A six hundred alpha isn't going to bring me back
What would it take to get you back on a Cat?
- Thread starter MTsled3
- Start date
New chassis looks wicked, needs a factory boost option with 3 years of warranty to get me to snowcheck one though.
I bought an Alpha new in 2019. Threw a turbo on it and have never had a single problem. Haven't broken a rail or any other exaggerated "issueES". OC I don't slam it through the whoops doing 60 either...it's a pow sled and I treat it as such. I think the Alpha handling is extremely similar to axys and matryx.....
I probably won't be going back to Cat for a single reason though........they rug pulled ALL of their "little" dealers in the USA. We're talking about 200 of them. For those of us that live in small mtn towns....supporting local and having service local is KEY. Whoever came up with that idea at Cat/Textron should be fired immediately.
I probably won't be going back to Cat for a single reason though........they rug pulled ALL of their "little" dealers in the USA. We're talking about 200 of them. For those of us that live in small mtn towns....supporting local and having service local is KEY. Whoever came up with that idea at Cat/Textron should be fired immediately.
A lot of that happened before Textron, though I did notice we lost the Cat dealer in West Yellowstone last year, never heard the story on that. Cat dealer in Bozeman area has changed hands a few times over the years but luckily seems to be going strong still. They're actually one of the factors that has me strongly considering a Cat for my next sled, great service every time I'm there.
And now brp does the same thing here in sweden, the small town dealers lost their licens to sell. I know two dealers who gott the notice now before christmas and both is wery popular and good to do buisness with, the thing that count now is a big flashy building and idiots behind the counter that now nothing and wortless service...
the chevy dealers around here and probably everywhere were all supposed to redo there showrooms and what not as well a while back. things like that
are hard for small dealers to do. i dont care what the building is like if they have good service and good prices. the people at the top just want mega dealers one in every state.
are hard for small dealers to do. i dont care what the building is like if they have good service and good prices. the people at the top just want mega dealers one in every state.
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cbc24
Well-known member
You guys all got some very valid points, going from a morally objective business perspective to the actual product. For me It would have to be a multitude of things.
-I really dislike the newer approach to business that tex/cat has taken, my dealership has been amazingly supportive and they dont get no help from the brand they are trying to sell. When a dealer has to put machines under peoples names to get in season models its pretty ridiculous. It sounds like they are trying to go direct like tesla..
- I dont like the price hike... marketing fail on there part, I get they are trying to clear out old stock and models for a new chassis but selling them for 20k gtfo. Move product by selling it for 16/17, be like suzuki and have a unit cheaper than the rest with less tech, itll move. I think our dealership had 3 snowchecks... ( our doo dealer had like 100) I would buy another cat no problem if it was priced to what its actually worth and the manufacture wasnt getting greedy about it.
- Fire the marketing team, all this phony hype to gain interest on the new chassis.. I learned more from the snowmobile magazines than from AC's big deep dive. Get on with proper marketing stradegy.
Maybe im being salty but their whole image is just fail after fail and nothings hitting right. I dont like how they dont support riders, I dont like how they market, I dont like alot... the one thing I did like was the product and that it was vastly stronger than the other brands. I had fantastic luck with my 14,15 and now current 18 and would like another one but sadly they shot their own foot and are going in a direction I do not like....
-I really dislike the newer approach to business that tex/cat has taken, my dealership has been amazingly supportive and they dont get no help from the brand they are trying to sell. When a dealer has to put machines under peoples names to get in season models its pretty ridiculous. It sounds like they are trying to go direct like tesla..
- I dont like the price hike... marketing fail on there part, I get they are trying to clear out old stock and models for a new chassis but selling them for 20k gtfo. Move product by selling it for 16/17, be like suzuki and have a unit cheaper than the rest with less tech, itll move. I think our dealership had 3 snowchecks... ( our doo dealer had like 100) I would buy another cat no problem if it was priced to what its actually worth and the manufacture wasnt getting greedy about it.
