How many Super Tenere's sold in US?

[fredz43]

I just had a conversation with a Honda rep that works in their HQ in CA. I have known this person for several years and have had the opinion that he is honest and is in the know. However, tonight when I spoke to him as to why American Honda did not bring the Crosstourer 1200 adventure bike to the US, he said that they would like to, but they watched the sales of the Super Tenere and it has been a FLOP! What do you mean, I ask and he tells me that Yamaha brought in 1500 and only sold 500 and the rest are gathering dust inthe warehouse. I tell him that he is full of it and he says they got those figures from the MIC's data on new bike registrations. I told him that somebody's figures are out of whack.

Now, I don't know how many S10 owning members we have on this forum, but I know that it is more than 500.

Our little dealership sold 10 and just ordered 2 more.

So, how many Super Tenere owners do we have just on this forum? Also for the record, I know of 4 owners in my area that have them and are not on this forum.

 

[stevepsd]

I think that Honda is using this as a excuse for 'missing-the-boat' on the ADV market in the US. If the ST was such a flop, why did they eliminate the PDP so quickly and make it a normal stock item? After all, how many years was the FJR only on PDP?

 

[mobyfubar]

Why would you bring in 3X the number of bikes you needed if you did a PDP?

 

[fredz43]

Why would you bring in 3X the number of bikes you needed if you did a PDP?

I agree, Bryan. They sold all the PDP bikes and then brought in at least one more shipment.

Have a talk with our Honda rep this week if you get a chance. I think he didn't like it because I told him that I thought the "sneak preview" Honda he brought here wouldn't sell.

 

[MotorcopBBQ]

Jealousy is a stinky colonel

 

[emgee]

No clue if VIN numbers correspond to number of units imported, but my VIN ends in 002171. It was ordered from Yamaha in mid May and delivered to my dealer in Washington State from the Atlanta warehouse on May 25th.

Does this indicate that there were at least 2,171 units imported to the U.S.? Might that be North America? Do they send them out in numerical order?

Sounds like the "data" might be a bit old.


Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2

 

[tomatocity]

Someone on this forum was collecting all the information for every Super Tenere in North America (California, 49 states, Canada).

 

[Dirt_Dad]

I have my doubts about the accuracy. Two weeks ago I was at Romney Cycle in WV talking to the General Manager about this topic. Romney is a huge dealership that has sold over 20 Teneres. I asked him if Yamaha was happy with the overall sales numbers of the bike. He did not profess to have some special knowledge on the question, but did say his impression from his contacts at Yamaha were all positive. Based on what he has seen with the S10 Romney has taken a big interest in Adventure bikes and gear and is looking to do more to support our market.

That doesn't sound like a "flop" to me.

 

[Buckeye56]

Wasn't the number of bikes recalled for the o-ring replacement in the 1,400's? Last time I check where I bought mine (August12, 2012) they had sold 5. Sounds a little like sour grapes. Now it cauldron also be that you are a along time Honda owner as am I and they are miffed that we defected. Either way if they are concerned maybe they should get off their duffs and start be more attentive to what folks want. No disrespect, but I really don't get the VFR12, I found very uncomfortable and Honda says it is a sport-tourer which to me says ergos should be fairly important. Bottom liners Honda isn't building what I wanted so I looked elsewhere.

 

[colorider]

We need one of those little emoticon for when someone is blowing smoke!

::024::

 

[coastie]

We all got one and thats all that matters.

 

[creggur]

Mine is number 717 if that number means anything at all...

I know of one local dealership that has sold at least 5 - and the other which is in a more rural area has sold 2. I personally know of 2 in the Jax area (Coastie and I) have the blue and I regularly see a black one running around.

That 500 number just doesn't seem possible.

 

[stevepsd]

My small dealer (Bay Area Yamaha in Coos Bay, GREAT place btw ::008:: ) on the Oregon Coast has sold at least 5 ST's himself. And he sells mainly Quads.

 

[Twisties]

...and if you go to the BMW dealer you can find how horribly awful and scary our brakes are.

