Arctic Cat 2022 big huge enormous gigantic mind blowing release... March 3rd

[Palu49]

Well after checking prices on a couple different configurations of XCR I called my cat dealer and gave him my card number for a new RR

[mnstang]

So looking on the cat site, they only offer zr RR and zr limited.  No other choices.  And they're both really ugly.  Like really ugly.

Yikes.

 

I know they're doing the blasts but you think there could be something between a blast and a ZR limited?  And not super ugly?

I noticed in the video yesterday that electric start is even standard on the riot x now.  So if course standard on everything besides alphas.  FFS.  They can't keep doing this shit.  One thing everything looks at buying a sled, price.  No estart would be cheaper   another thing every buyer wants, less weight.  Cat's marketing department sucks balls it's like they don't want to sell their stuff.  Did I mention their sleds are ugly?  I'm so happy with my old turds.  Do they talk to anyone or anything?  How can one sledder dude point out so many glaring issues that could easily be improved and they can't see this?  They need people that have lived in this industry their whole life and are real snowmobilers not these dummies they have that are trying to understand the industry, they never will!  PS ugly sleds

[jdsky]

Cat painted themselves into a corner with the Blast and it's price point (and size).  I know, it's awesome compared to an Evo for a kid, teen or small adult beginner sled but it leaves almost zero room for a full featured, full powered, adult or teen sized sled at a reasonable price point. 

Poo has the Indy 550 and Doo has the 600 EFI based Sport models for the same price as a Blast.  Definitely agree that if there was any intelligence in their marketing department at all someone would demand a full sized adult sled that would compete head to head with these models. 

[Crnr2Crnr]

rarely if ever do you see Cat guys attack Cat on Arctic Insider - today reminded me of a bunch of guys wearing black and green storming the corporate HQ in TRF while wearing MACGA hats.
http://www.arcticinsider.com/Article/2022-Arctic-Cats-Launched---A-High-Level-Overview#Comments

if the brass with Textron continues to ignore the frustration of their customers existing/former/potential you can kiss Arctic Cat as a snowmobile brand goodbye, forever.  I see it here, I see it on HCS and I haven't even looked at Fakebook since last night.  it's so bad, no one wants to come to the quarterly MadCatters meeting.
 

 

[Sled_Hed]

19 minutes ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

rarely if ever do you see Cat guys attack Cat on Arctic Insider - today reminded me of a bunch of guys wearing black and green storming the corporate HQ in TRF while wearing MACGA hats.
http://www.arcticinsider.com/Article/2022-Arctic-Cats-Launched---A-High-Level-Overview#Comments

if the brass with Textron continues to ignore the frustration of their customers existing/former/potential you can kiss Arctic Cat as a snowmobile brand goodbye, forever.  I see it here, I see it on HCS and I haven't even looked at Fakebook since last night.  it's so bad, no one wants to come to the quarterly MadCatters meeting.
 

 

Agreed on the arcticinsider comments. You really need to read some of the posts on ACTR....

[jdsky]

This one was pretty good....

 

Glad2BGone says:
3/3/2021 7:44:00 PM

Well, that was perfectly predictable. The EZ-Go golf cart morons continue to make hollow promises of greatness, while they run it straight into the ground, oblivious to customers', and dealers' pleas.

[Crnr2Crnr]

1 hour ago, Sled_Hed said:

Agreed on the arcticinsider comments. You really need to read some of the posts on ACTR....

trust me, I have.  there's an amazing amount of Kool Aid drinkers in that group though.  week ago or so, I got a 'timeout' from the admin of that page.  guess I'm on a roll this winter... 

 

 

 

[Sled_Hed]

1 minute ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

trust me, I have.  there's an amazing amount of Kool Aid drinkers in that group though.  week ago or so, I got a 'timeout' from the admin of that page.  guess I'm on a roll this winter... 

 

 

 

Yeah I think it's "Mike Rider", Holy shit he had multiple posts last night about Cat still being on the right track.

[Crnr2Crnr]

22 minutes ago, Sled_Hed said:

Yeah I think it's "Mike Rider", Holy shit he had multiple posts last night about Cat still being on the right track.

maybe it was my tone... idk?
 

 

[Tommcat]

1 hour ago, Sled_Hed said:

Yeah I think it's "Mike Rider", Holy shit he had multiple posts last night about Cat still being on the right track.

What fucking track is that?

[Sled_Hed]

7 hours ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

maybe it was my tone... idk?
 

 

Some people need a tone 

6 hours ago, Tommcat said:

What fucking track is that?

Not sure, the green glasses must be thick on some..

[mnstang]

13 hours ago, Crnr2Crnr said:

rarely if ever do you see Cat guys attack Cat on Arctic Insider - today reminded me of a bunch of guys wearing black and green storming the corporate HQ in TRF while wearing MACGA hats.
http://www.arcticinsider.com/Article/2022-Arctic-Cats-Launched---A-High-Level-Overview#Comments

if the brass with Textron continues to ignore the frustration of their customers existing/former/potential you can kiss Arctic Cat as a snowmobile brand goodbye, forever.  I see it here, I see it on HCS and I haven't even looked at Fakebook since last night.  it's so bad, no one wants to come to the quarterly MadCatters meeting.
 

