Justifying a New Sled Purchase

[Puba]

I think everyone has mostly covered what I was going to say. I think that owning your own has it's perks
1. You're paying towards something - not just being able to ride, you come out with something tangible at the end.
2. It's (in theory) always ready to go when you want to or need to use it.
3. You get to pick and choose what goes on, or off it, parts/decals/accessories wise.
4. Insurance is your friend in the event of a collision. If you had to pay cash to repair a rental, you're way in the ditch.
5. It's yours. You get to polish it and drool on it whenever you want!
6. You know what it's been through and where it's been. That is invaluable. IMO

This is one of the smartest ladies around, listen to what she is saying!

 

[Puba]

So what your saying is a sled is the complete opposite of a woman..... and in the end the sled is cheaper.....

Can't get nothin past you

 

[AreWeThereYet]

I bought my new 2015 in Feb and justified it after the purchase. If you just sit around thinking about you will will be side lined while everyone else is riding. And if I had to justify everything I bought I would have nothing

The only thing that is good about renting is try before you buy so you can find what machine you are comfortable with,.. and even cheaper having friends with sleds you can try...

 

[mathrulz]

Thanks for all the insight on this. Pride of ownership is definitely valuable, but I'm just not sure it's quite that valuable for myself anyway. I think I'll keep my 2011 for the fields and trails around home, and give the rental market a go in the hills, at least for next season.

 

[SavageCanuck]

Most have covered the main issues. Renting would be too stressful worry about damaging someone else s sled.It's bad enough when I get a demo for the day, I find myself holding back.I have no regrets buying a 15 RMK 163le this year even though I only got out twice. Crappy year but just means sled will last another year.It usually costs about 3k a year in depreciation to own a late model sled.BTW I only paid $12,049 not 16k

 

[fidorama]

As mentioned the rental company may not even have what your after. especially during the prime time.. I would certainly be looking into and booking ahead if that's what I was doing. I am sure they only have a limited number of machines in any case and at the height of the season may be fairly busy

 

[femme.fatale.]

This is one of the smartest ladies around, listen to what she is saying!

You forgot cute. Dammit Dale, we talked about this. LOL

 

[gdhillon]

Most have covered the main issues. Renting would be too stressful worry about damaging someone else s sled.It's bad enough when I get a demo for the day, I find myself holding back.I have no regrets buying a 15 RMK 163le this year even though I only got out twice. Crappy year but just means sled will last another year.It usually costs about 3k a year in depreciation to own a late model sled.BTW I only paid $12,049 not 16k

Im in the same boat as you savage, I sold my 06 rev this winter (bought used a year ago) and went out and got a leftover 14 pro 800. Logged 80 miles this year, its unfortunate but atleast I have a somewhat new sled for next season

 

[101110101101]

After giving some consideration to a new sled purchase, I'm struggling to see how many are justifying their purchases at the current prices over the past few years... Just thought I'd share my viewpoint here and see what some thoughts are. Obviously everyone has different reasons and uses for their snowmobile, so it's different for everyone, but for those that almost exclusively purchase a mountain sled and use it as such, the cost and wide availability of rental snowmobiles seems more than compelling from a pure numbers standpoint I think:

Average cost of a new, stock, mountain snowmobile (roughly) - $16,000

Average cost to rent the same snowmobile per day (roughly) - $500

Days of renting to equal the cost of ownership - 32

Average miles per day (roughly) - 60 miles

Mileage after 32 days of riding - 1920 miles (about 3000kms)


Are most riders getting significantly more than ~30 solid days on their sleds to justify the large up front payment (or financing)? I'm sure some who ride every day definitely are, but I'd bet there are a lot who are under this. Even if you don't buy a new sled every year, much over 3000kms, even after a few years, and there's usually some repairs and more serious maintenance that one starts to look at (again, not for every sled maybe, but in general).

It is nice to have your own ride to use when and where you want (freedom), for sure, but with renting there's little worry of theft, vandalism, storage, transportation, etc... Riding gear and insurance would mostly apply either way, so really it's just justifying the up front expense versus the ongoing, as needed rental costs in my opinion. I've never rented a sled before myself, but I think I'll be giving a few places a try for next season personally. Perhaps there will be some increased demand in this area and there'll be some custom mod sleds to try out as rentals some places even!

