Speed UTV

NIKAL said:
I still believe the design is the best out there. The car has its flaws no doubt. Most were because they chose to not spend the time & money to properly develop it and mounting pressure to get to market caused the majority of design issues. I’m still learning and hearing new stories from people involved and how things were skipped or mislead during the R&D phase.

The next big issue is the agreement with Hisun. Once they become the contract supplier and they own all the tooling and control the sub contract suppliers. Speed was left just being a finish product buyer of their product and not having control or approval of the suppliers. Speed will forever be chasing quality issues as Hisun’s goal is profit over Speed’s quality. Speed needed full time boots on the ground in Asia confirming materials, parts etc.. meet the design specs required.

The last and biggest issue and failure is the structure of Speed from the U.S side. They never built the proper foundation to run a true and proper mass production automotive brand company. Speed has the staff of a small independent Powersport dealership. Not a brand that is controlling and monitoring all facets of the business from purchasing materials to after customer sales.

Honestly the car itself is the least of the issues they have. Most could be fixed with better quality parts & control, and some minor design changes. But without the foundation of the brand it does not matter.
Click to expand...
Lots of problems are the direct result of faulty design: cooling, brakes, belt-life, engine failures. Most of this can be traced to scope creep and lack of awareness of design goals (gigantic curb weight bloat from original goal contributing to all of the above).

The original goal and concept were good. Not a game-changer, but solid ideas. What resulted after that was shit. Robby was too interested in beating everyone and “winning” rather than designing a solid car that could do what he originally wanted it to do.

Hisun being involved and Chinesiuming everything was discussed too. Supplier first runs always look great. China gonna China, beware of any deal you have there. No one should be surprised that happened.

Again, the signs were there early. Some chose to ignore it and listen to the salesman.

1772681542752.jpeg
 
Last edited:
So is speed still open?

Are these still being sold?

Has everyone who paid for a car been delivered their cars?
 
There's a lot of Speed cars in the parking lot at the Anaheim location off the 91. Most of them you can't see from the freeway. With so many on the lot you would think everyone that pre-ordered one would have it by now?
 
Speed cars are way too heavy especially with such a light duty engine and rubber bank. The clutches have been problematic. TAPP clutches got a cease and desist against Speed and now KWI is supposedly the new clutch company. Problem is with KWI they take their design and have tbd Chinese remake it. Doesn’t matter what people do to Speed it will fail. Axles are junk, cars to heavy, build in China, no proper testing. Just add another failure to RG
 
Not happy with Speed. Call Arctic Cat and tell them you want them to continue with the Wildcat XX platform, and would like to see a refreshed Gen 2 Wildcat XX that’s a little wider, longer, more power and offered in a 2 & 4 seat configuration.

This way you get the good suspension design that the current XX & Speed UTV has, but with better reliability, and hopefully dealer support once Arctic Cat gets its dealer network back up & running.

Arctic Cat
800-279-2281
 
Speed found its "Niche" market, seems to work good enough for that crowd that wants what they offer. The money spent afterwards, seems to be a non-issue much like anyone who races in the desert.

How long can it go on as a business is the question now. How big can Speed remain if they don't get more sales, will they downsize at any time?
 
NIKAL said:
Not happy with Speed. Call Arctic Cat and tell them you want them to continue with the Wildcat XX platform, and would like to see a refreshed Gen 2 Wildcat XX that’s a little wider, longer, more power and offered in a 2 & 4 seat configuration.

This way you get the good suspension design that the current XX & Speed UTV has, but with better reliability, and hopefully dealer support once Arctic Cat gets its dealer network back up & running.

Arctic Cat
800-279-2281
Click to expand...
Ask for Brad Darling ;)
 
NIKAL said:
Not happy with Speed. Call Arctic Cat and tell them you want them to continue with the Wildcat XX platform, and would like to see a refreshed Gen 2 Wildcat XX that’s a little wider, longer, more power and offered in a 2 & 4 seat configuration.

This way you get the good suspension design that the current XX & Speed UTV has, but with better reliability, and hopefully dealer support once Arctic Cat gets its dealer network back up & running.

Arctic Cat
800-279-2281
Click to expand...
It would be nice to see a new version of the Wildcat XX. It would be cool if they dropped not only a four seater but a turbo model with the Yamaha motor.
 
Sand Shark said:
It would be nice to see a new version of the Wildcat XX. It would be cool if they dropped not only a four seater but a turbo model with the Yamaha motor.
Click to expand...
those XX cars used are getting really cheap, repowering one could make a nice solid desert car.
 
I just hope the new owners of Arctic Cat understand what they have in the XX platform and its untapped potential. Theres more than just a sport machine.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to do what is called the Wicked Wildcat Weekend. It’s a group ride for Wildcat XX owners. This one was held at the Avi outside of Laughlin. This was probably the best organized and set up ride event I’ve seen. I was very impressed. I can share more if everyone's interested? The XX cars are very good, considering it’s a 8 year old model car that’s had very little in updates or refreshes. I learned some more about the current ownership/management at Arctic Cat and I have reached out to them, but unfortunately nothing of yet has come from it. Without saying to much, I have some designs, and ways around some patents, I’d be willing to give AC, if they were going to continue on the XX platform or a refresh Gen 2.

My thoughts are, just like the two previous owners & management, BTW this new one was part of it prior to Textron. I think AC lives in a northern upper mid west bubble and they don’t understand the SXS market outside of Minnesota. They are very focused on building back the Snowmobile business, as that’s the brands roots, but it’s also only 120 day market. Read the history of Polaris, Arctic Cat and BRP and you quickly learn how just being a snowmobile company is not enough to survive. Arctic Cat has failed 4-5 times by doing the same thing over & over. No matter how you try to restructure or design the company it’s not sustainable just building Sleds. I really hope this new team has figured this out. I suspect we will know in a year or two.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top