Time To Explain An OEM Agreement!

[polarisrider1]

I see I hit your Polaris knee jerk reaction on what could be. Ahh this brand thing do or die seems scary to me. I like leading edge tech & using what is best seems like a better way to me. I'm very excited to see how this all works out & all good to me until proven that the OEM Agreement did not work. So many OEM Agreements work so very well & it is likely the Yamaha AC Agreement will be a winner too.

To funny. Let's hope this yami/cat raises the bar and not the price. Way better then a Briggs and stratton deal for 4 strokes.

 

[catalac]

Not that my thoughts mean anything, but this Cat guy is excited as heck to get a Cat with a Yammi engine.
I want better mileage, and more miles before a tear down. I'm always worried when I go up north, that my sled is going to blow.
It would just be a better piece of mind thing for me.

 

[bearrassler]

When pigs fly on a doo poo deal. Doo is a mega company, making trains and planes is their mainstay. Poo is sitting well also with there motorcycle lines and side by sides. (Miitary contracts,etc.) Cat and yami are out to die without putting great engines in light sleds. Who would Yami turn to to sell motors. Anybody remember AMC? Nova tail lights, ford engines,dodge misc. All to make crap cars to keep the gov. Off the big 3 so they could not be accused of a monopoly.

PR1, it is a common misconception that Doo is part of Bombardier, they were sold off in the early 2000's as Bombardier was in desperate need of cash. The sleds are made by BRP which is a private company and the majority owner is Bain Capital (think Mitt Romney), minority owners are some of the Bombardier family and a Quebec government pension fund. Because it is private they do not report sales but I would be suprised if they are even close to Polaris in total sales. The products they make are Ski Doo, Sea Doo, Lynx, Rotax engines, Can Am, and Spyders. BRP sold off the groomer division a few years ago and are moving a lot of manufacturing to Mexico right now. They are making engines and Sea-Doos in Mexico already I think. The AC/Yamaha deal will be good for our local economy here close to TRF, and I hope it works out for them.

 

[timo]

If you're tired of tear downs and worried your sled is gonna blow, why not buy a different sled??

Not that my thoughts mean anything, but this Cat guy is excited as heck to get a Cat with a Yammi engine.
I want better mileage, and more miles before a tear down. I'm always worried when I go up north, that my sled is going to blow.
It would just be a better piece of mind thing for me.

 

[motor_slut]

Not quite the same. It would be if Cummins made trucks or TEAM made snowmobilies. There is a huge difference. Now if it was a Chevy engine in a Ram truck, then it would be the same.

Yamaha is an engine supplier, Cat was a chassis supplier in the 70's. Cat has been making Yamahas since 2009, Yamaha has been supplying engines to Cat since the same year. Polaris has sold engines to competitors within the last 10 years.

 

[snoluver1]

I have been involved in the OEM business my entire sales & marketing career & these agreements are created to maximize profits for both companies. Drop Merger from your vocabulary Merger is when Company A acquires Company B they downsize & merge to become 1 company & 1 brand. Yamaha & AC have agreed to a simple OEM agreement for period of time. Since all OEM agreements are solution oriented for the enduser, you the snowmobiler, to bring the best marriage of technologies in a final integrated product in this case a snowmobile. The Viper & its variations adds a new 2014 model to the Yamaha line up. No Yamaha model went away although it is possible in my mind in the future to obsolete the Nytro & the Vector if the Viper is very successful. Then again no way to know what Yamaha already has in their R&D pipeline so just conjecture on my behalf. OEM agreements can change & evolve overtime as the enduser drives the market which in turn maximizes profitability for both OEM principles. What is happening in this case is Yamaha is sharing their state of the art 4s engine technology with AC & AC in turn is sharing their chassis technology with Yamaha & the integrated Yamaha product is the Viper. Personally to me the Viper looks hot, has excellent chassis & engine technology & should be an excellent 135hp 4s sled. AC has not released their 2014 line up so we don't know how AC has applied Yamaha engines but should be an excellent sled as well. This where we are now plain & simple so don't go jumping to any conclusions that either of these companies are in trouble in any way this OEM agreement was signed to increase market share for both entities so lose your paranoia the spiders are NOT on the wall. With all the automobile industry people on this website please feel free to expand & explain OEM Agreements as they are so widely used in your industry & the vendors that sell you assembly equipment. I hope this helps many of you to better understand OEM Agreements & their purpose for you the enduser.

Hey whitedust, since you seem pretty well versed in the business world, I'm curious what your take is on a thought that just dawned on me today. I was flipping through a sled rag today and they mentioned that Yamaha has plans to open a snowmobile production facility in Minnesota. All of a sudden the light bulb went off, I've seen this before!!

