Colts stocking dealer program

[guyfromohio]

Gringo.... Ask Harley Davidson... Also, there have been new products. They just haven't lasted..... There was their polymer 9mm in the early 1990s, the Double Action Double Eagles, 10mm Delta Elites, Colt Pony DA, etc.....

 

[mgmorden]

They just haven't lasted..... There was their polymer 9mm in the early 1990s, the Double Action Double Eagles, 10mm Delta Elites, Colt Pony DA, etc.....

Yeah, but they didn't fail simply due to market whims. The polymer 9mm had a ridiculously heavy trigger pull (the original designer put the original pull at 6 lbs and Colt later decided to bump it to 12 lbs) and was plagued with accuracy problems.

New products aren't going to help if they're not actually GOOD products that people want.

 

[Old Fuff]

New products aren't going to help if they're not actually GOOD products that people want.

Exactly! What happened is they spent some meaningful money developing and tooling products that didn't catch on, while at the same time discontinuing others that were. This going in the wrong direction cost them a net loss.

It was of course necessary to ultimately drop models that cost more to produce then they could be sold for. But if they were well accepted in the marketplace the new products should have been viable replacements.

As it was they weren't. :banghead:

 

[Slamfire]

As can be seen in what is left of that WSJ article, Colt has a cash flow problem. Predator business practices occur all the time, and Colt is attempting to force Dealers to send them money, basically, to do business with them.

Colt is no longer a dominant player in the firearms industry, their guns are old designs, behind the times in features, and Colt does not have an extensive line of firearms, and what they do have is expensive compared to the competition. There was a time when Colt could dictate terms to their dealer base. Now, they are lucky to have dealers selling Colts.

I predict more Dealers will dump Colt than continue to do business with them.

 

[Old Fuff]

I predict more Dealers will dump Colt than continue to do business with them.

I agree with your observation, but in the foreseeable future we may not have any Colt dealers.