So why is everybody so bugged because Yamaha uses Cat technology on most of its sleds? Frankly, we haven’t heard too many Arctic Cat fans going berserk because Cat uses Yamaha 4-strokes in some of its sleds!
Let’s go back a ways and look at some of the shared technology the industry has utilized over the recent past. For decades, Arctic Cat used Kawasaki and Suzuki engines in its snowmobiles and everyone was as happy as a clam.
One of the longest running and most popular engines in the history of snowmobiling was the Indy 500 2-stroke twin. That engine was unashamedly built by Fuji Heavy Industries of Japan. This is the same company that owned, built and ran Subaru – not even a snowmobile manufacturer, for crying out loud!
In the case of Yamaha, here’s a company that has put a huge amount of trust in a North American manufacturer employing American citizens and located in a small northern town called Thief River Falls, Minnesota. Furthermore Yamaha has entrusted that company to cradle its most precious commodity: Its jewel-like 4-stroke engines!
Not only the above but those two companies have proven they can work together in lock-step to build a better quality product at a competitive price that can benefit two distinct bloodlines of customers. This is something you just don’t hear about very often in any field and it’s really quite impressive – especially when there isn’t a lot of snowmobiling taking place in Japan.
I know, you’ll argue it’s not the same with engines; it’s different because the old Yamaha sleds were way better. But is it really not the same – and were the old sleds really better?
I remember some complaints about those sleds being too heavy – or certain sleds being out-of-date – or not changing fast enough year-to-year.
This manufacturing agreement has allowed Yamaha to have fully current, up-to-date technology, tested, tried and true and built by Americans in America where a lot of snowmobiling takes place, thank you!
