It was better to be a Canadian snowmobile dealer last year than it was to be a U.S. dealer—but only slightly better.
Slightly better nationwide that is, but in the West, Canada rocked the snowmobile world. Western Canada snowmobile sales were up a whopping 26.6 percent compared to a year ago with 16,379 sleds sold. Compare that to the western United States, which saw a decline in sales of 1.79 percent or 289 fewer units sold compared to MY2012. That’s not a huge decline, thank heavens. Unfortunately, it is a decline, one that breaks a two-year streak of increased sales in the West.
U.S. nationwide, the news was a bit better with U.S. sales down less than 1 percent (.31 percent). For MY2013, 48,536 sleds were sold, 153 less than a year ago. That number of units sold represents only the third time since SnoWest has been tracking snowmobile sales that unit sales were below 50,000.
Worldwide, however, snowmobile sales were up 15,514 units (12 percent) for a total of 144,601 sleds sold.
Of course, that increase can be traced, in part, to sales in Canada but also in Europe and Russia. Snowmobile sales in Europe and Russia were up an impressive 36.95 percent or 14,043 units, marking the third straight year of increased sales. In fact, the 52,043 units sold in Europe and Russia are 3,507 more than what was sold in the U.S., marking the first time ever that sales in those two places have outnumbered what has been sold in the U.S.
So indeed, snowmobile sales were a mixed bag—good for some, not so much for others.
Here are the latest snowmobile sales figures for model year 2013 in the exclusive SnoWest Magazine annual snowmobile sales report.