Black Book is beginning to see the first signs of dealers stocking up on inventory for the coming spring selling season, reflected in gains for the cruisers and street bikes. This time of year generally marks the transition at the wholesale level from the slow winter market to the much more active spring selling season. Keep an eye out for more and larger gains for most units over the next few months.
“Now that we are firmly in the New Year, powersports pricing has started to tick up in several markets, but remains a bit sluggish for others. The primary gainers are the road-going segments, while the off-road vehicles, including ATVs and utility vehicles, are mostly down,” said Scott Yarbrough, senior analyst of motorcycle and powersports at Black Book.
The biggest increase this month is the snowmobile segment, up 2.5%, which should not be surprising considering the time of year. After that comes the cruisers, up 1.1%. The street bike segment follows closely at 1%, along with the scooters, up 0.4%.
The domestic V-twins are lagging a little behind their metric counterparts this month, with an average increase of 0.6% versus 1.5%. Within that segment, the larger touring bikes have performed a bit better than their smaller stablemates, something we have not seen in quite a while. The overall amounts were not huge, but it is still interesting and worth keeping an eye on in the future.
The off-road segments have not fared as well overall. The ATVs are the biggest decliners, dropping 2%. The utility vehicles are down a bit less with a drop of 1%, while the off-road motorcycles are actually up about a half a percent.
Link: Black Book
