33 thoughts on “My thoughts on the Arctic Cat layoffs.. Podcast #1”
Its gonna be tough for all snowmobile dealers if we dont get any snow. Im in the midwest in Iowa and we haven't really had a good winter in at least 3 years. my neighbor used to buy a new sled each year but with no snow for mkst of winter its hard to justify buying a new one. And for me the closest Arctic Cat dealer is 2 hours away, I remember when we had a Cat dealer 25 mins away. And I wasnt always Cat too I started with Polaris and moved to Cat just to try something different and havent left them since. The days of a cheap and affordable sled has gone unless you buy good used. Another thing that hasnt helped is when covid happened and everyone got there money they went and spent big dollars on all these toys and I feel that helped raise the price of snowmobiles, SxS, atvs. In my opinion the snowmobile market has went mainly to a mountain based preference, gone are the days of the 121 short track high cc performance sled (zr800, xc700, mxz800), everything anymore is 137 and larger. I think its going to take a lot of snow, better economy and a cheaper sled for people to buy new snowmobiles. Its going to be interesting how Arctic cat comes out of this.
Their lack of quality control killed them, that an the innovation that doo and poo has brought to the table. They simply cant compete with a all round package. I gave them 8 tries with their product Every single of them but one, gave me serious issues. Been on the tow rope one too many times. Went to doo in 09 and never looked back. And my tow rope has been tucked away ever since. All these sleds are too much money but if your gonna spend that kinda money you want the one with the best chances of not leaving you stranded or sitting at a dealer.
Arctic Cat engine plant is in St. Cloud. Polaris factory in Roseau, MN is about an hr drive from Cat in TRF and both do factory tours. You might be able to do both in one day 👍
I don't even have to watch this video to make a comment, we can't afford a new snowmobile, we all want one, I paid $6400 for my 08 M8 it was a left over with 40 miles on it, we can afford them, but 15 to 20 for a sled we hope to use 6 weeks a year, unreal, I have for sleds, I haven't rode them in three years, I have 7 four wheelers, use them daily, two motorcycles, love them, pray for America guys, it's not just the snowmobiles in Jeopardy
I never did like Textron acquiring AC for this reason because TXN has too many other irons in the fire. They owned Polaris for a long time before they kicked them out which was actually great for Polaris once they got their business and Engineering dept's in line. This is like 1980 all over again for Cat.
Sleds aside, lets talk about their offraod division. When you have rbg designing your machines, and tell him, there is no market for a 4 seat or turbo model, the entire management staff should have been fired. They completely hosed them selves and now are 10 years behind everyone else. Even cfmoto has new machines for 2025. I have two, yes two wildcat xx. Come fall, i am looking at a new machine and it wont be an AC. Its sad, i love the xx, and the speed is just a newer better version of my xx. It baffles me how arrogant people at textron are, and how greedy they got over a 3% backend on cars. AC is going to out of business forsure, no way around it. They have one out dated sport machine, no havoc, nothing else. The fact they camcelled all other utv line except three machines, tells me textron is clueless about what people want.
You know there not building Yamaha no more at thief river falls they have since 2014 I believe and there was no snow in Minnesota last year. I think there another place in Mount view but not totally sure on that and you look at Yamaha feb site it tells you to buy parts from Arctic cat
I grew up on Cats bled green for many years, I have never rode an alpha but I know many guys don’t care for it. I priced out a 154 858, it was over 20k for a n/a sled…. Not happening, cats parts availability is absolute trash also, bought an Rmk instead not looking back
No one complained when they got top buck for everything. However I hear a lot of crying when they have to pay it back. Americans decision making=idiots.
1. Average person doesn't even know race results. Race Sunday, sell Monday been dead for many years, and proven. 2. You said you don't buy new sleds, so who cares what they come out with, as you won't be seeing it for 20 years. Throw some coin down if you wanna help or criticize. 3. If the 90s/2000s so great, why they change it? 4. Hard 4 years? Money was being printed for 2.5 years of ALL TIME HIGH, and 1.5 of steady/normal operation. If you didn't make a lot of cash, you are in the wrong field or an employee.
Maybe those Mormons can say a prayer for Arctic cat, because we know Jesus cares about snowmobiles.
The winters are going to start get better…The sun is turning(slowly)but in about 7 to 10 yrs it will snow like it did in the 70s and so on….Its a wait but o well…But yes the prices are crazy…I wanna buy a new cat now and take the chance.