 

What is ridiculous is most of the guys bitching wouldn't be buyers anyway.  They're like cyber buyers.  Just want some excitement in their life or something.  I'd like to hear when these guys have last bought a new sled from any manufacturer.

But they're the loudest voices on the internet.  Because that's how the internet works.  I have now left ACTR and arctic chat is next.  Those groups suck balls and there's too many idiots.  Forums are a way better source if you need info or even for having fun or anything.  It's too bad I got banned lol

[Cwhite138]

lol I wish I had more time to read though the comments on arctic insider... that is how you know you missed the mark completely. 

At least Some throw back graphics would have been nice, there is a reason poo always has some sort of old school graphics. they are cool. 

I even find the RR has the wrong green.. maybe its my computer screen..  

[jdsky]

This is the right green, back when the people at cat knew something.....

 

[Bontz]

8 hours ago, Cwhite138 said:

lol I wish I had more time to read though the comments on arctic insider... that is how you know you missed the mark completely. 

At least Some throw back graphics would have been nice, there is a reason poo always has some sort of old school graphics. they are cool. 

I even find the RR has the wrong green.. maybe its my computer screen..  

One of my buddies was talking about that last night (the AI comments section) ... said he never, in a million years, would have thought he'd see so many Cat loyalists throw Cat under the bus.  What's even more concerning is, if the big shots at Cat didn't see this coming ... why the hell are they in the roles they're in at Cat?  Zero passion for the powersports their company represents is pathetic.

That same buddy told me today that our local Cat dealer, which is known to get a bit HOT from time to time, was allegedly on a call with Cat today.  Supposedly this was a call among dealers and some of the executives at Cat/Textron, and asked "What is this 5-year plan?"  And he was told, "Sorry, we can't share that information with you."  Again this is all alleged, but his response (and I can literally hear him saying this) was, "Probably because you don't have a 5-year plan.  You don't even have a 5-minute plan!"

 

As long as it doesn't impact his dealership, I hope it's true!  This guy is a fantastic dealer and bleeds green ... pissing him off and his customers impacts him at a whole different level than us guys busting balls on the web.  It's his livelihood.

[Cwhite138]

13 minutes ago, Bontz said:

 why the hell are they in the roles they're in at Cat?  Zero passion for the powersports their company represents is pathetic.

pathetic is right. 

You know the 5 year plan was an afterthought because they were the only mfg to offer nothing interesting this year. 
 

Some great idea in a board meeting. 

[Palu49]

The problem is that all the guys that had passion for the brand ran it into the ground. Guys like Troy Halvorson and Brian Dick should be making the important product affecting decisions at Cat (with minimal textron oversite just to stop them before they completely fuck up) I won’t buy another procross or at least this “generation” procross. I buy new every 2 years generally. It’s not that I don’t like the sleds and they don’t fit me but if I’m gonna spend another $15k in 2024 it better be different than my last 3 sleds.

[Crnr2Crnr]

23 hours ago, mnstang said:

What is ridiculous is most of the guys bitching wouldn't be buyers anyway.  They're like cyber buyers.  Just want some excitement in their life or something.  I'd like to hear when these guys have last bought a new sled from any manufacturer.

But they're the loudest voices on the internet.  Because that's how the internet works.  I have now left ACTR and arctic chat is next.  Those groups suck balls and there's too many idiots.  Forums are a way better source if you need info or even for having fun or anything.  It's too bad I got banned lol

if we can build the brand forums here, and get contributors to start posting... this place could work.  irl to Cat there's a bunch of us with Sno Pro knowledge, and you're now the resident Prowler guru.  Tommy is here for the Turbo-tards... but, some people just know HCS and will stick with that.

13 hours ago, Bontz said:

One of my buddies was talking about that last night (the AI comments section) ... said he never, in a million years, would have thought he'd see so many Cat loyalists throw Cat under the bus.  What's even more concerning is, if the big shots at Cat didn't see this coming ... why the hell are they in the roles they're in at Cat?  Zero passion for the powersports their company represents is pathetic.

That same buddy told me today that our local Cat dealer, which is known to get a bit HOT from time to time, was allegedly on a call with Cat today.  Supposedly this was a call among dealers and some of the executives at Cat/Textron, and asked "What is this 5-year plan?"  And he was told, "Sorry, we can't share that information with you."  Again this is all alleged, but his response (and I can literally hear him saying this) was, "Probably because you don't have a 5-year plan.  You don't even have a 5-minute plan!"

 

As long as it doesn't impact his dealership, I hope it's true!  This guy is a fantastic dealer and bleeds green ... pissing him off and his customers impacts him at a whole different level than us guys busting balls on the web.  It's his livelihood.

can't imagine being a dealer and only having Cat as your sole sled/atv/utv/sxs brand right now - where's Krom?  

