Where Have All The 3-wheelers Gone?

[old-yellow]

I was reading a March 1989 ATV Sports magazine and found this Article and thought it was kinda of interesting.

A story recently appeared in Automotive News that reported the sales of new 3-wheel ATVs, which has been banned in U.S., are now taking place in the"gray market" in Britain. According to the article, a company based in England's West Midlands has negotiated to import hundreds of Yamaha 3-wheelers, to the embarrassment of the official importer of "legal" Yamaha motorcycles and 4-wheelers. The company that imported the vehicles, Autobase, which disposes of salvage vehicles at auctions, purchased about 2,000 3-wheelers in U.S. and is selling them mainly at British Car Auctions. The going price has been said to be under $1700 U.S. for a brand new 1986 Tri-Z 250, which is about half of what Europeans has been spending on "legally imported models". The official importer, Mitsui, has issued a bulletin to all Yamaha outlets stressing that they are not importing any 3-wheelers, that there will be no warranty on such machines, and that ant supplier or dealer, together with the importer, will be liable for defective products and carry sufficient liability insurance.

[Rawlins350x]

pretty neat write up. wish i could have been one of the lucky guys who got to pick one up cheap.

[BigRed_Ryno]

My dad an his brother bought 2 brand new ones for bout £500 each from such auctions. Was no big deal at the time i guess, i remember sitting on them in the workshop all new and shiney. Unfortunately, havent a clue what happened to them :(

[Yamada]

http://www.3wheelerworldforums.com/showthread.php?t=104169

[luke]

I know a few people that saw them go through the auctions back in the late 80's, people who had no intrest at all in them :(

We got lots of Z quads over here, they on feepay every week :rolleyes: They are part of trike history :beer

[DixiePlowboy]

pretty neat write up. wish i could have been one of the lucky guys who got to pick one up cheap.

In the summer of 1987, S&W Yamaha in Jasper, AL ran an ad in the local paper for new left over Tri-Z's. The '85 model was $1295 and the '86 model was $1495. I called the same morning, confirmed they had an '86 left, then rode an hour and a half to the dealership.

When I got there, there were two other people there picking Z's up(an '85 and my '86). I panicked.

The salesperson then walked back to the shop with me and I watched my '86 Z un-crated, put together, and serviced.

I kept it till '93, and wish I still had it everyday.