I think you'd also need to figure in potential resale value of an asset you own. Making that ~16k you mention, more like 8 or 10 (depending on how long you keep it and how much you can sell it for). When you rent, you aren't ever getting anything back. It's similar to renting a house vs buying...... in the end, buying leaves you with an asset (hopefully with some value still)

 

[Puba]

You forgot cute. Dammit Dale, we talked about this. LOL

Yeah ok like I need your hubby breathing down my neck for telling everyone how Smokin Hottt you are....

 

[TylerG]

Yeah ok like I need your hubby breathing down my neck for telling everyone how Smokin Hottt you are....

you're way bigger than her hubby, you won't have to worry.

 

[Puba]

you're way bigger than her hubby, you won't have to worry.

Ok then, femme is not just cute she's Smokin hot and posts way better deals than Terry does

 

[femme.fatale.]

Ok then, femme is not just cute she's Smokin hot and posts way better deals than Terry does

LOL Printing this off for the staff room

 

[mathrulz]

I think you'd also need to figure in potential resale value of an asset you own. Making that ~16k you mention, more like 8 or 10 (depending on how long you keep it and how much you can sell it for). When you rent, you aren't ever getting anything back. It's similar to renting a house vs buying...... in the end, buying leaves you with an asset (hopefully with some value still)

True, however, I could save/invest the original 16K up front and would make something around the equivalent of the resale value over a 2 or 3 year period (which for myself is the timeframe I would likely own the sled for if I was to buy). Personally, I could never be one to make payments on toys - just doesn't make sense to me.

With a house, very few people have 500,000 cash to invest, or buy a house with. Real estate also usually goes up in value, but sleds will never go up in value.

 

[Big nasty]

The worse thing in life to do is Die with money in the bank! So I started sledding to make sure this doesnt happen LOL. If you have money and health to sled then why not . One day you might not physically be able to sled and regret not doing it when you were healthy. I like to own my stuff and can do whatever with it when ever I want, Its mine. Save sledding everyone.

 

[X-Treme]

LOL Printing this off for the staff room and to show my husband!

Fixed it for you.

 

[neilsleder]

I think your married and your just looking for good excuses/ reasons why you need to buy that new when you already got a perfectly good one!


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[Modman]

True, however, I could save/invest the original 16K up front and would make something around the equivalent of the resale value over a 2 or 3 year period (which for myself is the timeframe I would likely own the sled for if I was to buy). Personally, I could never be one to make payments on toys - just doesn't make sense to me.

With a house, very few people have 500,000 cash to invest, or buy a house with. Real estate also usually goes up in value, but sleds will never go up in value.

Yes but with both you are putting equity into something, regardless of the increase or decrease in value at the outcome, it still builds "investment" to some degree and will provide a "return", even with sleds if that value is anything higher than 0. With rentals you are building 0 equity, you are paying for use, that's it.

Personally I'm not afraid of renting but I still buy my sleds. I tried before I buyed my last ride... LOL Renting is great for a few reasons - newest rides always, ability to switch between brands, 0 maintenance and hassle. Buying - its yours, don't have to worry about a scratch or 2, etc. The rental market would be even busier but there are a few operators out there that scare the market. The deductibles are huge and as some have mentioned, gotta really do a good walk around. Use the video cam on your cell phone when you take delivery and walk all around and look under the sled etc. Smart phone can be invaluable for this later on.

We rented for one older guy in our group years ago, the rental dude was not crazy about a few of us "young guys" (guaranteed he had a prejudice about us the moment we walked in) when we went to pick up the sled, and sled was fine, the old guy who was riding it babied it all weekend, when we brought it back the rental guy immediately found a broken piece of plastic at the back end, up inside another plastic part. We never thought to even look there during the pre-inspection and we never had anything strapped to the tunnel, so we probably paid for something that was broke already. New plastic was like $90, wonder if it ever got replaced. I've found most places are pretty reasonable though.

 

[Caper11]

Renting sleds is good if it's only once and awhile, same as a appt. When renting your investing money and will not have ANY return. Basically throwing money away.

You finance a sled say for 1-2 years at 200 bucks a month for 6-9% interest (only example numbers) sell The sled and pay off the balance of the loan that ups your credit score so your getting a return on your money even tho the product deprecated over those 1-2 years. BUT that depreciation value only works in your favor if you keep the sled in stock form or return it back to stock. Extremely hard to recover the money invested in mods.

For me I don't like the risk of renting, that one trip renting can cause a possible expensive repair bill right away, if I smash my sled I have the ability to postpone the repair.


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[snopro]

I don't know about anyone else but when I ride someone elses sled or a rental I become more reserved and find I just dont enjoy it as much as my own. To worried about wrecking something I guess?