Another one bites the dust. So sad.

You can buy a 55" TV, a Playstation 5 and enough games to keep you busy for a year for $1,500. A new snowmobile is $15,000, easy to see why they can't sell enough of them.

Attic cat stole the original design from my wife grandfather, it was going to be patented as the snow cat….

This is sad, the remaining brands need competition.

With the price of what they want for "toys" anymore i can see why.

Competition will come from overseas. I believe there is room for inexpensive competition. A 300 cc single cylinder for $4,500 would probably sell like crazy. Make money on accessories, repairs and higher end machines when people move up and upgrade.

Arctic cat was late to the game in Orvs and even when they did finally show up, they were severely lacking in quality. People soon realised the quality problems and AC was never were able to capture any significant market share after that. With the weather patterns getting warmer with less snow, you cant run a company on snowmobile sales ......thats becoming a thing of the past.

As other have said, competition is good for the industry, but Arctic Cat didnt provide much....

Totally agree I live 90 miles from TRF and 37 miles from Polaris in Roseau.15K to 45K for toys???????????I sure can't afford those prices...

Remember when The Skidoo elan came out...under $500.

Yeah, sure.

My Suzuki ATV has the same clutch assembly as some of the artic cat sleds. Always make me wonder who owns what. Everyone talks about what everything cost and economy is bad. Yet there is no shortage of high priced toys running around on rivers and the roads and trails.
They just added on to the place down the street that sells ATVs and motorcycles. The local Harley shop is adding on.
Must be a marketing issue for Artic Cat???


Mac

1977 my Dad bought us kids a Polaris 250 Colt for $600 it was a 1976 carry over.My brother's and myself wore that thing out,fun times.....

The old cats had susuki motors, mikuni carburators, and comet clutches. Polaris had fugi motors.

I’ve had a bunch of Arctic Cat Atv’s. When they were bought out and name changed I quit looking at them. Sub conscious deal with name recognition maybe? No matter, I quit buying them.

Osky

Arctic Cat is known to be junk around here.

Ditch pickle's are what some people call them here.

Agreed. 100%

Those Fuji motors were bullet proof in the old Indy 500s and 400s. Put many thousand miles on a 500 and it was never on the wrong end of a tow rope....

My dad owned an Arctic Cat dealership when I was a kid. We live five miles out of town on a dead end dirt road. Luckily he sold it the year before we quite having winter for about a decade starting in the late 90s. The last year he sold 120 sleds, more than some nearby dealers right on the interstate. Arctic cat brass was out of touch with reality and forcing dealers to buy “x” number of sleds more than the previous season among other things. They had some good people in the company, but they very much doomed themselves from within.

Another big mistake they made was partnering with Gander Mountain and selling ATVs in store and screwing many core longtime dealers. That drove many good dealers out and was the true beginning of the downfall.

It’s sad because I grew up with my head bouncing on the handlebars of a ‘76 Jag. Heck, my mom was snowmobiling when she was two weeks overdue with me in her! lol. The 1990 Prowler model and ensuing similar models were 15 years ahead of their time and then they dropped that style and went to the big boats starting in ‘94. Just a bummer for another MN company, but as many have mentioned the prices of all these recreational vehicles is insane. Happy trapping! ScottW

Both the Fuji and Suzuki motors of the 80-90s were bullet proof. Many thousands still ripping around! Happy trapping! ScottW

thank the govt epa and consumer safety regs for a huge chunk of the high prices

Not a big fan of their snowmachines, they made some good ones, but the one I owned was a lemon and sent me right back to skidoos. I've ran their ATV's for 25 years though, unfortunately they quit making the TBX in 2020, and I didn't realize it until they were sold out of everything in stock, I had planned on buying a new one the next year, this time before my existing one was so worn out as to have no retail value. Nobody else makes one comparable to Arctic Cats TBX, and it is a real shame. I've been a big fan of their ATV's since I got my first one, my current one has 18,000 miles on it and I've put over 20K on every previous one. But their service has went way downhill, it started before Textron bought them, and has continued to get worse after they were bought. If there isn't an aftermarket source for any part you need, good luck getting it. I laughed when I read that letter and it said, "We are committed to providing the service and support to keep our thousands of loyal customers riding". You can't get parts now, do you actually expect us to believe it is going to get better after you shut down production? From talking to other former Arctic Cat owners, that is the main reason most of them switched to another brand, and the reason I would have earlier if someone produced a model designed for what I wanted. They made a good ATV, but their lack of service and parts availability really hurt their sales.

