Norm: Tell us about the new management team at Yamaha.

Jack: They finally brought some talent in, huh?

Jon: Mr. Neal Hideshima is our president. He is President of Yamaha Golf-Car, Co. (YGC) & Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corp (YMMC). Neal came over in April 2003.

Dan: He was also here in the early 90’s for about 5 years. He ran manufacturing, so he is very familiar with YGC. He has come back for a 2nd tour, as it would be. He is very knowledgeable with the issues YGC has being in the US and the different suppliers in the US. He is familiar with all the background of how we operate, both inside the plant and out.
He is very knowledgeable and been a great help to us.

Jack: I would like to be more familiar with the Yamaha management structure in the US.

Joel: We are just like many other large corporations. We have both international and national headquarters. We are a subsidiary of the national Yamaha headquarters in Cypress, California.

Jon: Neal appointed Joel Cheek as National Service Manager Joel was also Department Manager - Product Development before being appointed Service Manager. In fact, he held both positions for a period of just over six months. Neal did a very smart thing by taking our Product Development guy, the guy everybody goes to for engineering and long-term things, and put him in charge of our service. So now, first hand, he knows & sees things from all sides; the product development side, the manufacturing side & from the customers’ point of view. He is getting feedback from multiple sources and multiple perspectives. So he is really now drinking from a fire hydrant.

Norm: Good analogy! (laughter)

Jon: The other thing Neal did was name Stan Miser Division Manager for Sales. So from here is where everything else propagates. I am in charge of marketing; Dan’s in charge of all logistics and specialty vehicles; Joel handles Service.

Joel: But Dan was the service guy.

Jon: Right. He left Service a couple of years ago to do all this other stuff before we had this latest reorganization.

Jack: That’s where I first met you Dan, when you were National Service Manager.

Joel: So what Dan has done is establish the Specialty Vehicle Operations from pretty much scratch. Once he got that going he assumed responsibility for distribution. So he is getting it from both sides too.

Dan: Yeah!

Jack: Drinking from the fire hydrant, so to speak. (laughter all around)

Joel: That’s a great phrase.

Norm: First let’s talk about the new model introduced in mid-summer 2002, the G-MAX, or the G-22. It is fairly new and it comes standard with a new gas engine that was designed specifically for a golf car. The 357cc engine is the largest in its class. How have the sales been going for the past year?

Yamaha G22, the G-Max

Jon:  Excellent! We have been having good success with our G-MAX line. We have been getting a lot of positive market feedback. People have liked the changes we have made. And we made those changes specifically because they are the changes our customers have requested we make. With the G-22 we went to the new Tru-Trak suspension, again based on the feedback we were getting from the previous G16 & G19 models.

Dan: We have experienced the same difficulties that all the manufacturers have experienced from 9/11 and from the economy. It has hurt all of us. We have all had a little downturn. A lot of golf courses are keeping their cars an extra year. But the model has held its own and is well accepted.

Jack:   Talk about the Tru-Trak suspension. It was introduced in the 2003 model G-MAX golf car. It features a McPherson strut front end and a completely new rack & pinion steering gear box. Is the Tru-Trak a front suspension only or an overall front & rear suspension design? And is it available on the new U-MAX line of utility vehicles?

Joel:  It is an automotive strut-type front suspension we developed to work with the existing rear suspension. It is available on the U-MAX Light Duty (LD) gas & electric models. The U-MAX Medium Duty (MD) I & II models have the worm gear steering and coil-over-shock front suspension.

Jack:  This is the first change to the steering since 1978 and to the front suspension since 1985. How has it all held up? Have you had to make changes or modifications to the steering or suspension?

Joel:  It has stood up very well. We have not had to modify anything. Once we release a product, it is released and usually there is very little modification required on the design.

Jack:  How much testing does something like the Tru-Trak suspension on the G-MAX go through before it is released?

Joel:  We have a testing program and we have a strategy of how we test. I think how we test is probably one of our development secrets, so I can’t really talk about it.

Jack:  You put it out on several golf courses, a few proto-type fleets out, just to be sure? Or do you do most of the testing in-house and then go with it?

Joel:  Again, I can’t talk about that. I think we have an advantage over the competition with our testing. I wouldn’t want to give away our secrets.

Dan:  They are thoroughly tested. We experience just about everything that is going to happen to them before they go out.

