Never owned one, but still a loss for the sport. They have a long history and built some very impressive sleds through the years.
zertrider
Apparently some of you dont get the news very early
Yamaha To Exit The Snowmobile Market In Model Year 2025 (snowgoer.com)
Yamaha To Exit The Snowmobile Market In Model Year 2025 (snowgoer.com)
Love them or hate them, it's a sad day for the industry to lose a player. Although, I do doubt the surprise is on the fact that they finally did it, the surprise is more of why it took this long.
I'm still a blue bleeder. It's a sad day for sure.
I'm still a blue bleeder. It's a sad day for sure.
I am wondering how Arctic Cat will be meeting EPA fleet emissions requirements if Yamaha stops supplying them with 4-stroke motors.
The million dollar question is: will Yamaha still supply Arctic Cat with 4-stroke motors for 2025 and beyond???
Sad sad sad... Yamaha was a dominating force in the 70s and 80s. Yamaha as a company is so big it could easily build new snowmobiles if they wanted, to bad they don't
Bad news for the industry as a whole. Less competition... more price gouging. Lots of miles on Yamaha snowmobiles for me, sad to see it ending.
The choice to go exclusively 4 stroke way back in the early 2000s was the beginning of the end IMO. While it has shifted slightly, the core of the market is still 2 stroke. It is a loss for the industry though, even if they've basically just been blue Cats for the last several.
Yamaha's inability to develop a new chassis and or put anything new platform wise out there, is what did them in, not going to all 4 strokes. They actually developed and benefited from an entire new customer base and pulled alot of customers and converted two stroke guys. They created a vertical within an industry. It was a brilliant move.
Customers want to see visual changes to the brand every few years, that's called marketing. You can't market and sell new sleds with huge improvements but still sitting in old skin and shell. Yamaha pushed the boundary's with snowmobiling and they shouldn't be looked down for that.
Customers want to see visual changes to the brand every few years, that's called marketing. You can't market and sell new sleds with huge improvements but still sitting in old skin and shell. Yamaha pushed the boundary's with snowmobiling and they shouldn't be looked down for that.
I disagree. They pigeonholed themselves into a niche, heavy, 4 stroke market that demanded they be on top of their chassis game. And they never could deliver that chassis. Ironic that the best 4 stroke Yamaha sleds ever made are really just Cats. Hell, even Cat has suffered from 4 stroke compatibility, making chassis compromises along they way that continued to lose them marketshare to dedicated 2 stroke platforms (And I say this owning a 998 turbo). And here we are now with the 2 stroke only Catalyst.
Not hard to do when you are limiting production to less than 5,000 sleds per year. Now when you are producing over 50,000 sleds per year and selling out, then you've got real demand.
Will the value of the Sidewinders now increase? Would be a shame to see that engine not available on snow.
like anything collectable,
yes the price of anything with Yamaha and snowmobile on it will increase, as a matter of fact I'm going to buy a bottle of snowmobile oil, just to toss in the man cave. Something tells me Textron might be absorbing them, and rebranding sleds as "textron" on the sides, but that's just my hunch.
we still have two more years to enjoy Yamaha as a brand within the snowmobile vertical.
yes the price of anything with Yamaha and snowmobile on it will increase, as a matter of fact I'm going to buy a bottle of snowmobile oil, just to toss in the man cave. Something tells me Textron might be absorbing them, and rebranding sleds as "textron" on the sides, but that's just my hunch.
we still have two more years to enjoy Yamaha as a brand within the snowmobile vertical.
Probably end early as why would you buy it knowing full well they are stopping production even with the promise of spare parts. Yamaha has always been good with spares but I wouldn't buy one now and to be honest I really liked them until they didn't offer a two-stroke.
Three choices for snowmobiles soon, it's not a good thing. Felt the same way when KTM bought Husky.
Three choices for snowmobiles soon, it's not a good thing. Felt the same way when KTM bought Husky.
I for one, will miss them. Yamaha has produced some of the most iconic sleds in the industry. I'm 51 and as a kid remember the first Vmax 540. That thing was just sweeter than sweet. The first Phazer changed snowmobiling and still has a cult following to this day. All sorts of guys turn them into boondockers. The Vmax-4 essentially started the whole triple/triple craze. The Bender FIII sled is still the thing of dreams for guys my age. The RX-1 never took off, but also changed the sport. That look of Yamaha blue with gold Ohlins shocks on a fresh groomed trail will always have a soft spot for me.
