I dont really think yammy gives a shyt about Texcat or the sled industry any longer...The last few years they have become an ENGINE ONLY vendor for many oem ZTR manufacturers and other lawn/garden equipment manufacturers...If they wanted to they could take over the ZTR market if they build a line with the same quality they had with sleds/bikes/atvs/boats/ect

Multi Purpose Engine - Power Products | Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (yamaha-motor.com)

 

My guess is that some contracts need to run out, and they will let it die, which is too bad, and really not good for any of us.

 

Just think if Yamaha and Honda showed up and built what they are capable and known for... Yamaha was the standard for quality and engineering in sleds... Honda we will never know but if they wanted to watch out! Dreaming I guess. What we have right now is as good as it going to get without something like Yamaha being redeemed and Honda coming to play. I still look at earlier Yamahas and I’m impressed, it’s a shame to see the light go dim... Cat, Polaris , ski doo these days are all technically advanced for sure they just need to bring back the dam quality we want and should come with it for the price!

 

I have pondered the same thing, however what skin does Yamaha have in the game? Hey sell us some engines, well let you "sell" one of our chassis with your engine in it as your own.

I agree that yamaha/cat deal is coming to an end as the catalyst doesnt look like it can take a 4 stroke, then again alot of people said Riley Reed couldn't handle OG Mudbone but she did so who knows. There are whispers of cat making there own 4 stroke, and I wouldnt be surprised if it was based off of Mr. Gordons 1000 twin hes throwing in the Speed UTV's as there still is a relationship there.

 

OG Mudbone...

LMFAO [emoji1787]

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It's all about the dollar...and you have countries slamming the evil gasoline burning engine....sales have fallen, R&D has gone up....it's not profitable. End of story.

 

I think they'll stay in it as long as someone else will build sleds for them. Sidewinders sold out very quickly this year. Dealers are complaining they need more product to sell.

 

Yamaha hasn't built a world class long travel suspension for a snowmobile to save their butt. They can do it for their off-road bike line thats as good, or better than their competition. For some strange reason they can't transfer that technology to sleds.

 

If Yamaha was doing thier own thing and not just copy and paste cat with blue stickers. I think it wouldn’t be good for the industry but since they are not. I think it doesn’t matter if they turn the lights out on thier own sticker kits. And I’m a Yamaha product fan. So it’s not that I don’t like the company . But if they arnt bringing anything propiatary to the table. Mehhh

 

didnt they give up 5 or 6 years ago?

 

They did. This thread is about what year will be their last model year. It's all pretty sad, especially considering the great and reliable sleds that Yamaha has given us over the years.

Now, imagine if they brought back the old Bravo chassis (leaf springs and all) with a fuel injected 4-stroke single and priced it under $5,000.

 

I think Yamaha gambled on 4 strokes in 2003 thinking they would have the best 4 strokes on the market and everyone would play catch up. Unfortunately for them Doo came out with the Rev and everyone has been playing catch up to that, as a double whammy Doo has some pretty reliable 4 strokes of their own so where does that leave Yamaha?

 

I think Yamaha gambled on 4 strokes in 2003 thinking they would have the best 4 strokes on the market and everyone would play catch up. Unfortunately for them Doo came out with the Rev and everyone has been playing catch up to that, as a double whammy Doo has some pretty reliable 4 strokes of their own so where does that leave Yamaha?

lol what?

 

I have owned two cat procross sleds, and was diehard cat for 20yrs, and now on my 4th doo 850, and had 3 doo xs chassis sleds. I wouldnt be caught dead on a procross cat. Complete junk. and yes inferior. And this is coming from experience!

 

🤣 good. I would not be caught dead on a Doo! Experience!

 

My last Yamaha (yamacat) was a 2016 LE Viper 137 in the procross chassis . It was a great motor, very nice ride, handled terrible with stock skis. Reverse actuator failed more than it worked, chain case being part of the oil revisor and such was a engineering wet dream. Had it reflashed twice because of back fires and hot starts where a no go! I could go on. The Cat DNA was just too much for me .. I tolerated it for two years and sold it. Still have my Apex with M 10 that I hop once in a while and ride and smile. It’s an 07 RTX ... knocking on 20,000 miles.

 

That's fine. I have never owned a 4 stroke and never plan to. Pro Cross since 2015. Zero issues with any of them other than first sleds needing scratchers. Motors are tight. Will only own Cat. Dealer is top notch and the brand has never let me down. Different experiences is all.

 

While I’m reading this thread, I’m constantly getting YAMAHA snowmobile adds on the right hand side of my screen. I guess their still in it. I don’t think they have ideas of getting out of this setup with Cat. They keep them available for year round Yamaha customers. I’m in a summer resort area and we have many that have sleds, atv’s and Yami powered boats and PWC’s. Things may change when this deals ends but I think you will find Yamaha sleds in some configuration.

 

Any sledder wishing a brand to quit, is not a sledder! This is what kills a sport and will only make it more expensive to buy new. Competition is what keeps things moving forward.

 

As Ron mentioned above, Yamaha supplied very minimal product quantities to the dealers for their 2023 sled orders. I was at a large multi-line dealership today and the rep said they were only able to order four 2023 Yamaha snowmobiles, period, which would seem to confirm they are heading toward the doors. I cannot imagine they will be in the snow biz too much longer which is a bummer as their other lines are typically a high quality products.