Joel:  Yamaha golf cars have the reputation of being the most reliable golf cars out there. That’s what our customers keep telling us. They will go anywhere. They are keeping them longer than any other fleet of golf cars, on average. Our development capability speaks for itself.

Jack:  Why the steering changes last year?

Joel:  We wanted to give the car a little bit quicker feel. We wanted to decrease the turning radius and reduce the maintenance. Please note our front suspension has zero grease fittings. It is maintenance free.

Dan:  Basically from past history with our cars, we had some problems with tire manufacturers and others that caused the image of our front suspension to be tainted. Although we addressed those issues, the distributors & dealers told us they still wanted a new suspension, they wanted it to change. They wanted it to look different; they wanted to tell their customers that it was indeed different. And that was one of the driving forces behind it. It was an image thing we wanted to overcome. So this caused us to rethink the whole package. We combined some engineering advancements, went to the McPherson strut instead of the shock, went to a rack & pinion steering system and changed some dimensions.

Joel:  Before, we had a big camber change when there was a big load on the front suspension and we have eliminated that. Now the camber is virtually the same throughout the entire range of travel. You are familiar with that characteristic?

Jack:  Yes.

Dan:  Well that is no longer the case.

Jack:  The engine, going to the 357cc, the largest in its class, what was the thinking there? Was the old one underpowered? Or EPA issues with the fuel? Emissions? What? Why the bigger engine?

Dan:  It will climb a heck of a hill!

Jack:  Is that right? Accelerating? (laughter)

Dan:  It will out-climb our competition. It’s not even close!

Joel:  Yamaha is a performance company. If you look at our products, they’re all performance oriented. We’ve got to have the best hill climbing. We wanted to distance ourselves from the competition. Instead of making everything cheaper we wanted to give more value to the customer. Hill climbing is something you buy a gas car for, so we wanted to be the best.

Jon:  We wanted class-leading power. That’s why we picked the new 357cc power plant. Class leading power and class-leading miles per gallon.

Jack:  I think this is a very strong move.

Joel:  Speaking of the engine, please note that Yamaha has the only engine that does not require an oil filter. To me this is a big maintenance issue for golf courses. When you have to change the oil in 70 cars, what do you do with 70 used oil filters? We specifically did not put an oil filter in this engine for that reason.

(Editor’s note: Many states classify used oil filters as ‘toxic waste’ and therefore proper recycling procedures should be followed when disposing of used filters.)

Jack:  Does this engine have an oil pump or is it a splash design?

Joel:  It is a splash lube and that makes it more efficient. The reason it makes it more efficient is because you are not using engine power to turn gears to pressurize oil through a filter or to force oil through narrow passages. A splash system is adequate for this engine. It is not adequate, apparently, for engines in other golf cars.

Dan:  When you have to have an oil pump it is because you have to push oil places where otherwise the oil would not go. And if you have a pump you also need to have an oil filter to clean the oil before it goes to the pump. Otherwise, you don’t need an oil filter either. So we have an engine that can be splashed adequately, and it takes away the need of these extra parts.

Joel:  Instead of pressurizing the oil, we take this extra power and put it to the rear wheels.

Dan:  The engine is just a handful of parts. The engine is just, literally, a handful of parts.
Pretty neat. Simple. Reliable.

Jon:  Reliable. I will tell you what. Look at our new brochure & take one home. There is a quote in there from Frank Jemsek, owner & president of Cog Hill Golf Club, Summer Grove Golf Club and Pine Meadow golf courses near Chicago. In the quote he says, “The most impressive thing about Yamaha Golf Cars is their durability. We have had a 25-year relationship with Yamaha and still have golf cars in operation from that very first day of our partnership.” And believe me; if you go there, he uses these golf cars. They are not museum pieces; these are range pickers that are out there, 25 years old, still going strong today.

Dan:  There are still fleets of G-1’s running in the US. I don’t think anybody else can claim that. Recently, we lucked out and found the original G-1 prototype that came from Japan. The very first gas version. It ended up at a dealership in Florida and we got it back. We brought it back to Peachtree City and it now sits in our product development building. It was the very first gas golf car. That is our benchmark!

Yamaha G1

Norm:  In recent years, the manufacturers have relied more & more on leasing programs. This in turn has created a glut of used golf cars. Last year moving used cars was a major concern for all of the golf car companies. Yamaha came out with a refurbishing program, the CPO program, and the others did as well. Two questions: What percentage of your new car sales is lease based and how has the moving of refurbs and used cars gone?

