Phazer appealing to a younger crowd

By some estimates, the average age of pre-season Yamaha Phazer buyers is nearly 20 years younger than other Yamaha snowmobile purchasers. Average age of a snowmobiler is mid-40s. Early season Phazer buyers are typically mid-20s.

Last time there were issues with fuel prices, snowmobile inventory backlog and economic concerns, Yamaha hit the market with a lightweight, nifty styled, extremely competitively priced snowmobile. That was about 1983 and the sled was the first Phazer. Is history repeating itself? Has Yamaha timed the newest Phazer to launch at precisely the right moment?

There have been some small but significant quality updates to the production Phazers that were missing on the pre-production and prototypes that I rode earlier this year in Michigan. The production versions are much nicer and much more rider-friendly than the earliest test models.

Also, according to some multi-line snowmobile dealers, there is concern at Cat that Yamaha four-strokes are generating much bigger sales and interest than Cat and the other factories will acknowledge publicly. It seems that representatives from Cat’s future models team was chatting with some big dealers about this concern, and that Cat’s nicely styled and well put-together Jaguar 4-stroker is quite a bit more expensive than its competition. Suzuki may be asked to find ways to help reduce costs so the new Cats can sell more competitively with Yamaha’s Vector series. Right now the big 4stroke Cat’s pricing is closer to the high performance Apex than it is to the 120 horsepower Vector.