'tis a simple strategy, make only what customers will buy this year, in anticipation of a completely new sled for 2021, designed by Textron...how smart these people are remains to be seen...i went to the design sessions put on by textron 2 years ago, they said they planned on a new 2021 sled, and this seems to fall into that scenario....i was less than impressed with what their ideas were at that time, and made mention to them to not throw out all the good stuff that made the cats what they were....they impressed me as engineers wanting to redesign a fantastic new machine, but didn't know the basics of what is desired and important in a mountain sled...hopefully in the intervening months since then, they have been open enough to learn the essential things that make a mountain sled different than a trail sled, if not, it will be back to trying to get a one size fits all for ease and manufacturing efficiency....in which case my alpha will have to be good for a long time....they seemed to be set on the one chassis for all sled types at that time, due to cost, but as i pointed out, sales drive profits, not costs, i.e., if you don't make what they customer will buy, the cost efficiency is pointless, as demonstrated by the lack of sales in the 12-16 model years....but what do i know compared to a 30 year old engineer with a clean sheet of paper, but no experience riding the deep....
...it'll be interesting for sure...