Jon:  The latest number I have seen is 65% leased. That is much lower than I always thought it was but when you do the math that is what it comes out to be. I think this is a testimonial to our cars and our reliability. I think people are more inclined to purchase a Yamaha because it lasts longer and maybe there are some cost advantages to purchase if the car stays at the course longer against leasing a short term. As for the second part of your question, yes we have a CPO (Certified Pre-owned) program. We invented the CPO program. It has been very successful. We have sold several CPO fleets. The courses see the benefit of the lower price and the Yamaha reliability & durability. They feel they can keep those cars out there 3 or 4 more years.

Norm:  Last year we were given the leasing percentage of about 90%.

Jon:  It is not that high.

Dan:  That might be true in certain areas but not across the board.

Norm:  Where are these used cars going? Where are your markets?

Jon:  Our dealer network is our best market. The retail dealers and the CPO program. But the market is a big pie of estate owners, golf courses, commercial & industrial applications.

Jack:  It has always seemed to me that Yamaha sells a lot more gas cars than electric models. Maybe that is because I am in the NC mountains and tend to see more of them. How does that number look today? Is the ratio 50/50? Is electric becoming a better seller?

Jon:  We still sell more gas. The electric market is growing faster, but we still sell more gas. That is changing. I think in another year it might be 50/50. Right now it is more like 60% gas & 40% electric.

Joel:  I think over the history of Yamaha we probably have not done the best job of promoting our electric golf car, as we should. Our electric car, in my opinion, is the best electric car out there. I know that is a bold statement. If you poll our competitors now, I don’t think there is any question that our electric car will go farther on a charge than the other two, especially with the 4/12 setup and the reduced battery capacity of our competition. (reference to the Club Car 48-volt system)

Dan:  It is also the hill climbing champion out there, and the distance champion.

Joel:  Yes, we would like to get the word out on that.

Jack:  The electric, you still offer the 36-volt electric?

Joel:  No, the 36-volt is gone. We offer only the 48-volt regenerative braking speed controller and motor.

Jack:  So even the G-16 model, 48-volt, non-regen is gone?

Joel:  The 48-volt regen is our standard and it’s our premium electric car.

Jack:  Last year Yamaha told us that it went to a programmable controller in your electric cars and that you use a handheld PDA palm device to program it.

Joel:  Yes that is right. We call it the Genius System. We use a PDA device along with our very own low cost proprietary software. You program your PDA and then you can program your golf car. You don’t have to buy an expensive meter. You can use a PDA for all kinds of things. Mine has a scheduler, I keep 600 phone numbers on it, it has games, a calculator and I have one that can even take pictures. It also holds the controller software and diagnostics program for troubleshooting.

Dan:  The software has two functions; one is diagnostics, which is very important. It looks for fault codes; we took the fault codes from our suppliers and put them into layman’s terms so anyone can understand what they are looking at with the fault codes. It will give you amp/hours of consumption, rounds used, and important information to help you control your fleet rotation. You know which cars have the lowest hours of use. The other function is on the programming side; there are 25 different combinations of acceleration, speed and regen braking parameters. You can adjust the car speed and regenerative force for your particular course. If it is really hilly you can program in a lot of regen force, and if the course is not very hilly you won’t want it to hold back as strongly, so can program it to have gentler regen effect.

Jack:  Your acceleration, top speed & regen braking are all adjustable so you can program a more aggressive slow down or a gentle slow down. Is there a full-stop regen braking on it? Regen braking to zero miles per hour, so to speak.

Dan:  If you jump out of the car it will reduce speed down to 1 mph and creep, which is pretty much the standard.

Jack:  Within what kind of a distance are you speaking? I am going along and, of course, I am not going to jump out at 10mph, but say I step out at 3 or 4 miles per hour.

Dan:  Say you are cruising along at full speed and you let off the accelerator, it will reduce speed naturally to 7 mph. At 7mph it then begins to further regen & slow the vehicle down to about to 1mph until you set the brake.

Jack:  This is inherent in the system or you need to program this into the system with the PDA?

Dan:  It is engineered into the system by the design or of the control unit. But this simply allows changing some of the parameters.

Jack:  This programming function occurs through infrared sensing devices?