 

Yamaha has been selling sleds since 1968. That has given their dealers in the snow belt another product to sell when the bikes, quads, and wave runners get put away. I think they’re in for the future but like everyone else I don’t know what it will look like. For sure they were losing the mtn market with four strokes but now they reversed course on that. It will be very interesting. I’d love to see continued collaboration with Cat.

 

Yamaha has been selling sleds since 1968. That has given their dealers in the snow belt another product to sell when the bikes, quads, and wave runners get put away. I think they’re in for the future but like everyone else I don’t know what it will look like. For sure they were losing the man market with four strokes but now they reversed course on that. It will be very interesting. I’d love to see continued collaboration with Cat.

Food for thought. I have seen 2 rumors floating around about Yamaha and cat. 1 cat and Yamaha are done. 2 Argo will partner with them. A few other pieces that could say this could come true. Argo is based in Canada. So is yamaha’s snow division. Argo has got a lot of the old cat people working for them. Maybe there could be some truth to that??

 

I think Yamaha will fade away in 5 or 6 years for sleds. It's really a bummer because they have cool sleds and nice engines. But they do sell for a lot of money. Maybe that's enough to keep them going longer. If we ever hear that they are coming out with a 2 stroke for sleds then we know they aren't going anywhere.

Or do what the Japanese car manufactures do when they start to fade away, hire up all the good engineers and designers from the other manufactures. And proceed to make it back up.

It doesn't help that their old was of forcing a bunch of the sleds they didn't sell on dealers, making them pull out. That's what the dealership told me when I worked there. The used to be a Yamaha sled dealer too, but they pulled out because Yamaha forced them to take in sleds that didn't sell. I think had they pushed the big bad sleds only on dealers maybe they could have stuck around better. Just a theory.

Ultimately I think the decades of lackluster chassis's did them in. If they had an awesome chassis and suspension, I don't think many people would have cares that they are 4 stroke only.

 

I think 2024 will be interesting for Yamaha. It doesn't sound like the catalyst will be shared with them, at least initially. Hard to think they'll be order-only sidewinders-only again with very limited quantity.

 

When KTM got Husky as a consumer I lost an option from chassis to price point and it's the same with Cat/Yamaha. Nothing good comes from Yamaha getting out of sleds but like others have said 5 more years and out.

 

Some of us have already wrote them off. However, back in the 80's Yamaha was my favorite brand. I would hate to see them go.

 

There were 200+ sled brands thru the years, I have the list.

 

In 1966 there was 62 companies committed and building snowmobiles at one time! From ski doo to Montgomery wards department stores! Crazy.

 

I had a Speedway Blue Max for awhile.

 

There is a large Can-Am / Polaris / Ski-Doo / Suzuki / Yamaha dealer right near my house. They dropped Yamaha snowmobiles but kept ALL other Yamaha offerings.

Again, it will be sad if Yamaha exits the snowmobile business, but it is inevitable, as they had some legendary sleds over the years.

 

It was sad when Mercury quit, I had a 74 400 FA and a 76 440 SnoTwister..

 

During the slow roll out of Catalyst, I picked up on the fact that nobody from Cat ever mentioned Yamaha( I don't think), as in "designed with our partners" or "in conjunction with" . The silence is eerie. Yamaha might be satisfied with slapping stickers on cats so that their northern dealer have something to sell in the motorcycle off sesson. Only time will tell, it does seem like they're(Yamaha)teetering on pulling the plug altogether. I feel we'll know a lot more this coming spring.

 

During the slow roll out of Catalyst, I picked up on the fact that nobody from Cat ever mentioned Yamaha( I don't think), as in "designed with our partners" or "in conjunction with" . The silence is eerie. Yamaha might be satisfied with slapping stickers on cats so that their northern dealer have something to sell in the motorcycle off sesson. Only time will tell, it does seem like they're(Yamaha)teetering on pulling the plug altogether. I feel we'll know a lot more this coming spring.

You're right. They also specifically mentioned that there was currently no 4-stroke powertrains planned for the Catalyst.

I see a couple of potential scenarios going forward:

• No 2024 or 2025 Yamaha Snowmobiles
• Cat offers the Catalyst chassis with 2-stroke motors only as Arctic Cat branded machines and offer 4-stroke Arctic Cats with Procross chassis with motors supplied by Yamaha, and continues to supply Yamaha with Procross chassis models

 

It was mentioned numerous years ago that at Yami dealer meetings the dealers were concerned that the overweight Apex/Venture/Vectors were not selling well. This brought on the CAT/Yami joint venture that brought winter traffic and profitability back into the dealers. I believe Yami has new found respect for its dealer network and their significance to the Motherships profits and name recognition. BTW, not sure Poo and Doo have 90% marketshare,, maybe 85% is pushing it. That leaves almost 19,000 sleds NOT of Red or Yellow. With this thinking, then why does Suzuki, Kaw, Honda, CanAm, Textron, Yami still build ATV/UTVs if Poo has that huge market share? Are they gonna disappear and call it quits for a piece of the remaining market? There are $10s of Millions to be made in that small slice of pie.

 

Don't forget that 4500 yellow, 120/200's were built in the AC factory this summer.