BY THE BOOK J.D. Power Q4 Powersports Market Overview

While the automotive sector closed 2022 cautiously optimistic, powersports pricing dipped in Q4. “With the improving inventory levels, December total sales volume will be up from a year ago, however there are still not enough vehicles produced to meet demand,” reports Thomas King, president of J.D. Power’s Data & Analytics Division. “Transaction prices will hit a record high for the month even with shoppers becoming a bit more sensitive to retailer mark-up addendums over MSRP. The reduction in mark-ups is pushing dealer profits off their record high levels, however, per-unit profitably is still nearly double pre-pandemic levels.”

Compared to the car guys, pre-owned powersports prices had already declined dramatically heading into Q4. While still strong from a historical perspective, all segments are now negative year-over-year. Inventory levels are filling and demand is slowing for new units. This is driving preowned values down from the COVID-created highs.

In the motorcycle segment, values for the most recent 10 model years of cruisers averaged 3.0% lower in the September-October period compared to year-prior. However, year-to-date, this segment was still 6.0% higher in 2022 compared to 2021. Simultaneously sportbikes averaged 5.6% lower in September-October 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. Value still remains 3.8% higher year-to-date.

In the side-by-side segment, values for the most recent 10 model years of utilities averaged 2.7% lower in the September-October period compared to year-prior. This category was still 7.4% higher in the first 10 months of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. Sport sideby-sides averaged 1.2% lower in the September-October periods, but 12.0% higher year-to- date.

Higher interest rates, a possible return to seasonal demand trends, and increased spending on other forms of entertainment and travel are likely factors behind the recent depreciation. Supply of new side-by-sides and motorcycles is not yet back to normal, which will help keep depreciation in check coming into the spring selling season.

J.D. Power Specialty Valuation Services (formerly NADAguides) is a leading provider of specialty vehicle valuation products and services to businesses. The team collects and analyzes tens of thousands of wholesale and retail transactions per month, and delivers a range of guidebooks, web service data, analysis and digital data solutions. J.D. Power is a global leader in consumer insights, advisory services and data and analytics. A pioneer in the use of big data, artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic modeling capabilities to understand consumer behavior, J.D. Power has been delivering incisive industry intelligence on customer interactions with brands and products for more than 50 years. The world’s leading businesses across major industries rely on J.D. Power to guide their customer-facing strategies.