Yamaha Rumor - 75% Production decrease in 2018
- Thread starter sjb
- Start date
SledTL
Active member
This is pretty much spot on. Forecasting, HA, as you said is pretty difficult to do. The biggest issue we had when I worked at Polaris this past summer was the switch over on the lines, and the time wasted. Moving all the engine parts and switching out tooling can be a headache. In terms of the inventory thing, its a "lean" principle. Push out inventory risk to the customer, which is the dealer, so that you are not holding WIP. Of course this really only works for industries that sell better than sleds do. I can also back up the young crowd side. For as little as I have been able to ride over the past 3-4 years, I could buy a few used sleds for around 3k each and still come out better than dropping 12k on a new one. Sledding and motorcycling is in the same boat. It isn't dying, people are just not buying brand spanking new stuff.
This is why we will buy our next sleds from kip. Me and my brother tried to buy two apex's from kip about 4/5 years ago but he just didn't have the inventory and we didn't want to order for the next season. He didn't have our heavy - outdated Yamaha apex xtx's in stock.... Yamaha must have some customer base left. We drive 6 hours every year just to get our sleds serviced by PATS for their Customer Service.
We will order our sleds through pats next time even if its a couple bucks more, and even if we have to wait a little. This is because the service you receive there is second to none in the power sports world. Customer service at a dealer will keep someone brand loyal or make some stay "dealer-brand" loyal as well. As we move to more 50/50 riding we will be trading in our apex for a lighter sled. Ski-doo with their 850 is awesome and the gen4 platform gets great reviews. The handlebar - adjustable limiter strap, the shot, reliability in a 2-stroke that is unheard of... The new renegade back country x is quite the machine.
However the best customer service at any power sports dealer I have ever experienced sells Yamaha and Polaris, not ski-doo. This automatically creates a favor to those two brands. Get where I am going with this?
Great front line customer service creates the "dealer loyalty" then turns the customer into brand loyal to the manufactures offered by said dealer.
I pull into Pat's with a warranty issue on my Yamaha and its like taking a Lexus under warranty to the dealer customer service wise. Immediate attention and how can I help attitude.
I pull into XXX power sport dealer and its like dealing with the DMV - everything is your fault and on their time.
You lost me in the yellow pom-pom waving at "reliability in a 2 stroke that is unheard of"
We lost our Doo dealer several years back now, due to the fact he was too small of business/dealer, show room not big enough, and with the poor snow seasons, sales did not grow enough, and so on. That's the way it is done now days. Had it not been for us knowing how they operated their business for many years, the service department, and treated their customers, we would not have made the move from Poo, to Doo, 20 plus years back. We still do business with them, and will continue to as long as they are in business. Excellent service, fair price, good people. Big show rooms, new buildings don't sell sleds to us. The people do. "Customer service" is what I respect, and am grateful for.
Right on!
That should be obvious, but apparently it’s not — at least not to the “big corporate S&M[SUP]1[/SUP] suits”. Why izzat!
[SUP]1[/SUP] (Sales & Marketing)
Ok, here are some answers for Scott and others who may be concerned on the topic of? getting out vs. staying in being cheaper. It's cheaper for the factories to stay in due to Federal Laws. By Federal Law they have to produce parts and honor warranty for a minimum of 7 years and sometimes up to 10 years. Also, by Federal Law getting out costs way more money due to the fact it changes state laws by requiring the buy back of all parts and products!!!! Holy cow, could you imagine what that would cost Yamaha or any other company? If a franchisee goes out of business they have to keep parts and inventory! Hopefully this makes sense to you guys and this isn't a made up source, this is factual. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the costs involved to the big 4 or any other franchise. Of course every state is different when dealer decides to get out but it costs a lot of money for the franchisee that they don't have even if laws from their state protect them. When it comes to the feds there's no free rides as we all know!!!! LOL!!! Not funny really..... Make sense?
snobuilder
Well-known member
mannys and dealerships need us way more than we need them but this fact has nothing to do with how we treat each other.
I am not disagreeing, or arguing, with what you say Kip. But I very well remember the John Deere/Polaris arrangement. That deal allowed Deere to basically get out of snowmobiles completely, and quickly. It covered all the bases involved, warranty, parts, service, and so on. And with that, Deere was out of the snowmobile business. A close friend of mine was directly involved in the deal, as a dealer. It did not work out very good for the customers though. I've seen this same thing in other industry shutdowns also. Very close parallels here. The company is not completely closing down, just shedding a product line. This makes it much easier to do as a argument in the courts. The A/C connection could be a part of it, just as Polaris was??? I'm not saying in anyway that is what is going to happen. But, that it could. It's as according to Jim (Belushi) always said, "there is always a way out!!!" Perhaps???
G
G
Guest
Deere quit sleds many years ago. Perhaps laws and rules were different then.
Many of these type deals have happened in the auto industry more recently than the Deere/Polaris deal. But there is a lot of similarities here of the Deere/Polaris arrangement. I'm not saying it is going to happen. Just that it could. I hope it doesn't.