For Immediate Release
Friday, June 23, 2006Yamaha Expands PowerMatched™ Concept by Offering Limited Warranty Program Through Dealers
Chicago, IL
For Immediate ReleaseKENNESAW, Ga., June 23, 2006 — Beginning July 1, Yamaha Marine Group’s Full-Line and Pre-Paired Performance dealers will offer a two-year or three-year limited warranty on all Yamaha rigging components when those components are part of a power system package the company defines as “PowerMatched.”
The PowerMatched limited warranty benefit follows a similar program initiated last April for Yamaha’s 100+ independent boat builder partners. PowerMatched limited warranties are a value-added benefit and part of the company’s on-going effort to provide complete power systems to complement the company’s outboard motors. The overall purpose is to exceed even the most demanding customer expectations.
“It just makes sense. We want all of the components associated with our outboards to be designed and built to our standards. Our boat builder partners already see the value of a systems approach to marine power, as do our dealers and we think they will want to make their boats ‘PowerMatched’ using Yamaha rigging,” said Ben Speciale, Yamaha Marine Group Vice President, Operations and Planning.
To achieve the PowerMatched designation, Yamaha dealers will equip their boats with Yamaha key switches, control boxes, control cables, electrical harnesses, 10-micron filters, gauges and propellers. When a boat is rigged with all Yamaha components, the boat is then PowerMatched, and the warranties of the components extend to match the limited warranty of the outboard, two years for 2-stroke outboards and three years for 4-stroke outboards.
The limited warranties are valid for boats rigged by the dealer or delivered rigged with all PowerMatched components and Yamaha Outboards by the qualified boat builder.
The dealer verifies the use of all components in a report to Yamaha at the time of sale in the process of warranty registration on the Yamaha Marine Business System (YMBS). YMBS then activates the matching limited warranty on all components.
According to Yamaha’s own CSI surveys, boats using PowerMatched rigging components rate approximately 3 percent higher in customer satisfaction than boats rigged with aftermarket components.
Industry wide, performance and customer satisfaction issues emerge when an outboard is not properly integrated with the boat's other powertrain components.
Earlier this year, Yamaha merged its marine rigging and parts operations into the Yamaha Marine Group. That and the warranty decisions support the company’s goal to raise already high levels of customer satisfaction associated with Yamaha outboard products.
Yamaha Marine Group is the sole distributor for Yamaha Marine products in the United States. It supports its 2,200 dealers and OEM partners with marketing, training and parts for Yamaha’s full line of products and accessories and strives to be the industry leader in reliability, technology and customer service. Yamaha Marine has won the marine industry’s C.S.I. Customer Satisfaction Index award every year since its inception.
For more information, call (800) 88-YAMAHA or visit <http://www.yamahaoutboards.com>
