Go Cannondale,

My support for Cannondale is full speed ahead. No pun intended! I have talked to my dealer and they also believe Cannondale is here to stay. My support for them is here as I still havn't riden anything else that compares. Still planning on more improvments as we always seek perfection. Plans for the future include southbay moto stage 3 with the 460 big bore. We'll wait until our warrenties are up though.

If I could of found a better quad, I would have bought it.

 

Cannondale screwed up by not producing a 5000 dollar quad, and making the speed,blaze,glamis,moto off the same chasis. That is like selling 5 cadallics that are the same that just cost more with a few options. I do not know if they can get it straighten out. If they lost money on every quad, how much should they cost?????? That is scary. Losing money on a 7K,8K,10K and 12K quad. The economy is going down the crapper now and cannon is going to suffer more than most being on the high end of a niche vehicle. GM will tell corvettes are great but they do not pay the bills. Good for the image but not the bottom line.

 

It is cost effective for them to make one chassis to base models from! How did ford start out...one model, one paint scheme. It is up to them to educate (c-dale itself and it's dealers) the public on what they are buying, premium shocks, tires, bars etc... What $5000 quad do you want them to make? The compitition from the big makers is fierce in that price range. Cannondale is trying to play a niche in the market, high performance, high technology enthusiast demographic. It makes no sense to try and market a full line up, they probably never will. Why go head to head against honda, suzuki.... Why incur even higher costs to develop more models? The buisness model C-dale has is sound for a start up as far as the economy who knows, that is the risk you take.

 

Chevy made the ZR-1 and the regular corvette in 199? the only difference was 20k and rectangular tail lights and 100 more HP. Chevy will tell you that there was not enough visable difference to make it work. They need a entry level 5k quad to build brand loyality for the less afflent buyers. In future years they will come back and be able to afford more. Cannon should have had the Blaze and Moto off the aluminum chasis with fuel injection and a entry level sport quad and a big bore quad. As it is you could buy a entry level cannon and turn it into a moto. So the guy that buys a moto has nothing special for his 12.5k

 

Nothing special? Shoot for 12.5 youve got an Awesome quad. You Couldnt build an equivalent honda for that price...

RoostKing...

 

I think that it would be a more adept car analogy to compare c-dale to ferrari or porsche than chevy. It's the full line up vs. a small select one targeted at a certain demo. It would be great if they had a cheaper $5000 quad but they would have had additional development costs for a different model. It would have taken a great deal more money to develop the 5k and a "big bore" on top of the current line up. I understand your point about the one platform being used for all the models it can be a drawback but it comes down to the $ question for a start up company. As far as turning a cannibal into a moto if you want to go ahead! The guy with the moto will still have a pretty trick quad. Just because you buy the top of the line showroom quad doesn't meen somebody isn't crazy enough to dump cubic $$$ into their cheaper quad. I've seen $20000 raptors out there and some banshees that could feed a family of four for a year! I've done it myself! I would hate to see what over the years I have spent on some of mine!

 

Reguardless of what C-Dale does in the future, weather it's in the way of a less expensive new platform or even improving upon the existing models, there is one issue that they are going to have to address. That is the fact that acording to their own addmissions, they are Loosing money on every unit they sell. I'm no Bill Gates, but I'm thinking that it is pretty hard to continue doing business unless you figure out how to become profitable and stop the Bleeding.

 

Cannondale needs to forget about trying for market share and pricing in the same range as raptors,z400,400ex.I believe that is what they were trying to do when they lowered the price at the time they went from fx4oo's to the cannible.I have seen pictures of the way the japanese mass produce quads and there is no way Cannondale can do that at this time.Cannondales are handmade not mass produced so they have too charge whatever it takes to make money on them.If everyone isnt willing to pay that much for them then too bad the lucky few that do will be getting a exotic the fastest, lightest,High tech quad in the world with the best customer service of any company out there If they make money on the moto and not the cannible then they either have to raise the price of the cannible or ax it.I for one am addicted to the cannondales I would never settle for a lesser quad no matter what the cost.You dont see the bicycles they make selling at walmart next to the murray or whatever.I personaly think $3000 for a bicycle is crazy but I dont ride bikes and the people who do seem to be buying plenty of the bicycles cannondale needs to take the same approach with the quads it will make them money and give us a company we can rely on for many years to come.

 

Good discussion;

14Mins makes sense. And maybe the Cannible could be "cheapened up" to accomodate that $5,000.00 price range. Now that most of the R&D is over the cost of producing should go down.

Another point I will have to make is this:

With myself having a welding background I alway look at weld jobs on all things I see. C'Dales are top quality built right down to plastic. The next chance you get just take a look at some of the welds and assemblies on the other bikes. The C'Dale has USA Pride shining through.


To me it's one of these scenario's:

Every one will **** and moan when China does this and Japan does that but, when it comes down to toys y'all will still buy those Foreign made machines and not even think twice about it. So, I hope y'all that are cheering this bad news and making it a very big issue do this: Never complain when your buddy or family member buy a foreign truck, car or anything else foreign. I'm not trying to say it's junk, but don't be two-faced and think that it's OK if you buy one.

Humans are one of the hardest animals to figure out.

OK I'm done venting now. What's next?

Just my .06 worth. Inflation.

 

Dubya,
Its not that simple.I dont have to give you examples of the various pieces of junk American companies have produced over the years then when the customers choose quality.It forces everyone to build better products.Greed then has USA companies building the factories overseas that put americans out of work.Its a viscous cycle that I dont see any end to.Someday we will be bitching about foreign planets taking our jobs.The only thing to do is figure a way to make it Better,lighter,cleaner,shineyer,faster,less money etc.I am not worried with some of the young people just on this site thinking of better ways USA will come out on top.