Cat needs to offer twin rails in 858 Mtn sleds, and they will need to have reliable boost on this sled for next year or a Feb early 2026 model. This will get there loyal buyers back from Poo and Doo. Poo has pissed a lot of guys off with the P22 clutch blowing up all the time, this is a good opportunity for Cat to lure over some new customers.
I think cats probably is they fell behind! And it might be too late to catch up type deal. But time will tell they need to put a turbo from factory with the new chassis
I can remember when Cat dominated on the track supported their independent teams and dealers not so anymore seem to have lost their way the power sport industry needs to have Cat back in shape so inovation occurs across all brands🇨🇦
Racing does not sell sleds anymore. People want creature comforts and comfortable rides. Cat has been late in development. We looked last year and my wife chose a Polaris because it felt more comfortable. It also had gps which she liked. Their off road was a joke. We bought a Polaris general 5 years ago because cat’s offering was so weak. This all after owning 11 cat’s in the past.
Hard to sell Cats on the west coast when there dealerships are few and far between. In Southern Oregon, I have to drive 200 Miles in any direction to find a dealer!!! No dealer, high expense = low sales. … so much hate for the Alpha rail. I wouldn’t buy another sled without one 🤙
I grew up riding in New England and when I was a kid we used to ride in central Mass. Over the last few decades there's been many dealers supporting the snowmobile industry that have closed. Not all just Arctic cat. I think the closest Arctic cat dealer is now in New Hampshire. Unfortunately the snow is just disappearing because we don't have the elevation
The Catalyst is 5 years too late to the market. Thats it thats all. Guys will find the $$ to sled. No matter what. They just switched to another brand because theyre tires of waiting
Its gonna be tough for all snowmobile dealers if we dont get any snow. Im in the midwest in Iowa and we haven't really had a good winter in at least 3 years. my neighbor used to buy a new sled each year but with no snow for mkst of winter its hard to justify buying a new one. And for me the closest Arctic Cat dealer is 2 hours away, I remember when we had a Cat dealer 25 mins away. And I wasnt always Cat too I started with Polaris and moved to Cat just to try something different and havent left them since. The days of a cheap and affordable sled has gone unless you buy good used. Another thing that hasnt helped is when covid happened and everyone got there money they went and spent big dollars on all these toys and I feel that helped raise the price of snowmobiles, SxS, atvs. In my opinion the snowmobile market has went mainly to a mountain based preference, gone are the days of the 121 short track high cc performance sled (zr800, xc700, mxz800), everything anymore is 137 and larger. I think its going to take a lot of snow, better economy and a cheaper sled for people to buy new snowmobiles. Its going to be interesting how Arctic cat comes out of this.
Their lack of quality control killed them, that an the innovation that doo and poo has brought to the table. They simply cant compete with a all round package. I gave them 8 tries with their product Every single of them but one, gave me serious issues. Been on the tow rope one too many times. Went to doo in 09 and never looked back. And my tow rope has been tucked away ever since. All these sleds are too much money but if your gonna spend that kinda money you want the one with the best chances of not leaving you stranded or sitting at a dealer.
Arctic Cat engine plant is in St. Cloud. Polaris factory in Roseau, MN is about an hr drive from Cat in TRF and both do factory tours. You might be able to do both in one day 👍
New sleds are to expensive, then you have a few lean winters!!
Let's go Cat get your crap together. We need you.
Can’t afford a 20k sled when most people already have a 35k side by side sitting in the driveway there trying to sell
I don't even have to watch this video to make a comment, we can't afford a new snowmobile, we all want one, I paid $6400 for my 08 M8 it was a left over with 40 miles on it, we can afford them, but 15 to 20 for a sled we hope to use 6 weeks a year, unreal, I have for sleds, I haven't rode them in three years, I have 7 four wheelers, use them daily, two motorcycles, love them, pray for America guys, it's not just the snowmobiles in Jeopardy
I never did like Textron acquiring AC for this reason because TXN has too many other irons in the fire. They owned Polaris for a long time before they kicked them out which was actually great for Polaris once they got their business and Engineering dept's in line. This is like 1980 all over again for Cat.
CAT WILL BE SOLD OR FOLD
Theres still new 23-24 model year sleds at dealers in WI, MN, and MI.