In 1998 I was working for a Mercedes Benz dealership. We heard through the pipeline Benz was going to be purchasing or merging with the then fledgling Chrysler. None of us could understand why Mercedes wanted anything to do with Chrysler and what they would gain from it. Shortly after came the announcement that Mercedes was going to open a production facility in the USA and start building SUV's in America. It was later learned that the whole Chrysler deal was all about tax incentives/breaks/loopholes that would, in the long term, save Benz more money than what they had into Chrysler. It was all about import taxes and ship yard costs and what not. It also had something to do with the TYPE of vehicle they wanted to build here. Being they were a foreign company, there was restrictions on exactly what they could build, and the purchase of Chrysler had something to do with them building a vehicle on a "truck" frame in the USA. They basically had to buy into an American company to get "licensing" to build trucks here. Or at least that is the way I understood it?

So my question is, do you think the OEM agreement has more to do with the fact that Yamaha wants to open a facility in MN, and more to do with tax loopholes than sharing technology?

I couldn't wrap my head around what Yamaha was gaining from Cat. It seems to me, if they wanted a lighter chassis or better suspension, they could just steal Cat ideas, tweak them enough to get around patents, and do it themselves. Why trade your motor for it?? BUT..... if it is about tax loopholes/incentives, then it all makes sense!!!

 

[lenny]

I don't know half of what whitedust knows about business but I can say that Yamaha gained a new sled. A new sled that is considered to be at the top in the chassis department and now as whitedust said, a incredible 4s, it's gonna be a big deal. I am riding one next week and will give an honest report. Will also ride a new Nytro just before that to compare.

 

[whitedust]

Hey whitedust, since you seem pretty well versed in the business world, I'm curious what your take is on a thought that just dawned on me today. I was flipping through a sled rag today and they mentioned that Yamaha has plans to open a snowmobile production facility in Minnesota. All of a sudden the light bulb went off, I've seen this before!!

In 1998 I was working for a Mercedes Benz dealership. We heard through the pipeline Benz was going to be purchasing or merging with the then fledgling Chrysler. None of us could understand why Mercedes wanted anything to do with Chrysler and what they would gain from it. Shortly after came the announcement that Mercedes was going to open a production facility in the USA and start building SUV's in America. It was later learned that the whole Chrysler deal was all about tax incentives/breaks/loopholes that would, in the long term, save Benz more money than what they had into Chrysler. It was all about import taxes and ship yard costs and what not. It also had something to do with the TYPE of vehicle they wanted to build here. Being they were a foreign company, there was restrictions on exactly what they could build, and the purchase of Chrysler had something to do with them building a vehicle on a "truck" frame in the USA. They basically had to buy into an American company to get "licensing" to build trucks here. Or at least that is the way I understood it?

So my question is, do you think the OEM agreement has more to do with the fact that Yamaha wants to open a facility in MN, and more to do with tax loopholes than sharing technology?

I couldn't wrap my head around what Yamaha was gaining from Cat. It seems to me, if they wanted a lighter chassis or better suspension, they could just steal Cat ideas, tweak them enough to get around patents, and do it themselves. Why trade your motor for it?? BUT..... if it is about tax loopholes/incentives, then it all makes sense!!!

I was working with an OEM of mine to integrate laser marking of windshields at the Chrysler plant in Detroit so I was close to Chrysler engineers when Mercedes Benz bought Chrysler. This was not a good match of resources & lots of clashes between Mercedes Benz & Chrysler people throughtout both organizations. It was never clear to me why Mercedes Benz bought Chrysler & was very short lived & hostile. My thinking is Yamaha will be supplying 4s snowmobile engines to AC for many years & probabaly would jump thru hoops enginewise for AC if a buck can be made. I'm still gathering info regarding the chassis deal & Yamaha assembly in TRF & not sure where all that is going because Yamaha continues to say several all new pure Yamaha sleds coming soon in the next few years. These statements make my head spin but the Viper has been released & will be built in TRF. That's all we know for now & the Viper on paper looks to be a discreet sled that will mutally benefit both companies. I have yet to ride a Viper or see a Viper hands on so don't have an opinon yet on the tech marriage. During the next year we will know more as both compaines go public with more information & people on the inside start talking to people on the outside. I don't think Yamaha has any interest in buying AC just be an engine supplier long term which is right in their wheelhouse. I do think AC would luv to have Yamaha buy them but does not make sense to me to do that long term or short term so we wait & see what evolves.