Snowmobile Sales Were Fine Last Year. But There's a Big Problem Coming

Why are you so old?

Photo by: Arctic Cat

By: Jonathon Klein

Jul 10, at 8:56am ET

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Good news, everyone! No, the Dacia Sandero isn't coming to the United States. Rather, snowmobile sales have stabilized after a few years of declines. That's the headline from the 58th International Snowmobile Congress that occurred last month, which is cause for celebration. Sort of.

According to the Congress, both North American and Canadian sales plateaued last season, with some gains here and there, after pandemic spending cratered a few years back. We're sort of back to normalcy, as folks rein everything back in. Europe, however, saw slight decreases, though the small gains seen elsewhere helped level-set the industry as a whole.

However, there's a massive looming problem that the Congress identified, and it's a problem that countless other sectors are grappling with, too. The main buyers of these machines? Yeah, they're ancient, and growing more so each day. That, however, is just a symptom of the overall economy, and if you can't solve for economic prosperity, younger demographics aren't going to enjoy the same "fun" vehicles our parents and grandparents did.

See, none of us can afford these machines.

According to the International Snowmobile Congress's rider report, the average age of a snowmobiler is...53 years old. And they've been riding for over 31 years. So not only are they edging closer to the end of their likely riding career, the average snowmobiler has been doing it for a long, long time. That means that new rider acquisition is just not happening. They're also 86/14 male to female, which tells me not only is there a generational gap, there's also a gender gap, too.

But all of this is a symptom of the larger problem facing almost every person in the world right now, in that no one has any damn money.

If we cast our gaze toward the past, not only were machines cheaper, but folks had more spending power. Inflation has gone through the roof, causing basic necessities to skyrocket in price. Housing was once something a family could afford on a single income, as were two kids and a dog, with a set of nice cars, and money left over for all the fun toys we all still want. But in that interim, wages have remained stagnant, if not fallen, compared to prior generations.

Recently, I felt like I needed some masochism in my life, and I looked at what my dad was making in his prime years, adjusted for inflation. I then compared it to what I'm making now, and adjusted it to his prime years, too

I went and cried in the shower right after.

But that's the reality of most folks today, which has caused not just the snowmobiling industry to rise in age, but all hobbies and passions to as well. Motorcycles are more expensive. ATVs and UTVs are more expensive. Hunting and fishing are more expensive. So much so, only the generations that benefited from a good economy can even participate these days. That is, unless you saddle yourself with so much debt, you'd never recover from it if one thing were to go wrong. Basically, the economy has left most people behind, while boomers and Gen-X reaped, and continue to reap, the rewards.

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That, however, is all coming to a head, and the industry is fast approaching an inflection point. You see this most notably in Harley-Davidson, which hasn't yet been able to solve its demographic crisis. The average age of a Harley rider is now something like 60 years old, as who can afford a $40,000 bagger that sits most days of the week? Not anyone born after 1985, that's who. Which is why the company has invested in an entry-level motorcycle.

Yet, I'm not sure what the powersports industry can even do. Cheaper machines will help stop the bleeding, sure, but when people are just struggling to make ends meet, they're going to cut out the non-necessities first. And quote-unquote expensive frivolous spending, as in playthings like snowmobiles, will likely be the first to go. Systemic compensation and wage reform needs to occur, but that's not something the industry can just magically make appear with the sound of a turbo 2-stroke.