A 300cc motor? Maybe a 440 and it would be almost impossible to build and market one for 4500, I paid 2500 for a 440 Bearcat in 1999 do the math on the inflation.

If you bought a new bearcat for 2500 in 1999 you got one heck of a deal.

I looked it up, it was 2900. I worked at Arctic Cat at the time, employee discount.

I bought a 2013 570 Bearcat for 5600, my ex worked there at that time.

I hate to say what I paid for my 2019 7000 4stroke lol.

I know a lot of people who work there, friends and relation. It's going to be a big blow to that community.

Hopefully someone buys it and starts it back up but I'm not all that optimistic.

That’s the worst part. Hopefully something moves in to fill the void to some extent. Happy trapping! ScottW

There is always the Lynx line by BRP.
They look like good machines.
Sucks when a mill or factory closes in a small town.

I understand inflation but manufacturering has become far more efficient, 5 hp engines for $100 for example.

The Honda Grom should of been a wake up call, a $3,500 125cc motorcycle and they couldn't build enough of them . There is a market for simple, inexpensive machines from a reliable, quality manufacturer.

Honda should make an elan.

I'll take 2

My last Tundra II R was almost the same price a s a liquid cooled twin cylinder sled.

They could gouge on tundra because the govt buys them, that's my theory atleast

There is a reason they don't make elans anymore.

People talk all nostalgic about the old sleds until they ride one again.

Losing Arctic Cat is sad. But, snowmachines come and snowmachines go, I guess. My first snowmachine was a Mercury 440. I guess it's been a while since those were produced. It was a love/hate relationship. As long as you ran it wide open it ran fine... but if you ran it slower, it fouled plugs and we never did figure out why.

At the same time, we also owned a John Deere snowmachine. Another company that no longer makes sleds. I believe it was around the 340 size.

The next sled we bought was an Arctic Cat, 340 I believe.

Shortly before I moved away from NY, I bought a pair of Arctic Cats that were 1970s models that had been in indoor storage for 20+ years.

A cheap banger would sell, there would be a whole aftermarket of accessories and people molding them. I bought a 125 motor cycle on impulse because I made to much money one week, if you could afford a snowmobile with a Christmas bonus they'd sell out of them every time it snowed.

The reason they dont make elans anymore is that they require minimal mtc and easy to work on.
No money in that for the dealerships.
There are a few rebuilt elans around and we always get a chance to ride them on our fieldtrips for old times sake.
They are not that comfortable to ride (nor are the old tundras) nor can they do the work compared to the new machines,but you can throw them around no problem,so they would have a place on my traplines for short runs.
Last one I had was an 86 model,bought new,sold it back in 02.

If I could buy a new Elan for $2,500 tomorrow I’d have it home before lunch! My kids would have a ball on that thing as would I. Yeah I wouldn’t be trail riding it, but a sled to use and be able to use and get unstuck easily would absolutely sell.

If Ski-Doo said “Next year we’re offering you the ability to snow check a newly built Elan for this year and this year only so pay for it now and you’ll get it next fall!”……..it would be their best selling single model sled that year.

A dealer told me a couple years ago when I was complaining about the models and options etc that the manufacturers don’t care about folks like myself who care about buying exactly what we want and plan to keep for the rest of my lifetime if it will last that long. He said they are focused on the guys buying new sleds every few years. It’s like ATVs also…..hard to find good utility ATVs now let alone one small enough to lift.

Happy trapping! ScottW

Bingo! Worst part is, now the plastic forming is better and lighter yet and you could mold an awesome track compared to the old straight bar tracks on most of those. I hate how fired up I get with all this cause I know it’s never gonna happen! That said, I thoroughly love my 900ACE and 154” track but an Elam still has its place.

Happy trapping! ScottW

You can bring an elan through a 36 inch standard door into your cabin to work on at 30 below.

2500 dollars?

You guys are living in lala land.