- Fire the marketing team, all this phony hype to gain interest on the new chassis.. I learned more from the snowmobile magazines than from AC's big deep dive. Get on with proper marketing stradegy.
Maybe im being salty but their whole image is just fail after fail and nothings hitting right. I dont like how they dont support riders, I dont like how they market, I dont like alot... the one thing I did like was the product and that it was vastly stronger than the other brands. I had fantastic luck with my 14,15 and now current 18 and would like another one but sadly they shot their own foot and are going in a direction I do not like....
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cbc24
Well-known member
Dont you guys forget Cat has dropped the ball on rider support for awhile,
They Had Burandt, Turcotte, Saxton and (Could have had Caleb) however they chose that those assets werent worth pursuing and holding onto and lost them to a company that was more open to growth, development and brand imagery. Polaris new the value of this and played some really smart moves in the industry.. Cat lost its way with that!
Imagine how different it would have been if they had Burandts input in chassis development, Turcottes Athletic/ online presence, Kyle and Calebs Online influence/presence. That could have changed alot for the industry and they could have been a top contender but they chose to ignore them all and believe they didnt need it.
Not to mention they slashed all racing programs and support.
Its pretty hard to want to support a brand that does not support anyone.
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cbc24
Well-known member
I wanna add one more point.
Remember back in the day, You would walk into your dealership and you would see a fleet of beautiful machines, many options, colors, lengths, engine sizes.. and they would have Rebates for 3000$ off a previous season model.
Then dooms day, Cat had the sell out to Textron..
They realized they weren't getting their top dollar for their machines so they came up with the new industry marketing strategy. To eliminate having to rebate their machines to get them moving, they decided to create the "Snow check only" program. To gain 100% return on every machine sold you had to order it. What it did was put pressure on their dealer networks by slashing in season model and losing the sales from having those walk in loiter sales while on top of that increasing the resale value of the used market.
Coincidentally we had the Pandemic come into effect which did not help at all for the dealers or manufactures and increased the pricing another 30% ontop of an already increasing market. So a bit of bad timing came into their scheme of things.
I dont know if Cat changed it and now provide their dealerships with in season models, but for 2 years every dealer I talked to had to order machines under staff names to get some in season models because cat themselves wouldnt support them. How can a dealer stay afloat when they only got 10 units to sell... that doesnt pay for the doors to stay open.
For reference our doo dealer sells anywhere from 100-150 units a year.
The cat dealer Maybe 15 at most.
Remember back in the day, You would walk into your dealership and you would see a fleet of beautiful machines, many options, colors, lengths, engine sizes.. and they would have Rebates for 3000$ off a previous season model.
Then dooms day, Cat had the sell out to Textron..
They realized they weren't getting their top dollar for their machines so they came up with the new industry marketing strategy. To eliminate having to rebate their machines to get them moving, they decided to create the "Snow check only" program. To gain 100% return on every machine sold you had to order it. What it did was put pressure on their dealer networks by slashing in season model and losing the sales from having those walk in loiter sales while on top of that increasing the resale value of the used market.
Coincidentally we had the Pandemic come into effect which did not help at all for the dealers or manufactures and increased the pricing another 30% ontop of an already increasing market. So a bit of bad timing came into their scheme of things.
I dont know if Cat changed it and now provide their dealerships with in season models, but for 2 years every dealer I talked to had to order machines under staff names to get some in season models because cat themselves wouldnt support them. How can a dealer stay afloat when they only got 10 units to sell... that doesnt pay for the doors to stay open.
For reference our doo dealer sells anywhere from 100-150 units a year.
The cat dealer Maybe 15 at most.