Joel:  Yes, non-contact

Jack:  So you need to actually buy that PDA from Yamaha? I can’t go down to Staples and buy it?

Hand Held PDA

Joel:  Oh no, you can buy the PDA anywhere. As long as it is Palm OS 3.1 to 5.0, but you need to buy the software & the infrared sensor for the controller from us. Now you can put that infrared on every golf car if you want to or just have it on one car. But every vehicle comes already equipped with the GENIUS system. It is not something extra you have to buy, it is not something you have pay more for. You get it with the car. We only sell one car; and it’s the premium car. The only things needed to use the Genius System are a PDA, the infrared sensor, and the software. We sell the software and infrared sensor together as a package for a nominal fee. Then, just load the software and go. The Genius System is also standard on the U-MAX line of electric utility vehicles.

Jack:  Do PDAs typically have infrared systems in them?

Dan:  Yes. Didn’t you ever see the commercial with the boy and the girl in opposite moving trains and they beam their phone numbers to each other?

Jack:  Oh, no I don’t remember that.

Joel:  I can “beam” my address, or anyone else’s in my address book, or an entire program to your PDA, just by pressing the Beam button. My PDA also has a notepad. All I have to do is write with the special pen and it enters my writing into the PDA. I have another one with a camera that I can take pictures with.

Jack:  Where is the infrared sensor on the golf car?

Joel:  If you buy the infrared sensor you can hold it in your hand and plug it into the wire harness. Each wire harness has a plug. If you want your fleet to be equipped with the infrared sensor then you can just plug one into each car and go. There is a hole for the sensor in the body already.

Dan:  What is neat about it is that anyone can go out and buy our software. It’s very reasonably priced. Then go and buy any Palm OS device for as low as $59.00 and you don’t have to spend $600.00 or whatever for special meters.

Jack:  Club Car has a handheld device but it uses a hard wire I think. E-Z-GO so far has not even gone to a handheld device. They use a programmable controller that uses plug-in type wire loops. They are coming out with a new programmable controller on their 1000E utility vehicle that uses the loops & a handheld programmer but I will find out more about that at a later date. I don’t really know about the details on that now.

Joel:  Our new U-MAX Medium Duty utility vehicle has a 400 amp controller and is programmable with the GENIUS system. The biggest difference between the U-MAX and the G-MAX is the big U-MAX comes with infrared sensor standard.

Yamaha U-MAX Medium Duty Utility Vehicle

Dan:  One of the beauties about this system is the dealer and the golf course can check to see where they stand as far as battery and car warranty. It is a great tool for the dealer & for the customer to know where they stand.

Jack:  Club Car uses a term such as ‘energy units’ to determine when the batteries are and are not in warranty. What is your battery warranty and how do you determine when batteries are in warranty?

Dan:  We have the same battery warranty as another company does because our sales people told us we need to have this system. I am not sure how the other company does it but we do it based on charge cycles. We assume a car goes two rounds a day and we calculate the specific amount of time you are actually driving the car during a round of golf.

Joel:  We do it in amp-hours and we correlate amp-hours to rounds. Then we have the miles as a backup. We know how many miles were traveled and we also have the hours of operation. We don’t just look at amp-hours, but we’ve also got the mileage of the car and the hours that it has been used to better determine what is going on. So if you have a car with a lot of mileage but low hours we know that it might have been used as a Ranger car, or something like that.

Norm:  I would like to go back to a marketing question. A year ago Yamaha told us it would have a marketing advantage because you have about 1500 dealers throughout the nation. That number includes all your types of dealers. About 35 golf car distributors, another 100 golf car dealers & also dealers for the various other Yamaha motorized products but you were looking to expand that. Has that been done?

Jon:  Yes! We were talking about coverage for OFVs (Off Fairway Vehicles). Yamaha Motor Sports is now marketing, through their dealer networks, two gas models that are very similar to products in our U-MAX line. They are basically the U-MAX Light Duty & Medium Duty I models, but they call them the ProHauler 700 and the ProHauler 1000. They are blue, have a slightly different body design and are specifically off-road type units. Ours are more turf oriented. Motor Sports is going after private estate owners, large landowners and farmers at a retail level. So effectively, for Yamaha worldwide, yes we have basically launched a total side-by-side market. Now Motor Sports has the Rhino 660 and the ProHauler 700 and 1000 side-by-side work products. We (Yamaha Golf Cars) have five models because we have electric and gas powered models. We are more turf & work oriented in our dealer network than Yamaha Motor Sports.

