been doing some research for quit a while now and following Yamahas moves when leaked, here's some of my findings, first the agreement with Cat, sell Cat Yamaha engines in return for their chassis and their plant paint and assemble Yamaha sleds, this agreement was for 5 years plus till Yamaha gets up and running from the loss of their plant in Japan, after some time Yamaha moved their headquarters to Canada(snowbelt) and hired a new team of engineers, Yamaha bought out Subaru small engines and their facility which is huge, some Subaru engines found there way into the 16- 18 Yamaha Grizzlies the 708, that motor has been discontinued and Yamaha moved back to their own 686 motor for 2019 so production has stopped at the Subaru plant for retooling, guess what they are retooling for? the realign of their snowmobile division, cutting back on the pro cross models till the dealerships sell off their inventory plus the small one model line up with different versions of the Sidewinder engine in some combo pro cross chassis,Yamaha not showing up to some big events that they were a big supporter of in the past, that's just to name a few, I feel Yamaha is aligning to shock the sled world and will soon be taking the wraps of a cutting edge pure Yamaha new chassis with some new high tech light weight turbo engines, Yamaha has done this in the past and I believe history will repeat itself, so hang in there true blues, also remember when the CEO of Japan say's they will use Cats chassis till they realign believe me he means it, Yamaha is aligned and something is coming.

 

[Edgebrook]

Snowmobile dealers are becoming extinct

 

[JERSEYJOE]

With sleds approaching $20,000.00 can you blame some of us fpr keeping our APEXes and fixing them? Could care less a out the CAT Models.

 

[20/80]

With sleds approaching $20,000.00 can you blame some of us fpr keeping our APEXes and fixing them? Could care less a out the CAT Models.

I have to agree with you, but the good thing is when you spend some money keeping your Apex in tip top shape it will pay you back ten fold.

 

[STAIN]

 

[Snorunner]

Yes its pretty discouraging, Yamaha only builds 3 sleds Venture touring, VKPRO, VK540, the rest are painted Cats, sorry to here about your dealerships closing but you still can get your sled serviced you just have to drive farther, my Yamaha dealership does not sell sleds anymore or have a sled display like before, just sells everything else Yamaha but could get a sled if you wanted one, its a a hour drive for me also, but I am staying positive about Yamahas sled division have been doing some research for quit a while now and following Yamahas moves when leaked, here's some of my findings, first the agreement with Cat, sell Cat Yamaha engines in return for their chassis and their plant paint and assemble Yamaha sleds, this agreement was for 5 years plus till Yamaha gets up and running from the loss of their plant in Japan, after some time Yamaha moved their headquarters to Canada(snowbelt) and hired a new team of engineers, Yamaha bought out Subaru small engines and their facility which is huge, some Subaru engines found there way into the 16- 18 Yamaha Grizzlies the 708, that motor has been discontinued and Yamaha moved back to their own 686 motor for 2019 so production has stopped at the Subaru plant for retooling, guess what they are retooling for? the realign of their snowmobile division, cutting back on the pro cross models till the dealerships sell off their inventory plus the small one model line up with different versions of the Sidewinder engine in some combo pro cross chassis,Yamaha not showing up to some big events that they were a big supporter of in the past, that's just to name a few, I feel Yamaha is aligning to shock the sled world and will soon be taking the wraps of a cutting edge pure Yamaha new chassis with some new high tech light weight turbo engines, Yamaha has done this in the past and I believe history will repeat itself, so hang in there true blues, also remember when the CEO of Japan say's they will use Cats chassis till they realign believe me he means it, Yamaha is aligned and something is coming.

Let's hope he is right! At least the Venture touring gives me hope. Why because there may be some parts available. Down the road for my Vectors.