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OPINION FROM THE EDITOR www.PowersportsBusiness.com Powersports Business • November 28, 2016 • 11 As you can see on the cover story in this edition, dealers continued to struggled to meet their sales goals in the third quarter. Our quarterly survey remains the only independent gauge of its type in the industry, and thanks to the input from the participat- ing dealers, we're able to get a glimpse into just what is happening — or, more accurately these days, what is not happening — when they walk into dealerships. Our analyst partner, Gerrick Johnson at BMO Capital Markets, provides the participating dealers with a detailed analysis of the survey's composite results, and sends all of the dealers a PDF of his findings. I encour- age dealers to take the short survey when we launch it again in December in order to get full benefit of being a Powersports Business reader, and partner. So while participating dealers only receive the entire results, here's a sample of some of the results from open-ended questions. Question — "What product segments are you most excited about? As an open-ended question, this one had a range of responses. None stood out more, however, than dealers giving two thumbs up for the side-by-side market in general (Honda Pioneer prod- uct in particular), and the new Milwaukee 8 engine from Harley-Davidson. "It's an exciting change to the touring line. Bringing this enhancement to other lines will be very welcome," one dealer said. The 2017 snowmobile lineup from the OEMs also has dealers ready for winter. Randomly selected answers — ORV; none; side-by- side; new Harley-Davidson Milwaukee 8 engine; the growth of the Defender product line as well as the new 500 cc ATV coming from CFMOTO; Polaris Slingshot; The 2017 model Harley-Davidson touring product has made a positive impact. Also, the fact that Harley has not over-supplied these units into the dealer network has helped to hold margins on them; New electric scooter models; Sleds, assuming heavy snowfall; New ADV bikes from Honda; Retro/standard bikes; Honda side-by-sides; Honda Pioneer has been a home run; Outdoor power equipment from Honda, Stihl, and Cub Cadet; Off-road bikes; Dropping Arctic Cat; New bike sales; Slingshot; All the Husqvarnas; Anything that has good profit margin and makes money; Indian new models; Ski-Doo's new models; Smaller displace- ment motorcyles; Smaller sport bikes; New Gixxer 1000; PWC business seems to be on the rebound; Timbersled snow bikes; ADV bikes; After 47 years in snowmobile, ATV and UTV market, we dropped our major line; Honda has some very nice ORV and motor- cycle product coming that will drive sales, as well as new stuff from Suzuki; New KTM and Husky bikes hold promise as well as Timbersleds; Can't be excited about something that never changes; Zero Electric motorcycle sales have doubled for us this year; The new Indians are incredible in selection and quality; Concerned about metric street bike sales declining." Similarly, we ask, "What product segments have you been the most disappointed with?" Randomly selected answers — "The Polaris side- by-side recalls topped all other replies, with heavy- weight bike and metric cruiser sales also taking the brunt of the beating from dealers here. Also, it's safe to say that Arctic Cat ORV dealers who replied to the survey are not a happy lot." Here are some other responses: "Japanese cruis- ers; scooters; heavyweight motorcycles; None; Motorcycles in general are in such a decline, I could push them all in the back and nobody would even notice. None of the metric brands have any- thing that's exciting besides a few hits here and there; Sport SxS; Sport bikes; The 900 Ranger once was our most profitable product. The demand is still very high, but Polaris and the dealer net- work has significantly devalued the product and removed all profit potential; Overall UTV/ORV market; The abundance of 2016 Harley-Davidson touring product carry-over, especially the high-end CVO models. Further, Harley has offered virtually no dealer incentives outside of promotional finance offers to assist us with this challenge; Heavyweight motorcycle sales, both sport and cruiser; Snow- mobiles are in the toilet; Large street bikes are not even selling with large incentives; Street bikes; Metric cruisers; None; Low margin/high recall/stop sale models; Scooters are dead." Finally, we asked, "Please tell us anything you wish to add about the current powersports business envi- ronment and your outlook." Randomly selected answers — "Continued lowering customer interest; Better financing rates; Never seen lower door swings than now; Profitabil- ity is shrinking; Main Street is dying — I hope for a change and less government involvement; So many times dealers worry about price first and give away all profit potential, and we have to