Sleds aside, lets talk about their offraod division. When you have rbg designing your machines, and tell him, there is no market for a 4 seat or turbo model, the entire management staff should have been fired. They completely hosed them selves and now are 10 years behind everyone else. Even cfmoto has new machines for 2025. I have two, yes two wildcat xx. Come fall, i am looking at a new machine and it wont be an AC. Its sad, i love the xx, and the speed is just a newer better version of my xx. It baffles me how arrogant people at textron are, and how greedy they got over a 3% backend on cars. AC is going to out of business forsure, no way around it. They have one out dated sport machine, no havoc, nothing else. The fact they camcelled all other utv line except three machines, tells me textron is clueless about what people want.
You know there not building Yamaha no more at thief river falls they have since 2014 I believe and there was no snow in Minnesota last year. I think there another place in Mount view but not totally sure on that and you look at Yamaha feb site it tells you to buy parts from Arctic cat
There is a test track!
2025 model year will be the last for Yamaha. They announced that quite a while ago.
I grew up on Cats bled green for many years, I have never rode an alpha but I know many guys don’t care for it. I priced out a 154 858, it was over 20k for a n/a sled…. Not happening, cats parts availability is absolute trash also, bought an Rmk instead not looking back
No one complained when they got top buck for everything. However I hear a lot of crying when they have to pay it back. Americans decision making=idiots.
1. Average person doesn't even know race results. Race Sunday, sell Monday been dead for many years, and proven.
2. You said you don't buy new sleds, so who cares what they come out with, as you won't be seeing it for 20 years. Throw some coin down if you wanna help or criticize.
3. If the 90s/2000s so great, why they change it?
4. Hard 4 years? Money was being printed for 2.5 years of ALL TIME HIGH, and 1.5 of steady/normal operation. If you didn't make a lot of cash, you are in the wrong field or an employee.
Maybe those Mormons can say a prayer for Arctic cat, because we know Jesus cares about snowmobiles.
The winters are going to start get better…The sun is turning(slowly)but in about 7 to 10 yrs it will snow like it did in the 70s and so on….Its a wait but o well…But yes the prices are crazy…I wanna buy a new cat now and take the chance.
Cat needs to offer twin rails in 858 Mtn sleds, and they will need to have reliable boost on this sled for next year or a Feb early 2026 model. This will get there loyal buyers back from Poo and Doo. Poo has pissed a lot of guys off with the P22 clutch blowing up all the time, this is a good opportunity for Cat to lure over some new customers.
I think cats probably is they fell behind! And it might be too late to catch up type deal. But time will tell they need to put a turbo from factory with the new chassis
Up on the sinks road as of last week there was like 6” in the trees where it doesn’t get sun and dang near bear where the sun got it
I call this the one off just look at the money supply; now it's time to pay for it.
👍👍👊
I can remember when Cat dominated on the track supported their independent teams and dealers not so anymore seem to have lost their way the power sport industry needs to have Cat back in shape so inovation occurs across all brands🇨🇦
Racing does not sell sleds anymore. People want creature comforts and comfortable rides. Cat has been late in development. We looked last year and my wife chose a Polaris because it felt more comfortable. It also had gps which she liked. Their off road was a joke. We bought a Polaris general 5 years ago because cat’s offering was so weak. This all after owning 11 cat’s in the past.
Charge $19,000 for a snowmobile and see what happens. Oh wait, it did. Maga will save you
Arctic cats prices are nuts , their 600 costs as much as an 850 Polaris .
Hard to sell Cats on the west coast when there dealerships are few and far between. In Southern Oregon, I have to drive 200 Miles in any direction to find a dealer!!! No dealer, high expense = low sales. … so much hate for the Alpha rail. I wouldn’t buy another sled without one 🤙
I grew up riding in New England and when I was a kid we used to ride in central Mass. Over the last few decades there's been many dealers supporting the snowmobile industry that have closed. Not all just Arctic cat. I think the closest Arctic cat dealer is now in New Hampshire. Unfortunately the snow is just disappearing because we don't have the elevation
When they make a badass 800 for $8000.00 they won’t be able to make them fast enough! There too expensive for 2 months of riding!
Cat rip 2026
The Catalyst is 5 years too late to the market. Thats it thats all. Guys will find the $$ to sled. No matter what. They just switched to another brand because theyre tires of waiting
Are the layoffs because a lack of snow or a lack of middle-class not coming up at 20 grand for a sled