You cant even buy a youth model for that.

You'd think it was still 2019 around here.

I’d probably go $4,500 if it had a new style track and some other improvements. lol. We’ve had hours of discussions on how fun it would be to design a “new” Elan and all the possibilities. Heck my buddy bought his Expedition brand new for $10k less than 10 years ago and that’s a lot more material and engineering. No hand warmers, no thumb warmers, none of that crap. Just a bare bones simple sled. Happy trapping! ScottW

Another attribute to the elan was you didnt need snow to run it,as long as you had the bogie wheel suspension.
Ran the old elans sometimes in summer on bush trails
And I remember after a few beers with my buddies one time when we were about 16 we had an oval race in the field with a couple olympcs and a snow jet.Might have been a moto ski there too.

I believe the last year elans were made they sold new for over 2000 dollars. I bought a 95 model used in 96 for 1500.

So $4500 right now would be approximately appropriate comparative to that. I’m in!

Happy trapping! ScottW

I got a twin cylindar elan you can have. So much power lifts the skis off the snow. Almost complete lean steering required.

I remember the twin elan.
A buddy had one it was black in colour.It was a 22 HP i believe.
I use to race him with my 340 tnt he would be faster off the mark but I would pass him further out .

Don't tempt me with a good time lol

“Around here”? Like just around your yard?…news to me....lol
I bought an 04 AC H1 quad from new. Have done maybe 6-8 oil changes for maintenance and that’s it. Tough machine. Their sleds have always been good to me and their 97 Tcat 900 left the others in the dust on the fire guards. That being said, I ride BRP now and next quad will probably be Polaris. I buy based on our local dealers. Brant at AC treated me awesome because he was hammered all the time. Now the service is gone down the crapper!

I agree with jurassic . Artic crap is well known up here for crappy quads, I can't speak to the sleds though, for nice smooth trail riding I'm sure they're good down there.

I never wanted one

This is awesome Polaris and skidoo are better by far

Hate that for the people that will lose jobs

Never took down here, no brand recognition and the few that did make the gamble were not impressed by the quality

Way to high priced ,The ATV and UTV market is so over priced it is the reason I dont own one.

That and the lack of snow the past few years. In 2004, I bought a new 2003 Arctic Cat Bearcat for $3200. It was some that were left over from the previous year in which there was little or nor snow. A comparable Arctic Cat sells for about $12,000 today.

Yall thought i was nuts when i said they were gonna shut down. Your choices of cars will be next. Supply chains never recovered during the covid mess.

Textron ( Arctic cat ) is shutting down the snogo, atv, UTV, and golf cart production. I also read that Polaris has been considering downsizing as well but haven't heard anything about Can- am.

Gonna hate to see the cats gone. Their fan cooled 340 and 440 were fantastic. Now ride a Bearcat fan cooled and love it. I;ve been on a remote trapline for 35 years and never had a break down, It is also a strong pulling machine and seems to love pulling broken down Ski-doos back to their home base.

Not good

Is Arctic Cat a union company?

I'm not necessarily against unions but just asking.

Polaris earnings down 80% as consumers delay big purchases, as of October. Not looking to good for Polaris either

average people have to put their money in basics.....food,gas,insurance,taxes...first things to go south in a recession are toys....anyone remember 2008?

No

I've had one Polaris snowmobile that was nothing but trouble. I switched to Arctic Cats and have never had issues with any of them.
I have a friend who swears by Polaris ATVs. Yet, he's constantly having to take it in because it broke down. I think Honda ATVs are a much better choice. I've had a Honda Foreman for many years. I had to replace a muffler once. Other than that it's been trouble free.
Because they are MN based, I hate to see Polaris or Arctic Cat go out of business.

They all have some problems,I agree I hate to see job losses anywhere.We've had both some are real good and some have been problem child.

https://youtu.be/4HmFEcGW79g

Happy trapping! ScottW

Good news!

I believe the Arctic Cat 400 ATV was a rebadged Suzuki Eiger 400. The parts are all interchangeable.

Great news indeed. Been an AC guy my whole life and was would give up the sport before I ever bought a Quebec made Govt bailed out Ski-doo.

Great news Scott. Thanks for sharing.

Money