Yamaha going the way of OMC?

[BoatGuy22]

Hey guys Im a tech at a local dealership here in Wisconsin. We carry Yamaha and have been hearing around the shop recently that Yamaha is in some financial trouble. I guess they also have been canceling some schooling for us techs. We recently started to slim down our Yamaha line in favor of Evinrude and the E-techs so maybe something might be up?

Any other techs or somelse hear anything on this?

 

[roscoe]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Hello there BoatGuy22, welcome to iboats.
Where are you located?



Waiting to hear what others have to say.

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Welcome to iBoats ...... ..... I doubt that yamaha is in any financial trouble ..... their doing pretty well .....

 

[dingbat]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Welcome to iBoats ...... ..... I doubt that yamaha is in any financial trouble ..... their doing pretty well .....

Here is what Yamaha says about outboard sales in it's latest financial report

Outboard demand in the Untied States decreased, due to stagnant demand resulting from crude oil price rises, an economic slowdown and other negative factors”

I wonder if the "other negative factors" come in black and white?

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

maybe the factory is just closing for the xmas season ... .... hahahaha

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

One big difference is that the marine units of OMC were their backbone. Yamaha is huge and their marine units are very minor in comparison to the rest of the company. That's also one thing that helps Mercury survive. Brunswick isn't just marine. Also noteworthy is that Yamaha isn't making Mercury's 4-strokes anymore. That's gotta put a pretty huge dent in production.

Diversification is a huge factor in company longevity. OMC wasn't very diverse. Merc is cutting back, and I would expect all of the other players will as well. But I don't forsee bankruptcy looming for any of them. Especially since most of the R&D for EPA-compliant models is pretty much behind them, at least for now.

Unfortunaltey being a small fish in the corporate pond might mean that certain product lines get canned. Back in the 70s, everyone was making snowmobiles. Now there are just a few manufacturers because they became unprofitable lines draining corporate of profits rather than contributing. A company as huge as Yamaha could conceivably drop the marine unit if it becomes a drain. I don't see that happening in the current market.

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Market share expands and contracts and expands and contracts. They are the largest unit volume producer of outboards worldwide so they feel any downturn in demand fairly quickly. Since they build to order rather than build for inventory, as their orders slow so does their production and operating budget. They are not in any kind of economic bind with their marine division.

 

[rickdb1boat]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Their Marine division is only 18% of their total holdings. They are diverse enough to stand a slow economy for some time. 2004 was not a good year for them, but they have shown growth every other year they were in business. Most improved was the environmental side of the outboard line as far as the US market is concerned...

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

and what funny is look at the international sales for yamaha.
I hope to purchase a new 130 V4 in caracas over christmas and paint it black and apply mercury decals.
yamahas get stolen rapidly there and they leave the mercs alone.
my 175 E-tec so far is sweet, I still love a carbed yamaha. best engines ever built.
cant buy a carbed 130 here in the states anymore .
but I have a buyer for my e-tec in caracas and the carbed 200 yamaha is 8000 with controls,guages and prop so it will work out .
but no I dont see yamaha marine faltering.
in fact the yamaha sterndrive is flourishing, just not in the US.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Unless Wisconsin and Minnesota get more snow than we have in the last quite a few years, Yamaha (and others) may be be looking at sharp declines in snowmobile sales as well. (At least in the southern 2/3 of these two states).

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

if its cold enough to work on snowmobiles I gotta move

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

the no: 1 selling outboard in South Africa is Yamaha ......

 

[Texasmark]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Dee, I knew you would take a whack at that. Was going to respond to get your input (which I already figured what you'd say) and before I got to the end, walla, there you were.

After I misnamed the mfgr of your (one of your) engines as OMC, and you enlightened me, I started looking at all the race boats in all your pics and they all look the same. Looks like everyone runs yammies down there.

Mark

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Rodbolt -- you work on snowmobiles in the summer so you can ride 'em in the winter -- if it ever comes. It's 7 degrees (F) here today with just a dusting of snow. Hardly enough to break out the sled. Could do some water skipping I suppose. If you've not seen that done that's a treat. The trick is to see how far you can go with a snowmobile on open water. Grantsburg, WI has an event every winter dealing with this activity. They have a pontoon boat rigged with a derrick to hoist out the sleds that didn't make it across the rivver. Tie an empty jug on the sled so if it goes down, they simply tie on and up she comes. Pull the plugs, spin it over a few times and away you go. As long as you hit the kill switch before she goes down there is no damage. The record used to be 11 miles (ran out of gas) but I suspect that's much greater now. Who says there is no way to have fun in the cold. d

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Yamaha is number three in the U.S for number of units sold.

 

[deejaycee_2000]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Dee, I knew you would take a whack at that. Was going to respond to get your input (which I already figured what you'd say) and before I got to the end, walla, there you were.

After I misnamed the mfgr of your (one of your) engines as OMC, and you enlightened me, I started looking at all the race boats in all your pics and they all look the same. Looks like everyone runs yammies down there.

Mark

Hahahahaha, yep all of us race with yamaha, there is a couple that use tohatsu, but that is only the newbies and can only run them stock standard ..... but they get around quick ...... yamaha has been the no.1 selling motor in South Africa for the last 25 years, no.2 mariner / mercury, no.3 johnson / evenrude ..... and the rest you hardy ever see around ....

 

[WillyBWright]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

I saw a watercross once. I knew about sleds skimming over open spots before and there's a short spot on our lake where that occurs regularly. But it's close to a bar and I'm not sure if it's alcohol-induced courage, or incoherance. But this watercross I saw had them take off from a beach, straight for1/4 mile, turn the corner at the buoys and come back. I would never have thought it possible. And it was in July!

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

The guy that set the 11 mile record was practicing (during the summer) on a lake I camped on. His buddy came into the bay with his boat and then paralleled the shoreline. When he got to a certain point the guy on the sled took off and hit the water at the same point as the boat. From there the sled simply ran away from the boat. The sled was air cooled however so his runs were once around the bay and then back to shore to let her cool down. The long distance sleds are stripped to bare minimum. Get one porpoising and the ride is over.

 

[BoatGuy22]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

Thanks for the replies. Im going to an Yamaha product update seminar next week so maybe ill hear something about it by then.

In my experience of being around Yamaha's is that their 4-strokes EFI's seem pretty reliable and their 2-strokes seem to have more problems. Ive seen early HPDI throw rods and alot come through the shop with carb problems(2 & 4). Although I usually only see the bad so that may be just a small sample. Im more of a 2-smoke guy myself and have been impressed with E-Tecs.

BoatGuy22

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Yamaha going the way of OMC?

confirms it.
silvertip is a NUT.
7* ?
are yall smoking stuff?
at 7* I am going to sit in the fireplace and not move,unless its for a beer run.
but I saw some of that openwater sled stuff on TV. looks like an absolute blast.
just to cold for me.

but if ya come on down to the jungle with me I can show you how to fish with things that wont mind eating you . however its in the 80's .
but no I dont think Yamaha is going anywhere anytime soon.
other than up.
I hope the E-tec lives up to expectaions and revives the US old OMC plants, the mercs ,in my opinion are all junk, tohatsu/nissans seem to work well as do the suzukis and hondas, try to take one apart after 3 years in saltwater.
but in reality all seem to make a decent product, all have had issues bringing new technology to market.
some brought it to market before it was ready and allowed the consumer to be the test bed.