https://www.asphaltandrubber.com/news/yamaha-moving-headquarters-georgia/ Feel free to bitch slap if it's a repost..
Makes sense....only draw to (So) Cali is the decent year round weather, but there's plenty of cheaper places that have that in the US.
They already have some stuff over in Kennesaw Ga. easy commute for employees and lower cost of living.
Used to be the port of long beach and easy logistics from asia. That is gone with the "extra fees" at SoCal ports, the "let it sit on the dock" if you're non paying union rates and the tax rates. You can ship into texas or the south east coast for a lot less and lose almost no time. Toyota is in Dallas from SoCal. wonder why?
With the updates to the Panama Canal being done, and the east coast ports making improvements to handle the super container boats, this makes sense. Port of Savannah is about 5 hours from the northern side of Atlanta. Cut your overhead by half to two thirds, and things start looking better. Count in the number of tracks within a couple hours (testing) plus the mountain roads (press intros) and it makes perfect sense. With Porsche, Mercedes, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen all having significant presence nearby, I expect Yamaha is just the trailblazer.
They already have a huge plant down in Newman GA... makes sense... Raced with a guy in AHRMA at Talladega last weekend that has worked there for 2o plus years.. said the family discounts were pretty fruitful.. I had to ask..lol
Unfortunately, they aren't. Ultimately,I think it is a multi point issue. Opie and I were talking this past weekend about it at Road ATL. He says he mostly sees BMW's and ZX10's at his shop from street guys. But I also think it is more a generational issue....more young people (not all) staying inside or chosing other activities to do...probably has to do w cost as well... We all need to be ambassadors to our sports and invite people out....try to get the neighbors kids involved. It won't happen overnight, but will hopefully change the future
I know there’s a ton of reasons why motorcycles cost the way they do. That’s not helping. And neither are insurance rates. When I started on my ‘05 ZX-10, Allstate laughed at me and told me they wouldnt insure it. Neither would Geico. I wound up with State Farm when I rode the street.
Allstate sucks. Back in 2005 I bought a brand new triumph thruxton,and paid cash for it. At that time I had been with allstate for 10 years for all my cars/trucks,so it was a no-brainer to use them for the bike. They wanted $7,000 a year! Needless to say,once car renewal time came I left them for good because of that.Seriously, 7 thousand bucks a year for a $7,000 bike???!!!
I had heard this a month or two ago. Yamaha already has a large presence in Atlanta. Their marine and golf cart divisions are located in Atlanta and there's plenty of room to grow in the areas they already have a presence. I could see them keeping a race shop and maybe some marketing in CA but I could foresee a lot of the industry moving away from California. The climate is awesome and there is some great riding out there, but the traffic is bad (maybe Ga will be next on states to allow lane splitting), the cost of living is thru the roof, and there's a lot of people there. I won't get into politics but IMHO they are well on their way to bankruptcy. I'm biased but there is a lot of motor and auto in the SE and there's a reason. The states are very friendly to outside investments, solid educated (and union free) work force, easy shipping and storage facilities, major airport with easy flights just about anywhere, etc. etc. Not that I'm thrilled with more folks moving to Atlanta (within 5 miles of my house is the new Mercedes NA headquarters, the new State Farm HQ, IHG hotels HQ, etc. etc), but I can see why. Now if we can just build another perimeter about 20 miles outside 285 and build up our infrastructure a bit better (water is going to become an even bigger issues than it is now) that will help. Biggest issue I see right now is the governors race. Both of the candidates IMHO will be bad for business.
That story has a lot of inaccuracies. But hey, don't let some facts get in the way of some good California bashing.