Polaris halts all ATV, UTV, Snowmobile, JET SKI and golf cart production

Kevin_Reed
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Washington, IA, USA
Edited Date/Time 12/18/2024 10:56am

Textron is the parent company.   Inventory must be super plentiful and demand super bad to halt first half year production of everything!.  Did this type of stuff happen in 2008??

5
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OldTech
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Decatur, AL, USA
12/18/2024 5:58pm

I think Textron is Arctic Cat.

7
Nairb#70
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Ivoryton, CT, USA
12/18/2024 7:42pm Edited Date/Time 12/18/2024 7:46pm

Polaris stopped making PWC(Jet Ski for the challenged) in 2003. And if Textron owns Polaris then my name is Bob Hannah. There it is! Polaris needs to get in SX/MX like Triumph did! They will pick up after KTM!

2
Spoonguy
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12/19/2024 5:31am

At one time Textron did own Polaris, awhile back I believe. Now they own Arctic Cat.

3

The Shop

TeamGreen
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Thru-out, CA, USA
12/19/2024 8:25am

Psssst…over here…and don’t tell Zacka or he’ll get all intrinsic-n-shit…

From mid-late 2020 thru early 2023…there was allllllll sorts of free money getting thrown around by the gubermint (yes, “gubermint”…you don’t call this administration a Government. I mean, c’mon, man!).

That money has run out.

Oddly, for some unknown reason, inflation was fucking insane during that time, too.

And all of this has come home to roost. 

1
12/19/2024 8:38am Edited Date/Time 12/19/2024 8:40am
Spoonguy wrote:

At one time Textron did own Polaris, awhile back I believe. Now they own Arctic Cat.

No idea if the Hannah quote was this intentional, but yes Polaris was owned by Textron from like 68-81.

OP needs to update his thread title.  This is Arctic Cat's announcement from yesterday:

Cat.jpg?VersionId=CIkScdl3tc

 

It's unfortunate, but not surprising.  Arctic Cat has failed to put out competitive products for years.  Their ATV and UTVs are hot garbage, with the build quality and features of a 10 year old CF Moto and the price of a new Polaris.  The sleds are great, but sled sales have been declining for years while the price of a new sled is now $20k for a machine you can only use a few months out of the year.

The thing is, they could produce good products.  Their previous generaiton ATVs had a following in the mud world.  Textron more or less neglected to update them and instead came out with an ill-conceived 600.  The Wildcat XX is a great machine with a VERY good suspension conceived by Robbie Gordon and a Yamaha drivetrain.  Unfortunately, they never expanded beyond the naturally-aspirated 2 seat 64" wide machine.  People want 72" inch wide machines with 200hp now.  All of these things were supposedly in the pipeline and they just stopped.

Textron more or less ran the company into the ground.  They put all of their eggs in the "Tracker OffRoad" basket, building de-contented machines for Bass Pro and Cabelas.  This and the name change (Arctic Cat to Textron Offroad and Back) damaged the brand and soured the relationship with dealers who started dropping the brand en masse.

I would guess that they'll be bought up by a Chinese company.  Maybe someone like CF Moto or Kove.  For whatever reason, the Chinese love to buy these "zombie" brands and kind of string them along with a minimal US footprint.  Great Star did this with ShopVac and SK Tools.

2
12/20/2024 8:30am

Winnebago lost money last quarter. A quote from a stock market news feed, sorry , no link:

"...For the three months through November, Winnebago posted an adjusted loss of $0.03 per share versus earnings of $0.95 the year before, versus the Street's view for EPS of $0.20. Revenue declined 18% to $625.6 million, trailing analysts' $672.2 million estimate, mainly due to lower unit volume and a reduction in average selling price per unit related to product mix, the company said.

"As expected, the RV and marine operating environment remained challenging in the first quarter, marked by subdued consumer demand and a cautious dealer network reluctant to make significant commitments on new orders ahead of the historically slow winter season," according to Happe.

Sales in the towable RV division fell 23% to $254 million while the motorhome RV business slipped 19% to $271.7 million. Both segments were impacted by lower volumes, Winnebago said. Revenue in the marine operations improved to $90.5 million from $87.3 million in the prior-year quarter, buoyed by price increases and higher unit volume..."

rucka356
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Location
Knoxville, TN, USA
12/20/2024 7:13pm

They have similar issues that the dirt bike market has with pricing.  I bought a new 2017 Ranger 900 for about 10k.   That same Ranger lists for about 17k now....  They are trying to sell these UTVs for what most people can buy a good used car for.  Look at their Expedition model or the Northstar, the son of a bitch is over $40K..  How many people are out there that can afford to pay that kind of money?

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