In the end though, this isn't good for our sport. We all know Cat isn't in the greatest of spots, even with new product this year. We need solid strong brands or there is no future.
In the end though, this isn't good for our sport. We all know Cat isn't in the greatest of spots, even with new product this year. We need solid strong brands or there is no future.
Sad to see, but I felt like it was coming.
I personally don't think it was the sleds that was the initial doom or the 4 stoke for the fate of the company. I think it was their dealership business model years ago. A lot of yamaha dealers stopped selling snowmobiles.
According to the old managers I worded for, who are pros at running a dealership. (They left and started their own dealership). The dealership I worked at was Arctic cat and Polaris, and it used to be Yamaha snowmobiles too. They dropped Yamaha snowmobiles because they were forced to take on the boring sleds people didn't buy, and when the sleds sit on the floor for a while they gotta pay interest on them. In order to get a big model that people wanted they had to take on x amount of non popular models because Yamaha wasn't selling them. So they got dumped on the dealerships and the dealers had to pay for them because they say too long. Snowmobiles is a weird world where the more expensive models sell faster.
I can't think of anywhere near me who sells Yamaha snowmobiles. But I can think of plenty Yamaha dealerships who sell ATVs, sxs, dirt bikes, and boats.
Guaranteed if that dealership in the past 5 years could only get their hands on sidewinders, they would sell. And now with how expensive patriot boosts are people wouldn't flinch at the sidewinder pricetag. Also they dont weight as much as they used to! It was proven that a LTX LE eps 137 turbo wet weight is 667 lbs. A skidoo mxz blizzard 850 129 wet weight is 627 lbs. A boost vr1 137 wet weight is 604.5 lbs. That's not bad when you think about it!
Don't get me wrong, going 4 stroke only wasnt helping. Not paying any attention to chassis design didn't help. But they said it themselves, the past few decades their priority was engines. That's just not enough for today's snowmobile world. Everyone is fast now. But Polaris, skidoo, and Arctic cat push chassis design, because it matters! Yamaha just stopped trying. I'm glad we at least have Lynx who really cares about chassis design and it offers what skidoo doesn't.
I'm not too worried about the rest of the snowmobiles as a whole. Yamaha was coasting, they didn't really offer anything new for some time now and never even promised to do so. The rest of the manufactures are still trying. Arctic cat seemed to be coasting for a bit too, but it's clear they put some real effort into the future. So that's good. Hopefully it's a new path for them and they share enough sales!
I personally don't think it was the sleds that was the initial doom or the 4 stoke for the fate of the company. I think it was their dealership business model years ago. A lot of yamaha dealers stopped selling snowmobiles.
According to the old managers I worded for, who are pros at running a dealership. (They left and started their own dealership). The dealership I worked at was Arctic cat and Polaris, and it used to be Yamaha snowmobiles too. They dropped Yamaha snowmobiles because they were forced to take on the boring sleds people didn't buy, and when the sleds sit on the floor for a while they gotta pay interest on them. In order to get a big model that people wanted they had to take on x amount of non popular models because Yamaha wasn't selling them. So they got dumped on the dealerships and the dealers had to pay for them because they say too long. Snowmobiles is a weird world where the more expensive models sell faster.
I can't think of anywhere near me who sells Yamaha snowmobiles. But I can think of plenty Yamaha dealerships who sell ATVs, sxs, dirt bikes, and boats.
Guaranteed if that dealership in the past 5 years could only get their hands on sidewinders, they would sell. And now with how expensive patriot boosts are people wouldn't flinch at the sidewinder pricetag. Also they dont weight as much as they used to! It was proven that a LTX LE eps 137 turbo wet weight is 667 lbs. A skidoo mxz blizzard 850 129 wet weight is 627 lbs. A boost vr1 137 wet weight is 604.5 lbs. That's not bad when you think about it!
Don't get me wrong, going 4 stroke only wasnt helping. Not paying any attention to chassis design didn't help. But they said it themselves, the past few decades their priority was engines. That's just not enough for today's snowmobile world. Everyone is fast now. But Polaris, skidoo, and Arctic cat push chassis design, because it matters! Yamaha just stopped trying. I'm glad we at least have Lynx who really cares about chassis design and it offers what skidoo doesn't.
I'm not too worried about the rest of the snowmobiles as a whole. Yamaha was coasting, they didn't really offer anything new for some time now and never even promised to do so. The rest of the manufactures are still trying. Arctic cat seemed to be coasting for a bit too, but it's clear they put some real effort into the future. So that's good. Hopefully it's a new path for them and they share enough sales!
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