remember we aren't Wal-Mart — we actually offer a service and product they can't get on every corner; Depressed farm economy will always be reflected in our over- all sales/profits; A healthy business with happy cus- tomers does not come from low price; Too many dealers for the demand; Dropping major unit, going to parts and service only; I am disappointed that the OEMs don't get involved more in land legisla- tion to help protect land/stop land closures for our riding areas; Our major unit OEM rep told us the only way we're going to sell anything is at invoice; Media talking about a great snow winter and that is generating a lot of traffic; Shrinking major unit margins; Ducati very demanding, it's been a poor return on investment; Any manufacturer that has not embraced the SxS market will be losing out in the future as well as now. Honda SxS is solely responsible for our growth this year; My commu- nity has no middle class anymore; Sales are cooling off the closer we get to the election; Discounting continues to ruin profitability; Getting tougher and tougher to make a decent living; This will not be an enjoyable next six months; Many dealers that I know are off 10 percent or more year-over-year; Too many 2016 models on the floor will negatively impact the sales of the better, more powerful 2017 H-D touring bikes. The winner will be the cus- tomer that gets a killer deal. The loser will be the dealer with three dozen 2016s that will be sold at the slimmest of margins; Getting harder and harder to make money — the masses are out of money and barely make finance. Depending on who becomes President may determine how good our sales are going forward." With that in mind, we'll sit back and wait for the votes to get counted. PSB Dave McMahon is editor in chief of Powersports Business. Contact him at 763/383-4411 or dmcmahon@powersportsbusiness.com. 1. Polaris recalls 2015-17 Slingshot motorcycles 2. Can-Am expands Defender lineup 3. Harley-Davidson Café closes, hosts online auction 4. Polaris reports decreased sales in Q3 5. Report: Sturgis Rally attendance drops 6. Milwaukee Harley-Davidson closes temporarily 7. OEMs release new models, concept bikes at 2016 EICMA 8. WPS to distribute Alpinestars product 9. Arctic Cat launches 2017 off-road accessories line 10. New Ural video is worth a look (video) 11. Yamaha wins international design competition 12. Dealership salesman retires after 42 years 13. AIMExpo sees record consumer crowd 14. Suzuki releases 2017 lineup 15. Eicher Polaris names new CEO The headlines above belong to the most frequently viewed articles from Powersports Business' three-times weekly e-news during the Oct. 25-Nov. 8 period. The number is based on the percentage of e-news viewers who clicked on the article's headline. To subscribe to e-news, go to www.bit.ly/PSBEnewsSignup. WHAT'S THE HOTTEST INDUSTRY TOPIC? Powersports Business blog ONLINE WITH POWERSPORTSBUSINESS.COM Leading industry executives and dealer consultants are among the contributors to PSB's blog. See below for recent blogs. Third quarter dealer survey reveals bright, dark spots Visit powersportsbusiness.com/blogs YouTube surpasses 200,000 views! Powersports Business' YouTube channel has seen a large jump in popular- ity in recent months, most notably surpassing 200,000 channel views! Our channel features new videos from our experiences in the industry and previews of our digital editions. It has gained 165 subscribers (and counting). Stay tuned for videos from the 2016 EICMA show in Milan, courtesy of editor in chief Dave McMahon and managing editor Liz Keener, who took in the Ital- ian sights firsthand! DAVID KOSHOLLEK President, DAKO Management To those of you who are challenged by your job, or loss of a job; who are deeply annoyed by a co-worker or manager; who feel they're in a dead-end position with no room for advancement — have faith! JACKSON SMITH Parts and Service Manager, Destination Powersports By having a motorcycle enthusiast at the parts counter who can share that enthusiasm for the lifestyle and the curiosity of the new products with the customers, we were able to develop what I hope will prove to be strong customer loyalty. COLLEEN MALLOY Director of Marketing, ARI Lack of trust in salespeople and the amount of time the buying process takes are two leading reasons why shoppers don't like the car buying process, and these are issues that you might have faced at your own dealership. RON CARIKER Owner and President, 7 Media Group Attending and speaking at another great AIMExpo recently in Orlando was very rewarding and enlightening. The passion and drive for the powersports industry to continue to serve their customer base was very apparent. As you can see on the cover story in this edition, dealers continued to struggled to meet their sales goals in the third quarter. remains the only independent DAVE McMAHON