 

[Tremor38]

I think that Honda is using this as a excuse for 'missing-the-boat' on the ADV market in the US. If the ST was such a flop, why did they eliminate the PDP so quickly and make it a normal stock item? After all, how many years was the FJR only on PDP?

Not so fast. The S10 is not showing up among the 2013 model overview for Yamaha USA. Perhaps the S10s they are selling now are actually excess. Regardless of how many were sold, I guess YAMAHA must also see the stateside S10 sales figures as a 'flop.' That's too bad. Perhaps if YAMAHA wouldn't have done such a weak stateside promotion they might have done much better.

 

[fredz43]

Over here Yamaha has introduced very few 2013 models, mostly dirt bikes. The normal time for their new model intros is in the fall of the year, so we shall see when they introduce them. Most of the models that our dealership sell have had no update info from Yamaha.

Buckeye56, I believe that you may be correct about their resentment of so many of us Honda loyalists "defecting". I was merely trying to tell him my opinion that the CB1100 he has on display as a possible import would not sell nearly as well as their adventure bike would, based on the fact that this segment is the fastest growing one.

The number of units recalled was somewhere in the 1100 range, if I recall correctly. I know that our dealer ordered 5 more post PDP units after selling 5 PDP units and those 5 extra were not included in the recall number. Those 5 also sold and this is a dealership that typically specializes in Gold Wings and cruisers. I know our district Yamaha sales rep very well and his feedback is that Yamaha USA is very happy with the sales of this bike.

This may all be total BS on their part as a an excuse as to why they are not looking at importing the Crosstourer, or in fairness to this rep, perhaps their so called data from the MIC is incredibly out of date.

 

[DuMar]

No clue if VIN numbers correspond to number of units imported, but my VIN ends in 002171. It was ordered from Yamaha in mid May and delivered to my dealer in Washington State from the Atlanta warehouse on May 25th.

Does this indicate that there were at least 2,171 units imported to the U.S.? Might that be North America? Do they send them out in numerical order?

Sounds like the "data" might be a bit old.


Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk 2

I believe the VIN indicates the total number of units produced for that model year.

Mike

 

[markjenn]

I don't have hard data, but 1200-1500 of the original PDP production run sounds about right and we have had some new bikes with non-summer-2011 build dates, so Yamaha has done at least one subsequent production run. I suspect around 2K have been built to date for the US market.

My take is that this is not a failure from Yamaha's perspective, but it is not a big hit either. The Honda guy has his numbers wrong, but stuff can get lost in translation - perhaps this is his data on "projected current yearly sales" and it wouldn't surprise me if Yamaha will only sell 500 this year.

Honda has always done poorly selling to the smaller niches and they seem to have higher thresholds before they're interested in importing a machine. That being said, you shake your head how they can reject selling bikes like the CrossTourer and instead bring in bikes like the NT700V (i.e., the Deauville) and DN-01. And I bet the S10, despite being in a smaller market segment, is outselling the VFR1200F these days. I have no doubt whatsoever that Honda would sell more CrossTourers than the poorly-positioned and widely-panned VFR.

I've never really forgiven Honda for not importing the very cool CB1100F.

I have a poor opinion of Honda these days (mainly because I have three classic Hondas in my garage that represent what Honda USED to be), but I do give them credit when credit is due.... I think the new CB250R and NT700X are pretty cool bikes, well-priced, and I like that Honda seems to be addressing the smaller displacement categories with new street machines, a market that Yamaha is very deficient in.

- Mark

 

[Dirt_Dad]

... so Yamaha has done at least one subsequent production run.

The one I bought in February 2012 had a January 2012 build date on the data plate.

 

[stevepsd]

I believe the VIN indicates the total number of units produced for that model year.

Mike

True, for each specific model. In the US there are two distinct models: a 49 state version and a California specific model. The 'sequence number' of the VIN (the last 6 digits) can and are duplicated between the 2 US models.

I don't know how many ST's were made for the US for Model Year 2012, but the fuel-pump o-ring recall covered California VINs: 000007-0000106 (100 California specific units) and 49-state VINs: 000002 - 0000971 (970 49-state units), so that's 1,070 units right there, which might or might not be all of the first US PDP production lot.