Originally Posted by BrianL99
(Post 2305202)
If you were in the Power Sports business, you should know the market fairly well. Yamaha makes a nearly bullet-proof product. Much better than Kawasaki or Suzuki, but marginally behind Honda.
Golf carts began as a typically American product. "Gas Buggies" were virtually unknown in the rest of the world. The Japanese manufacturers jumped into the business and as in the automotive world, they're great "copiers". They typically beat the American manufacturers, with quality and dependability and do it at a lower price.
There in lies the secret; "lower price". Yamaha carts are priced lower than ClubCar. In a vacuum, is ClubCar a "better cart"? I guess it depends. Both manufacturer's carts are reasonably bullet-proof. Personally, I think the ClubCar has higher quality appointments and is more comfortable ... that doesn't necessarily make it better.
TV is swarming with Yamaha carts, because that's the manufacturer the Developer decided would make him more money. Smart business decision. Yamaha gave him incentives based on huge, anticipated volume. He was able to sell zillions of golf carts that were at a minimum, 95% as good as a ClubCar and sell them at 85% of ClubCar prices.
I could go back and look at earlier posts, but I think what I said was, ClubCar is the choice for most Private Country Clubs in the USA and Yamaha is the economy choice. EZGo (or Yamaha) being the choice for public golf courses.
The reason ClubCar is typically the choice for higher end private clubs, is that it performs as well as Yamaha, but has higher "prestige value" and ClubCar's support network is better.
All that said, it seems Yamaha is losing its grip on the TV market, as the original poster noted. Sales in TV are moving closer to the national norm and electric carts are gaining market share. Yamaha's only Electric/Lithium product, comes with a 105 Amp battery, which doesn't give sufficient range for most folks traveling around TV.
It seems that the Big 3 are lagging behind the interlopers like Star & Evolution, when it comes to Lithium EV's.
I don't have a clue why, but it's obvious they are. When I came to TV, I started out looking at ClubCar & Yamaha, but neither of them offered Lithium technology. I bought a Star Sirius and hardly ever saw any others around TV. Now I see gobs of them. I don't think the overall quality of Star or Evolution is anywhere close to Yamaha or ClubCar, but they're pretty much the only game in town, if you want Lithium.
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