Yamaha threatens to cancel ATV franchises if dealers sell CF MOTO quad bikes

Japanese manufacturing giant Yamaha is threatening to cancel dealers’ ATV franchises for an extraordinary reason — if they continue to sell one particular rival brand of quad bikes. Here is what else we know.

No go: Yamaha has warned dealers they risk losing their franchise if they sell CF Moto quad bikes fitted with roll bars. Picture: Chloe Smith

JAPANESE motorcycle manufacturing giant Yamaha has threatened to cancel dealers’ franchises if they sell CF MOTO quad bikes fitted with operator protection devices, or roll bars.

Dealers have been told they are welcome to consider selling other brands, but not CF MOTO, which to date is the only company selling quad bikes in Australia already fitted with operator protection devices.

One dealer said Yamaha had made the threat to him and several others recently, warning it would not back down on its position of opposing OPD-fitted CF MOTO quad bikes and they risked losing their franchise if they sold them.

However Yamaha franchising manager Troy Bryant said the company’s opposition to CF MOTO was long standing and had “nothing to do with OPDs”.

Yamaha’s bid to block dealers selling OPD-fitted CF MOTO quad bikes, while allowing them to sell other brands, has been referred to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Yamaha’s threat comes as US giant Polaris issued a bulletin warning its dealers not to take on any new quad bike brands, forcing them to focus instead on the company’s push to sell side-by-side vehicles.

“Side x Side vehicles are similar to quad bikes and accordingly, before a dealer can take on a franchise to sell any new quad bikes, it needs to obtain Polaris’ written consent (per clause 14.1 of the dealer agreement),” the bulletin states.

“Whilst Polaris will properly consider any request from dealers to sell new quad bikes, our general view is that offering quad bikes for sale is likely to compromise a dealer’s ability to grow and capitalise on the opportunities presented by our Side x Side range.

“The more we can both do, as a brand and a dealer network, to transition customers off quad bikes and on to Side x Sides even faster, the more it plays to our competitive advantage whilst providing customers with legitimate, engineered safety technology rather than fitting ridiculous contraptions (OPDs) with no data or research to support any safety efficacy to the back of a quad bike.”

This is despite the US Government’s Consumer Product Safety Commission releasing research showing Australian and New Zealand-made quad-bike roll bars save lives and curb injuries.

Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Can Am and Polaris have all announced they will be exiting the quad bike market before new national safety standards come into effect on October 11 next year, which demand all bikes are fitted with OPDs.

One dealer said he was left with nowhere to go, given Yamaha would not allow him to sell OPD-fitted CF Moto quad bikes, but was then threatening to pull out of Australia next October.

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