Yamaha Pro Hauler 1000

Norm:  We have a section on our home page that asks ‘How do you use your golf car?’ In this section we list 10 or 12 different popular uses for personally owned golf cars, including, of course, golf. If you go into this section you will find products that will make your golf car more functional for your specific use. We have had this on now for over 4 years and have been surprised by the stats. The number one use of golf cars out there in private hands originally was hunting, then camping was second and golf came in third. Now golf has dropped down to #5. If there are that many golf cars out there being used in ‘other than golf’ ways, how are you going to get to those customers? These folks call and they say, ‘I don’t have a golf car dealer within 250 miles of me.’ A few others say they do have a nearby dealer but they wouldn’t buy a dead cat (anything!) from them. How do you intend to reach those ‘other than golf’ markets?

Jon:  Yamaha Motor Sports is addressing that. They have a lot more dealers than we do.

Jon:  Motor Sports by definition is selling ATVs and ATVs are primarily going to hunters and other recreational users.

Jack:  We see that going away to some extent. People tell us they are trading in their ATVs for golf cars.

Jon:  No, that is not going away. The total industry of side-by-side utility market is about 100,000 units, that is all manufacturers doing it. As an example, one segment of the ATV market, say a ‘4 x 2’ (4 wheels, 2 wheel drive) is about that quantity. If you take the total ATV market, it’s about 800,000 units per year in the US. The US is the core market for ATVs. Maybe the growth is slowing but it is not going away.

Joel:  It’s safe to say the ATV market is way bigger than the side-by-side. It’s huge! Much bigger than utility vehicles.

Jon:  It’s difficult to talk numbers when speaking of SxS’s versus ATV’s. Even though we invented a new segment of the SxS market with the Rhino, there are so many other loosely defined segments that the distinction between recreation and work is blurred. But it’s safe to say that the recreation segment is bigger than the utility segment.

Norm:  Well golf cars are going the other way with hunting. It’s increasing.

Joel:  That’s right. It’s a low cost hunting vehicle and two people can sit in it.

Yamaha Rhino 660

Jon:  That’s right. And that is attractive.

Norm:  What we hear is a lot of people are trading in their ATVs for golf cars because of the convenience of riding two passengers, having a top & windshield, rain protection.

Jack:  So as I understand it, the Yamaha ATV sellers, the Motor Sports people, they can sell your products but you cannot sell their products. You will not be selling the Rhino 660.

Dan:  Yamaha Golf Car dealers are currently not set up as Rhino dealers. There are a lot of factors involved, but it basically comes down to focus. Historically, Yamaha Golf Car Company has been focused on turf, commercial, and industrial. Yamaha Motor Sports has been focused on retail. So it makes sense to roll out the Rhino through the Motor Sports network first.

Jon:  Our focus is the golf course business. We are primarily on the turf side, which is the larger piece of that pie. The 100,000 units, even though hunting may be growing faster, the larger piece of the pie is still the turf market. So that is our focus. We want our dealer and distributor network (Yamaha Golf Car Company) focused on that golf market. If every greens superintendent said they wanted a single rider ATV type vehicle with turf tires, something they could ride solo and get around the course faster, then we could take that to product development, show them the numbers and they would develop that. That is how the U-MAX was developed. But Yamaha Corporate wanted to attack that fast growing private utility market and decided the best way to do it was through the Motor Sports network. They are already ATV dealers and have already targeted that retail customer.

Jon:  Would a hunter consider going to a golf car dealer for a private utility? You guys said it yourselves; there is not a golf car dealer within 250 miles. If the hunter was within a few miles of the golf car dealer and the golf car dealer effectively advertised that he carried this type of unit then yes. But if the dealer was in fact 250 miles away the hunter would literally have to pass 12 Yamaha Motor Sports dealerships to buy from that one golf car dealer.

Jack:  Can the golf car owner, in these remote places, go to these ATV dealers to have their golf car fixed? I mean can the Yamaha ATV dealer get Yamaha golf car parts?

Dan:  Now that’s an interesting idea!

Jack:  What if the greens super wants a 4-wheel drive vehicle? Can you roll a Rhino 660 into a golf car and utility vehicle lease or sale?

Jon:  Yes we can do that. We have rolled in a fleet of golf cars for the course and for the clubhouse, rolled in a beautiful Yamaha Disklavier ™ grand piano. We can get very creative when it comes to packaging deals!