12 hours ago, Palu49 said:

The problem is that all the guys that had passion for the brand ran it into the ground. Guys like Troy Halvorson and Brian Dick should be making the important product affecting decisions at Cat (with minimal textron oversite just to stop them before they completely fuck up) I won’t buy another procross or at least this “generation” procross. I buy new every 2 years generally. It’s not that I don’t like the sleds and they don’t fit me but if I’m gonna spend another $15k in 2024 it better be different than my last 3 sleds.

imo their five year plan is to retire or gtfo before the ship sinks, and the band is warming up on the top deck

[Doug]

You guys seem to forget the big reveal with the Blast and how that was going to take the industry by storm and gain market share.  Maybe add power steering to the blast?

[Deephaven]

Part of the 5 year plan is to cut the Blast motor in half and sell it as their budget kids sled.

[Zambroski]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:39 AM, Palu49 said:

Well after checking prices on a couple different configurations of XCR I called my cat dealer and gave him my card number for a new RR

This couldn’t be considered “smart” really.  A normal motor sports enthusiast would come to this conclusion and buy the RR over the other two.

1 hour ago, Doug said:

You guys seem to forget the big reveal with the Blast and how that was going to take the industry by storm and gain market share.  Maybe add power steering to the blast?

The Blast was a huge mistake.

[jdsky]

It was a short season but based on the fact that we did not see a single blast anywhere I would also suspect it was a huge bust.  More new Poo's on the trail then anything else this season.

[cats19]

Could be more disappointment in Cat from loyalists like myself, than anytime I can remember.  And let's not forget that even if some of those complaining would not buy a 2024 - they may eventually buy a new sled  and if they aren't excited about anything coming down the pike as a used sled they may jump ship.  It's pretty hard watching Textron f*k things up like this.  When they first bought Cat they talked about taking over Polaris in the UTV market - I heard it first hand at Hay Days.  Textron was so smart too that they thought their name should be on the machines....but a year or two later...they learned the hard way.  And since then it seems like they gave up pushing dirt products hard and are settling to just be a Yamaha of the sled market.  And that is bullshit imo.  

Edited March 8, 2021 by cats19

[Crnr2Crnr]

12 hours ago, Deephaven said:

Part of the 5 year plan is to cut the Blast motor in half and sell it as their budget kids sled.

not until they cut the 600 in half and launch the new line of 300's - rumor has it they'll be called rabble rousers.

hopefully they'll hire some brilliant marketing firm from Jamaica to handle that launch.
 

12 hours ago, Zambroski said:

The Blast was a huge mistake.

and what did Catextron do for 2022 - doubled down and launched two new models of it.

yes - they are morons by all definitions 

4 hours ago, cats19 said:

Could be more disappointment in Cat from loyalists like myself, than anytime I can remember.  And let's not forget that even if some of those complaining would not buy a 2024 - they may eventually buy a new sled  and if they aren't excited about anything coming down the pike as a used sled they may jump ship.  It's pretty hard watching Textron f*k things up like this.  When they first bought Cat they talked about taking over Polaris in the UTV market - I heard it first hand at Hay Days.  Textron was so smart too that they thought their name should be on the machines....but a year or two later...they learned the hard way.  And since then it seems like they gave up pushing dirt products hard and are settling to just be a Yamaha of the sled market.  And that is bullshit imo.  

at work today there was a group of us looking at SXS's because one of the guys is replacing his - I don't know much about ATV's/UTV's/SXS's and already have disdain for them but when looking at 'performance models' from Cat, Polaris, Honda & Yamaha - the Cat SXS looked like the Procross - nothing there.  Textron is not investing in the future of their product lines at the moment, and imo are milking every last penny out of the name before they dump it, close it or sell it off.   they have a long history of doing this... look at Dixie Chopper and Jacobsen as two recent examples.  their loyalty is not to you, the snowmobile connoisseur - it's to a bottom line ($) that has nothing to do with 'changing the game'.  until they prove me and others that know how Textron really works WRONG, I will stand by my assertion.

for pennies on the dollar, and little to no effort they could have made the same 2022 sleds they've been making for a few years already better and more palatable to the Cat faithful.  so much so that I'll re-post my comments from Arctic Insider here.  there was 226 comments on that AI thread this morning... most of which were pretty negative.  for a change of pace, I was 'nice' to the idiots at Textron... to 'help'.  


 

Edited March 9, 2021 by Crnr2Crnr

[Deephaven]

4 hours ago, cats19 said:

 And let's not forget that even if some of those complaining would not buy a 2024 - they may eventually buy a new sled  and if they aren't excited about anything coming down the pike as a used sled they may jump ship. 

Exactly.  I've never bought new, keep wanting to but the price/value isn't right for me.  That being said, if I don't like it new I surely won't consider it used.