Shortage or premium pricing?

Will the pandemic affect snowmobile prices and availability this fall / winter the same as it did boat prices? New or used units.

My daughter is looking for a used sled, and it seems like people are pricing them really high. I don’t know that they are selling though. When they are asking 2 to 3k less than new for a sled that is 3 or 4 years old with 3k miles on it, I told her just wait a little longer and see if prices drop. If they don’t I will give her the extra money to buy a new one.

Short answer yes.

I will chime in and say yes I was in my local Yamaha dealer yesterday to get parts. They had one wheeler and one sled on the floor owners son said they haven’t been able to get any stock.Not looking good for new units.

Everything will start out high and depending on the snow we get this year the prices will either stay high or go down on sleds as the winter goes. Pretty much happens that way every year

There was a bunch of sleds sitting outside at Sonju in Two Harbors this psst weekend when we drove by. Thought I heard on the radio they had quite a few used (1-2 yo) Polaris sleds for sale. No idea on prices.

All recreational equipment is hard to come by new right now. With sales numbers through the roof, no one can keep inventory. Throw in manufacturing constraints from the VID, it’s a perfect storm for a shortage. I had to drive to St. Louis to buy a new SXS this summer as there wasn’t a single one for sale locally at the time. My dads had a new SXS on order since June and still hasn’t gotten it. His pre-order now carried into the 2021 model year…

I guess I’m making an assumption for snowmobiles, but I have a hard time believing it will be different with them.

Sonju’s site is showing 97 Polaris sleds for sale on the lot. Nearly all of them are used 2020 models. 600, 800 and 850’s
I gotta believe they took in a bunch of Western rental sleds to have that many.

Dutchboy wrote:

Will the pandemic affect snowmobile prices and availability this fall / winter the same as it did boat prices? New or used units.

Ripjiggen wrote:

Short answer yes.

X2

I just called a couple of dealers, the same sled I priced last spring is $1,100 to $1,500 more now. Mostly from a price increase from Arctic Cat. I am sure they had a price increase on the stuff they buy and just passed it on. It sounds like the available quantity is low also, especially certain models. One dealer has zero, one has 5 left, and one only has 4 left of the model I am looking at. One of the main dealers said he sold 17 brand new sleds last week.

I looked to see what my 2016 would be worth and that maybe went up $500 or so.

If you want more info, PM your number and I can give you a call to tell you more.

It is looking like I am going to keep mine another year and see what happens. It is expensive enough to snowmobile, without falling in a surge price moment.

Should have bought a sled back when it was warm out. The used market was great all summer in my area, probably due to people using their covid money to go put down payments on brand new ones. I expect used prices to increase drastically now with this surge of cold weather.

Yes –
My Skidoo dealer thinks he will run out of new sleds to sell around the first of the year due to the lack of available units. Skidoo and Polaris are the only major brands still in play which doesn’t help out matters as well.

Going to be gaps in rec equipment just like cash for clunkers that’ll drive up prices and demand. People will get nervous about not being able to find one and pay premium prices and sellers will think their crap is worth premium prices. Everything will keep inflating. But you would sure think that over blown bubble will eventually pop, but it doesn’t seem to show any signs of doing that in the short term.

Yamaha and Cat are no longer in play for you? Just curious if that is what you mean’t, or they are way behind on making new sleds and getting dealers stocked? I wouldn’t buy a Cat or a Yamaha, so that is partly why I asked to see if there is someone that thinks like I do.

Jason wrote:

Yes –
My Skidoo dealer thinks he will run out of new sleds to sell around the first of the year due to the lack of available units. Skidoo and Polaris are the only major brands still in play which doesn’t help out matters as well.

My neighbor is a snowmobile junkie. He just talked to his dealer (Ken’s of Kaukauna) this week. He was telling me besides new sleds they have 200 Polaris demos coming in and 100 Artic Cat demos coming. Just what I heard 2nd hand but it might be worth a call.

I read some outdoor rec trade sites and have read some interesting things are going on this year with snow machines.

Arctic Cat lost a huge patent lawsuit filed by Skidoo in Canada and is effectively banned from selling sleds in Canada for the rest of 2020 and all of 2021 because all their current sled designs violate a Skidoo patent in Canada. So until they have machines out that don’t violate the patent, there will be no Cats sold in Canadaland.

Lots of speculation that this will drive a lot of Canadian buyers to Skidoo or Polaris, cutting inventory availability. And then what does Cat do with all the sleds they now cannot sell in Canada? A lot of these patent-violating machines are already built, so they can only be sold in the US. And of course, what will this do to prices, both on Cat and other brand machines?

Interesting situation.

Grouse