As we completed the market study during October the powersports market is cooling down just like the weather in most parts of the country. Just about all of the segments we cover are declining this month, even a few of those which are normally showing a little positive strength at this time of year. Much like the last few months, activity and consignment at the auctions is slowing down with each passing week, bringing with it lower values and increasing numbers of “if” bids and unsold units.
Leading the declines this month are the off-road bikes, down 3.4 percent. The metric cruisers and street bikes are not far behind dropping 2.8 and 2.2 percent respectively. The domestic cruisers continue their recent trend of outperforming the metric models, seeing declines that are about half a point less than the overall cruiser segment again this month.
Scooters are off by 2.7 percent, with the dual sports being the strongest performers among the two wheeled motorcycle segments with a drop of a flat 2.0 percent.
Two segments that are normally showing increasing values this time of year, the ATVs and utility vehicles, are also down again this month. The drops are not as great as we saw in September, just 1.1 percent for the ATVs, and only .9 percent for the utility vehicles during October.
Snowmobiles are also underperforming this month, as they are once again only up .4 percent. One blast of winter weather, and we would not be surprised to see snowmobiles post impressive gains in the coming months.
Our final two segments of the powersports market, the personal watercraft and jet boats, have both seen rather large drops of 4.2 and 4.3 percent respectively, which is to be expected at this time of year.
With this type of performance during October it will be imperative to be on the lanes and the auction airwaves of the motorcycles and powersports units to be able to report the actual market movement for November.
