More on the after-market issue....

I thought about writing the following last week: "wouldn't it be more cost effective and simple to merely outlaw after-market mufflers on snowmobiles and ATV's? At least those increase Decibel levels?" That way, a DNR or town or county officer would only need to visually inspect the machine and write a ticket-and, as I recommended, confiscate the offending machine. But I don't know that much about snowmobiles, and so I didn't know if it were even possible.

Lo and behold, today I read the following at an off-road sport website:
http://www.off-road.com/snowmobile/info/sound/whatisnoise.htm

"Two years ago at the ISC (International Snowmobile Congress) there was discussion to ban the modification of exhaust systems altogether. However, over the past two sessions of Congress, it has been resolved by the state associations, DNR, aftermarket companies and the OEMs to work together in order to design a field friendly testing method. Also, most of the aftermarket manufacturers who design and produce exhaust systems have resolved to manufacture only quiet systems."

This is a very interesting quote for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it comes from a site that accepts advertising from at least one of those few manufacturers that didn't resolve to manufacture only quiet systems.

But that is only the beginning...Read the following reason for not banning after-market mufflers:

"Law enforcement and environmentalists need to realize that banning or unreasonably restricting the sale of aftermarket exhausts and restricting trail access will have an effect on the economy in many areas. Dealers rely on aftermarket product sales in order to stay healthy. Unfortunately, most dealers cannot sell snowmobiles for the suggested retail price."

So let me get this straight-snowmobile dealers don't make money selling snowmobiles?

"In fact, a large number of dealers barely break even on new unit sales and therefore are forced to rely heavily on aftermarket parts sales in order to make up the difference. Aftermarket pipe sales help to make dealers more profitable so that they can employ more people to service their customers properly."

So dealers make their money on aftermarket products, like noisy exhaust systems? My guess is, you would have to sell quite a few of those to make much money.... perhaps more than just "a few bad apples" would buy?...I wonder how many, actually?

So why don't these two sentences add up?

-Only a few "bad apples" cause problems by having noisy after-market exhaust systems.
-We can't ban noisy after-market exhaust systems because dealers rely on their sales.

The statements don't match up. Let's add this question to last night's list: How many after-market snowmobile and ATV exhaust systems are sold in Wisconsin? Please let me know if you know the answer.