Category: News

This one hits close to home, folks: Debbie Watson, former Power Equipment Trade advertising sales representative from 1992 until fall 2002, died November 28 at age 45 after a long battle with skin cancer. Beautiful and vivacious, Debbie brightened every life she touched—and was a very successful PET ad-selling machine. For a while she was…

This news item gives dealers an idea of the push toward getting more ethanol—and renewable fuels in general—into America’s transportation fuel system. As many industry officials have said, more ethanol and new blends are eventually coming to a fuel tank near you, and it’s up to manufacturers and dealers to adapt and develop strategies to…

The North American Equipment Dealers Assn. (NAEDA), Farm Equipment Manufacturers Assn. (FEMA) and FEWA-AIMRA have completed an agreement to initiate the launch of a new online system to process warranty claims and warranty registrations. When officially launched in January 2009, the Warranty Claim Processing System will allow users to electronically complete warranty registration, file warranty…

I guess it was only a matter of time, especially after the Wall Street Journal article we mentioned a while back. The other day I was watching TV, and what came on the screen was a “YAMAHA RHINO ALERT!” ad from a trial lawyer firm looking to put together a class-action lawsuit against Yamaha, manufacturer…

As I mentioned in the first poweretblog post following GIE+EXPO, ethanol was a hot topic at the event. We’ve got more coverage of ethanol issues that came up during GIE+EXPO in the December issue of PET, with comments from OPEI officials and a quick take on an ethanol technical session given by Stihl technical training…

A complete roundup of the 2008 Power Equipment Trade GIE+EXPO Dealers Choice Awards winners and finalists is now available online at PET’s website, www.poweret.com/dca. There’s also coverage of the winners and finalists in next month’s December hard-copy issue, but the Internet version, not constrained by those pesky page counts and ad budgets, contains larger photos…

Alert PET reader John Greco in Old Forge, Pa. spotted the almost-forgotten McCulloch BP-1 chain saw in the photo on p. 48 of the PET November PowerGuide issue and sent a note thanking us for running it. Greco, who sold McCulloch for Eastern States Distributors and as a factory rep back in the day, noted…

One of the best-attended sessions last month at GIE+EXPO in Louisville October 23-25 was at The Dealer Experience, where long-time industry leaders Stihl Inc. President Fred Whyte and Ariens Co. President Dan Ariens took questions from the 100+ dealers in the audience and gauged the outlook for independent dealers in the lawn and garden industry….

Ariens Co. has announced the signing of a letter of intent to enter into an agreement with two Iowa middle school students to produce and distribute an invention they designed as part of the Invent Iowa program. Sam Hipple and Matt Moran attend Sudlow Intermediate School in Davenport. They designed the “Mega Melter” as part…

Husqvarna has announced the winners of its 2008 “Husqvarna Heroes” program, a special recognition designed to highlight dealers for being “hands-on” in support of their local community. Five dealers across the country were selected on the basis of their community participation and good works. “Several of our Husqvarna dealers have recently gone above and beyond…