Joel:  The Rhino doesn’t really have a place on golf courses. They are not for golf courses. They are for hunters and the ‘other than golf’ markets.

Jack:  I assume you sell a lot of these grand pianos to greens superintendents?

Joel:  If it helps us sell a fleet of golf cars.

Norm:  Let’s change the subject to ADA. Last year Yamaha associated with Roger Pretekin, president of SoloRider, and started marketing the ‘AteeA’ ADA single rider golf car. Do you still have that association? How has the ‘AteeA’ been accepted in the field?

Jon:  Tough question. Yes, the program is still available. Has it been real well received? No! To be honest, we have not sold that many units.

Norm:  Why?

Jon:  We put together a program for our distributors so they could package the vehicle and basically sell them along with a fleet. This was really not a moneymaking opportunity for us. We wanted to have it so we could offer it to a golf course. Quite frankly we didn’t really sell that many units.

Norm:  Of the units sold, do you get any feedback from the buyers about how the usage is?

Jon:  I personally sold one to Summer Grove, a local golf course in Newnan. They like it, they like having it. They enjoy advertising that they are trying to grow the game. We have an accessible golf course--come out and play. But honestly, the feedback from them is that the golf car is sitting there. No one is using it. I can’t argue with that. Based on the history of the limited use it is getting it is difficult to make the sale.

Dan:  The Americans with Disability Act is what really drove this. We responded to the need the Act brought about for a lot of folks. We got those vehicles, we partnered up and we have them available but no one knew how much demand there would be. Nobody really knew that. The fact is they just have not sold well. We did what we thought needed to be done to address the situation, to make golf available to everybody.

Joel:  We did the socially responsible thing by making sure we had something to offer. The market has not responded by purchasing large quantities of this product.

Norm:  It seems that you are not alone in that boat. I don’t think any of the golf car manufacturers are having a lot of success with ADA cars. Several years ago there was a rash of lawsuits in Michigan. Last year there was a lawsuit in Indianapolis over the lack of access at a city course. A judge ruled that several city courses must have ADA cars available on a test basis. Next year the use statistics and/or the need for more units will be re-evaluated. At that point if interest is high enough then perhaps more courses will be required to have ADA cars available. Although these lawsuits bring the issue to the forefront, in fact, disabled golfers are not coming out to play golf in large numbers.

Jon:  The Indianapolis suit is the only case I ever heard about. What ever happened to this? Was the ruling that every public course is supposed to have these vehicles? Is that still in effect? If it is, we are certainly not seeing it.

Jack:  It is going to happen. All the TPC courses have them. According to Roger Pretekin, president of SoloRider and maker of your ‘AteeA’ vehicle, in 2002 he had sold upwards of 500 units, very few of them through the normal golf car channels. And not all of them go to golfers or golf courses. All kinds of folks are using them for reasons away from golf. I have seen some of them camouflaged with gun rack accessories for hunting.

Dan:  We also sponsor the Dennis Walters Golf Show. We have supported him for years. We provide Dennis a special golf car from which he can play golf and from which he can display his trick shot artistry and golf show.

Norm: The last few years have been very gloomy for the golf industry and for the golf car manufacturers. Now it seems like things are starting to turn around but everyone has had to deal with this slowdown. The glut of unsold used golf cars, clubs extending lease programs, courses closing and a slow down in sales. Has there been a slow down or a staff cutback at Yamaha?

Joel:  Not really significant or for that reason. We have had attrition. Yamaha is a diversified company. We have ATVs, watercraft and other products, so we are not solely dependent on just golf cars. Besides, the golf slow down has not been that bad for us.

Norm:  Talk a little about your international markets and situations?

Dan:  Steady. Our export market has been very steady over the years. Yamaha’s worldwide reputation has helped us sell product consistently. During March 2003, while the US was staging for the Iraq conflict there were some Yamaha specialty vehicles sitting there on the porch of a building. In Kuwait I think.

Norm:  Any particular new growth in any area or strong points?

Dan:  Southeast Asia and the Far East. But that has always been strong.

Jack:  The product you make in Newnan goes all over the world.

Joel:  They go everywhere. We sell our product all over the world.

Jack:  Have you seen an uptick in your business in the last quarter of 2003?