Those huge inventories of new sleds sitting in the show room is part of what started killing cat long before textron was involved. Since I switched to cat in 06 our local cat dealer has changed hands 3-4 times and most of the changes were well before textron was involved. I had a good relationship with the cat dealer we had during the M-chassis days and when they gave up on cat it was because cat was forcing them to take on more inventory than they knew they could sell so they were losing there butt on holdovers. All the brands are switching over to more of a snowcheck only model now, and it’s also happening in the automotive world as well. I believe ford has already stated that they are moving to more of an order based system like Tesla. It seems to be the same for side x sides as well. I think the days of rolling into a dealer and grabbing new vehicles off the showroom floor are pretty much done.
Then the proclimb fiasco came and hurt them even more and they’ve never really recovered from that. Seemed they had management that could care less what the customers and riders wanted. Even burandt came out and said that was why he jumped ship, he wanted to work for a company that valued his opinion and input and Polaris gave him that when cat wouldn’t. As to firing the marketing team, they would have to have one before they could fire them. I think this is the biggest thing holding cat back right now, and why people think the 2023 sleds are the same sleds as the 2012. They never really even mention the changes they make year to year, so if your not a cat fan that actually sees and knows the changes you would have no idea. They have no social media presence and that’s what sells these days. If cat wants to get into the game, they’re gonna have to spend some money and effort on some of these guys with a social media following.
Then the proclimb fiasco came and hurt them even more and they’ve never really recovered from that. Seemed they had management that could care less what the customers and riders wanted. Even burandt came out and said that was why he jumped ship, he wanted to work for a company that valued his opinion and input and Polaris gave him that when cat wouldn’t. As to firing the marketing team, they would have to have one before they could fire them. I think this is the biggest thing holding cat back right now, and why people think the 2023 sleds are the same sleds as the 2012. They never really even mention the changes they make year to year, so if your not a cat fan that actually sees and knows the changes you would have no idea. They have no social media presence and that’s what sells these days. If cat wants to get into the game, they’re gonna have to spend some money and effort on some of these guys with a social media following.
With the troubles Cat has had over the last decade, I DO see it starting to improve. I bet they sell a ton of Catalyst trail sleds and crossovers next year. The marketing on it is strange to me, I think it's too drawn out, but at least they're doing something. They need to get demos out asap.
Someone mentioned price, I didn't see a price hike this year from Cat, at least not anything significant especially compared to Polaris and Doo.Looking at msrp the Cat is about $2k cheaper than either 850.
Someone mentioned price, I didn't see a price hike this year from Cat, at least not anything significant especially compared to Polaris and Doo.Looking at msrp the Cat is about $2k cheaper than either 850.
I’m seeing the Doo 850 msrp cheaper than the Cat, and the Polaris 850 a few hundred higher.
I hope Cat doesn’t price their bigger motor like the Poo 9R, that’s out of hand.
I guess I'm not going off of cheapest msrp because you can get cheaper with base models from Doo and Poo. Cat doesn't have "base" models anymore so I go in and build to make them as comparable as possible. Comparing 154 length, 3" tracks on Doo and Cat, and 2.75" on Polaris (because their 3" sucks).
Mtn cat $15,300. No extra options. 800cc vs. Competitors 850s.
Summit X $15,850 (with SHOT- it forced me to add it on the site with 3" model) Expert $16,700. Plus Doo $400 mfg surcharge not including freight. I must've had the 10" gauge selected when I built them before, thought they were more.
Pro RMK Slash $16,357 with basic shocks, $17,156 with velocities (more on par with the qs3). That's with painted tunnel and rails/spindles because the others have that standard.
If you're on a tighter budget or just want a basic sled, the Doo sp and Edge are cheaper but less options, sp doesn't have short tunnel and edge is heavy with e start even though they were supposed to have SHOT.
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cbc24
Well-known member
So in 2019 when the alpha was first launched it was priced around 16500/17500 cad with 3 year warranty..
I was going to snowcheck a 146 alpha last spring and it was 19800 with one year of warranty.. FFF THAT
That riding experience is not worth 20k with no new developments other than a primary clutch... I will gladly stay with my 2018 mountain cat 153 that costed me 9000$.
Hope we can get back to old days where a guy can browse inventory and make impulsive buys lol
