We’ve been scanning the interest in prehistoric Yamaha Sno-Scoots the past few years and continue to be amazed at how the demand keeps growing for resurrected models reclaimed from 20-year-old scrap heaps.
Seriously, people are paying big bucks to get hold of used Scoots in any condition so their kids can have something to ride.
We’ve talked to OEMs in the past about this and the universal answer is that it would cost too much to bring out sleds like this in relation to what the retail price would bring. We think this may be a smokescreen and here’s why:
It’s impossible to ignore the offshore manufacturing connection companies like Arctic Cat have with companies like Kymco.
Kymco is a worldwide manufacturer of road-going motor scooters and has a whole menu of 4-stroke engines and CVT drivelines for these vehicles already fully developed.
Kymco already builds engines, and in some cases whole platforms for Cat’s ATV and SxS vehicles. The marriage is a good one and these engines perform very well and are proven reliable.
So far, the snowmobile biz has been mostly untouched by this manufacturing armada but we think price-pressure is going to make things change soon.
Our point is this: If you wanted to get into a business where there’s already very large demand and needed to produce a vehicle with a price ceiling of about $6K US, wouldn’t it make sense to use those connections to build it?
With the Yamaha-Arctic Cat business agreement going strong, offering such a vehicle to both Yamaha and Cat customers would be double effective.
When you look at the cost of building a low-cost chassis from tube steel and cladding it with plastic, we think it’s possible to do it and make good bucks.
No need for big-time electronics or computer management on a sled like this and all the gizmos you get on a full-sized sled need not apply.
Yeah, we think this is do-able.
