Dealernews Research By Lenny Sims
BY THE BOOK
NADAguides Market Insights Power The Market Values
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ounterintuitive as it may sound, the powersports market was doing better at the height of the pandemic (through the end of May) than it was doing in December of 2019. Although sportbikes remain soft, other segments are exploding. MIC data through Q2 pegs new unit dirtbike sales being up more than 50% and dual-sports are doing better than 20% than last year. Even scooters are up! In the motorcycle segment, cruisers recovered their steep early spring decline and are now averaging only 1% lower pricing than last year. Sportbikes showed no such recovery and no May-June rebound. However, the amount of traffic views for both sportbikes and cruisers continued to spike through the end of May. Average pricing for both these segments continues to trend ahead of 2019 as well. While not tracked and reported by MIC, side-by-sides lookups are trending even better than street motorcycles. The
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utility segment outperformed May-June 2019 by 2.8% on average, although still slightly behind 2018 levels. The sport UTV segment continues to bring pricing stronger than in the last two years, 4.3% ahead of 2019 and 1.0% ahead of 2018. Since enjoying motorcycles and side-by-sides is a mostly solo endeavor, our industry remains largely unaffected by the need to social distance. Pricing in the most recent period suggests buyers are eager to get back on the roads and trails… and now with a second wave of the pandemic threatening to impact Q3/Q4 these traffic views are a positive harbinger. Most segments of the powersports’ industry rebounded nicely from the early stages of the nationwide shutdown, with all but sportbikes showing a typical seasonal increase in pricing and look-up traffic in all sectors spiking in May. Look for the counterintuitive traffic patterns to continue!
