2026 Models!!!

[IDspud]

You’re fooling yourself if you think the other two are any better financially rn.
They may have more market share, but they also have more units out there unsold and not moving drastically under cost.

 

[crossrider]

Good idea.
But getting it 'bulletproof' costs time and (more) money. And then time to prove this; buyers need to experience, and attest to, the sleds being 'bulletproof'.
I don't think they currently have that extra money, after the buy. Nor the time.

Agreed, but for long term survival (profitability) AC needs to find a niche in a niche sport, which is going to be difficult.

 

[Vern]

You’re fooling yourself if you think the other two are any better financially rn.
They may have more market share, but they also have more units out there unsold and not moving drastically under cost.

Yup, people don’t see it cuz cats the only one that gets talked about. Poo and doo have been laying folks off too, and making cuts. Hence the lack of changes from Polaris for ‘26 and dropping timbersled.

 

[IDspud]

Why exactly is it a niche sport rather than just a sport?
Every sport has hits season and terrain.

And why have they been disqualified from their niche?

Many on here have said they stick with cat because of durability and value.

That doesn’t get cancelled just because of a first year release engine needing some fine tuning and a sale.

Both are progress.

 

[crossrider]

Why exactly is it a niche sport rather than just a sport?
Every sport has hits season and terrain.

And why have they been disqualified from their niche?

Many on here have said they stick with cat because of durability and value.

That doesn’t get cancelled just because of a first year release engine needing some fine tuning and a sale.

Both are progress.

 

[Griff]

I have to believe Cat is in a great position currently. You had experienced business executives making a deal during a time that is hopefully the low point for our industry. You had a seller in a weak bargaining position. Am only familiar with the snow side, there is a promising new product just launched with potential for refinement and improvement. The competition has made significant blunders. There are customers ready to come back to AC from other brands. New customers can be won with marketing. It seems the upside is there. I am excited to see the strategy Cat takes to the market.

 

[tenacious84]

I do believe the vibration was the root cause for the spark plug caps as I never heard of any issues on the 600 Catalyst.

the 600 catalyst uses the "old" style spark plug caps.

 

[SnöSkoter]

You’re fooling yourself if you think the other two are any better financially rn.
They may have more market share, but they also have more units out there unsold and not moving drastically under cost.

Difference is, they don't have to use money to buy it first.
The money they want to spend (or can spend) can go into improving the sleds, sled development, production, etc.
The investors of Cat bought Cat as is. They need to find extra money to spend into improvement. And that will be difficult. Unless that was part of the deal of that investor group, that they agreed on investing in buying and improving.

 

[frozenfarmer]

I have to believe Cat is in a great position currently. You had experienced business executives making a deal during a time that is hopefully the low point for our industry. You had a seller in a weak bargaining position. Am only familiar with the snow side, there is a promising new product just launched with potential for refinement and improvement. The competition has made significant blunders. There are customers ready to come back to AC from other brands. New customers can be won with marketing. It seems the upside is there. I am excited to see the strategy Cat takes to the market.

I would say it depends.

Textron killed off Textron Motors which was only supporting Arctic Cat at the time. There were ongoing projects, was that IP sold with Arctic Cat or kept separate? Does Argo's suppliers have a 1L engine in the works? While I like my 700 in my Wildcat Sport it is a terribly rough running engine vibration wise which wasn't ideal in the 3000 snowmobile chassis.

At issue as well, how long will Yamaha build their one-off engine for the 200s? who else would make a 6k rpm 9hp engine for them? What about who will be the supplier of a 4-stroke catalyst in the future?

A lot of asking for 2-stroke turbo which Textron was not funding. Then do they make a 650 that needs a full validation year of volume test units vs shop-built/rebuilt. The line built will expose things that shop-built never seems to.

Hope they can rebuild some of the supplier relationships that Textron really messed up. Not paying in the payment terms (late by a fair bit) or not properly ordering within lead time and a vendor not meeting build due to late orders got them labeled as a "bad supplier". First place to fix at Arctic Cat is the supply chain, bar none. Needs to happen before any marketing, R&D, etc. Supply chain ruined the profitability more so than slow-to-market products. They would rush things or get higher bids and move forward oblivious to how it wrecked profit margins.