From the Editor: Power 50 deadline is April 15; set your store apart by applying
The Powersports Business Power 50 application is due April 15, and there are coming in at an above-average rate. That means if you haven’t appointed yourself or someone at your dealership to complete the application, the clock is ticking, so head over to powersportsbusiness.com/power-50 to get started.
It’s the only dealer awards program of its kind that takes the best of the best franchised, pre-owned-only and Harley-Davidson dealerships and celebrates their success, not for just one night, but for an entire calendar year. Take, for example, the latest edition of our sister publication, Rider magazine. As part of the 112-page 500th edition — simply find a copy now if you haven’t already; it’s the best motorcycle media product you will read all year — we placed a full-page ad that lists the 2017 Power 50 dealers, in hopes that the ultra-avid readers of Rider will provide some extra door swings. We’ll do the same in upcoming editions of Thunder Press, another sister publication, this one distributed through Harley-Davidson dealerships. It’s all in an effort to make the retailing experience as pleasant as possible for current and future riders.
And as always, the 2018 Power 50 dealers will be gathering in Las Vegas part of our annual Awards Dinner at AIMExpo on Thursday, Oct. 11. We’re proud to share news that Synchrony Financial and Manheim Specialty Auctions are both returning as sponsors of the 2018 Power 50, and we’ll share more news about those partnerships in the coming months.
An early look at the Roxor
Mahindra Automotive North America invited me up to the launch of its all-new, head-turning, turbo diesel Roxor last month, which you might have uncovered by now based on the traffic to our website, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram offerings. A few weeks prior to the intro, I hopped in the driver’s seat of the Roxor for a quick spin around our office parking lot. Several dealers in the North did the same demo in their own parking lots, and experienced a similar sense of cold right between the eyeballs that needs to be experienced to be known. Simply put, the turbo diesel and manual clutching make for a blast of a drive.
Dealers are coming on board in droves — MANA president and CEO Rick Haas expects 300 will be on board by the end of March. And as you can read about on the cover, some of the early-adopter dealers are thrilled with the potential new and current customers that the Roxor can bring into their stores. Nearly all of them were scheduled to attend the Roxor dealer meeting in San Antonio at the end of March.
Nifty 50 a year-long program
The Nifty 50 team photos are beginning to roll into PSB world headquarters, and we’ll start sharing them with this edition. Dealer Spike’s PR manager Lauren Labunsky filled our request to gather the team and snap a pic with the award. As you can tell, the Nifty 50 has evolved from handing out plaques at Indy to a year-long program meant to bring success to both winner and dealer.
And Chris Juelich, marketing director for our neighbors over at Kolpin, sent in a squad pic thanks to their Nifty-50-winning Switchblade for ATV/UTV and Rhino Grip XLR.
Did you contribute to a 2018 Nifty 50 winner? Well don’t just look at everyone else’s photos! Send an email TODAY to your team to gather on Monday for a photo, and send it to me to see on these pages.
Dave McMahon has been editor in chief of Powersports Business since 2012. Contact him at 763/383-4411 or dmcmahon@powersportsbusiness.com.