Dan:  I think we have had an uptick. We are very optimistic and encouraged by what we see.

Norm:  GPS! Your website shows that you are still associated with ParView. Two weeks ago ProLink & ParView merged into one company and they are both here. Now E-Z-GO & Yamaha will be associated with the same company. How will that affect your relationship with ParView?

Dan:  We are looking forward to growth in that market so it becomes more of a priority for us. It is a very expensive product. We have sold some of the ParView products but the numbers are not giving us a lot of visibility. ParView had a different look than ProLink but we are just not sure of how that product will look after things settle down.

Norm:  Norm goes into our web based Yamaha serial number lookup software.

Jack:  Let’s talk about the U-MAX. You have five models.

Joel:  Yes, the U-MAX comes in five different versions plus the two Motor Sports versions (ProHaulers) for a total of 7 models.

Jack:  There is no difference between the U-MAX and the ProHauler 700 & 1000?

Joel:  Except for the body. The ProHauler bodies are completely different. The front styling, the color and side body panels are different. It is geared more toward the retail and motor sports market. It is a little sportier looking. It has some added style. The U-MAX is made to be part of the golf car family; they are supposed to identify with the golf car. The ProHauler identifies with the ATV look and ATV terrain. U-MAX identifies with the golf course. It is more of a work-oriented vehicle.

Jack:  Which one is lifted?

Joel:  The U-MAX MD-II model is lifted. We started with what we used to call the G-21 utility model, which replaced the earlier G-11. From the G-21 and G-MAX we created the 7 models, 5 for our turf division. There are various shapes and sizes, some of which are lifted and some are not.

Jack:  What about the Light Duty U-MAX?

Joel:  It is lifted 3” higher than the standard golf car but it has the same basic wheelbase as the golf car. It also has the new Tru-Trak front suspension & steering system. Basically it is the gas or electric golf car with a work bed, 20” tall tires and with more ground clearance.

Jack:  The same engine and clutches in all the gas models?

Joel:  Yes, but we have 5 different transaxles for the 5 different models. The LD-1 gas has the standard gas golf car transaxle. The LD-1 electric has the electric golf car transaxle and 48-volt electrical system. The MD-II gas has a beefed up gas golf car transaxle with a 15 to 1 gear ratio. The lower gear ratio provides better hill climbing. The MD-II electric has its own dedicated electric car transaxle with 15 to 1 gear ratio. It also has a revamped 48-volt electrical system. The U-MAX MD-II has its own transaxle with a wider wheel track. It has 22” tires.

Dan:  How much is the U-MAX MD-II lifted?

Joel:  About 6” or 140 millimeters.

Jack:  The 2 electric models have the same electric motors and programmable controller?

Joel:  The U-MAX LD-1, the G-27E, has the golf car power train. The U-MAX MD-II, the G-23E, has a new controller, eight 6-volt batteries for more range, and a new 400-amp motor. New transaxle, new controller, new motor, different battery packs; completely different electrical system. It’s work ready. Nothing else to buy and it comes with the Genius infrared already built in.

Jack:  Top speed of any of these vehicles including the electrics. Will they go to 18 or 19mph or faster?

Joel:  At this time we advertise 15mph for the golf car based products.

Norm:  All your electric vehicles are now 48-volt systems?

Joel:  Yes, now every electric we sell is 48-volts, six 8-volt batteries except for the U-MAX MD-II (G-23E), which has eight 6-volt batteries. If you are going to be working with this vehicle you’ll have enough range to go all day.

Jack:  Several years ago Yamaha switched from Trojan batteries to US Battery products. Has that proved to be a good move?

Joel:  Yes. Trojan makes a good battery and US Battery makes a good battery.
We were happy with Trojan products. We just chose to switch to US Battery products and we have been very happy with that change.

Jack:  Has Yamaha closed the gap on being a distant third in the golf car market?

Joel:  The golf car business is a tough business. We don’t talk volumes; we are focused on customer satisfaction and profits for our company. I think a lot of these guys will admit we have an excellent product, maybe even a superior product. Have we closed the gap on them? I think they have closed the gap on us product-wise and we are trying to close the gap on them sales-wise. We are very encouraged by what we see out there.

Jack:  Is there anything we missed that you want to talk about?

Dan:  This group can talk all day, but I think we pretty much covered the important points. On behalf of Jon and Joel, thank you for allowing us to speak with you today. We really appreciate it.