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Powersports industry hits $38 billion

The U.S. powersports industry continued to grow in 2003, even though sales of PWC, snowmobiles and utility vehicles were relatively flat over the last two years. Only motorcycles and ATVs have shown any measurable increase. According to figures compiled by the Motorcycle Industry Council (MIC), retail sales of new motorcycles in 2003 increased 6.4% to 922,431 units. At the same time, sales of new ATVs grew 3.9% to 799,353 units, the MIC said.

The total retail value of goods and services directly related to these five product categories totaled an estimated $38.3 billion in 2003, up $2.7 billion from the same 12-month period in 2002. All markets include estimates for used machine sales sold through private parties and PG&A from other retail outlets. Motorcycles and ATVs include estimates for offshore imports and motorcycles includes estimates for scooters.

This estimate, prepared by Powersports Business and Power Products Marketing, Minneapolis, Minn., differs from that prepared by the MIC in several key factors.

The MIC includes employee payroll, advertising and promotional expenditures and some miscellaneous taxes and fees in its calculations, which we do not. However, we include an estimate of used motorcycles sold through private parties as well as estimates of PG&A sales from retail outlets that may not meet the MIC’s definition of a “non-franchised” motorcycle outlet.

2003 2002
Motorcycles $25 billion $23 billion
ATVs 7.7 billion 7.1 billion
Snowmobiles* 3 billion 3 billion
PWC 1.5 billion 1.5 billion
Utility Vehicles 1.1 billion 1 billion
 
Total $38.3 billion $35.6 billion
 
*Snowmobiles includes Canada and excludes tourism related sales from hotels and resorts, etc.

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