Factors Determining the Cost of New Snowmobiles
Posted on Jun 03rd 2015
Different factors drive the high cost of new snowmobiles. Many new hi-tech sleds have now crossed the $10,000 price line. The average snowmobile replacement cycle has more than doubled over the last ten years. Many snowmobilers blame the manufacturers for the high cost of new snowmobiles. Unfortunately, many snowmobilers don’t understand what truly drives up the cost. The simple truth is that snowmobile prices have increased due to a variety of different factors including:
Technology Advancements – New high-tech engines and chassis with their accompanying new computers, electronic sensors, electronic fuel injection, suspension parts, skies, clutches, and creature comfort items have been researched, developed, manufactured and offered on many sleds. Today’s sleds are also much more reliable than those of just a decade ago. These technology advancements are eagerly anticipated and sought after and quite willingly paid for by snowmobilers.
Government Mandates – New snowmobiles are now subject to oversight from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which forced sled manufacturers to clean up sled emissions and noise. Unfortunately, the research, development, and testing of new four-stroke engines and advanced semi-direct and direct injection engines incurred lots of additional costs that were passed on to the consumer. The research, development, procurement, testing, and certification of new engines and components like computers, electronic sensors, etc. cost big bucks amounting to over $1,500 per sled.
More Standard Equipment Features – Electronic fuel injection, electric start, reverse, multiple headlights, multi-functional digital gauges, easily adjustable suspension, multiple configurations of equipment carrying racking systems and new creature comforts liked heated seats, once considered high priced luxury items, are now standard equipment items demanded by and willingly paid for by snowmobilers.
Lower Volume Production – In the past, the research, development and test costs were spread over many more production snowmobile units; but today, with the lower volume production runs, the cost per sled has gone up dramatically and will continue to do so until greater volumes of sled are sold yearly. Unfortunately lower production volumes have reduced the options for manufacturers to obtain components from suppliers and further driven up costs. One example cited was that in 1995 a certain model sled, produced by one manufacturer, had a production run greater than the manufacturer’s entire production run today. The increased costs associated with lower volume production are paid for by snowmobilers.
Inflation – Inflation certainly plays a role in the increasing cost of snowmobiles and is paid for by snowmobilers. However cost analysis shows that if one performs a feature to feature comparison of today’s sleds and sleds from a decade ago, many are now a better value than they were years ago. A number of sleds even under-paced inflation delivering more bang for the buck; however top of the line sled prices rose considerably more than inflation as they came loaded with many sought after technical advancements and standard features. The only way to get sled prices down is to cut development and production costs and/or to increase production by increasing the number of snowmobilers.
However, this all bodes well for used snowmobile pricing and availability, with many quality used models available online at websites such as MotorsHiFi.com.
You can always educate yourself about all-terrain vehicles and other motor vehicle technology on the MotorsHiFi site, located on the web at www.motorshifi.com. Here you can go to get your dream vehicle.