Here's the deal... I'm a first time atv buyer and have been studying hard all aspects of buying and evaluating these things for a used purchase. Now after months of looking everywhere I finally found a local private seller through word of mouth that may be offering a hell of a deal. Story is...

Guy's got a 2012 Yamaha Griz 550 w/ EPS with 2900 miles and 250 hours on it and hes asking $4900. Says he got it from NPA? in Cincinnati for $4400 and paid $125 to ship it. After new tires, brakes and oil he says he's got $5000 into it coming from a dealer-only wholesale auction. I've only got $4500 to spend and really stressed that and he says he'll sell it to me if the guy coming on Friday doesn't pay the full $4900 price he's asking.

So yeah fairly excited about the prospects here. This one blue books for something like $5500-$5800 retail.

But I'm still a little too wet behind the ears still to be confident about evaluating these things used so I'm cramming as much info as I can before I go take a look at it. So don't want to get burned.

So couple questions...

1- I've seen some with more and less miles than the 2900 this one has. But have been taught it's not so much the mileage as how they were put on. Anyone have insight about this specific model with almost 3000 miles and 250 hours on it?

2- Are there any special problems the 2012 550 EPS Griz has that I should be looking out for?

 

It's your money,but I'd really have this thing checked out by a good mechanic before I plopped down good money on an auction bike.. I've been to several down here over the years and have seen people get suckered into buying what may seem to be good machines only to have major problems crop up. DON'T get stressed out over any machine! Could be just the old bait game he's playing also.Plenty of good low hr/mileage machines out there from individuals if you have the patience to check around. Anytime someone mentions an auction machine I'm a a little leery to begin with. May be a good machine,but "if" the machine is still there and he won't let you have it checked out,the deal sounds too good to be true,a lot of times it isn't. Same thing on ebay atvs. Have had several customers buy out of area atvs and had them shipped to the shop for us to go over only to find that they were no where near what they thought they were getting..Just use common sense.

 

Dealer only wholesale action. Had a few friends that went to those. They never came back buying anything that was close to retail price.

I was happy to get a street bike from one of them once for 400 bucks. Found out he paid 150 for it and didn't even wash it before I bought it. He was going to ask twice what I paid for it, but gave me a deal since we were friends.

I'm with OPT on this. If you can't see it, start it and ride it, don't buy it.

 

I have bough many uses ATVs but I never bough one that I did not actually see and atleast start up and let idle if there was no place to ride.

The person sure was a rider to have 3000 miles on a 2012, my 2001 has only 600 miles more. Not saying its high mileage but it sure is not low.

 

Its not that much less than retail price. Here's one on craigslist about a 3 hour drive from me. I have entertained the possibility of looking at it myself, its been on there for a long time, I'm sure they sold it already and didn't remove the add. People on craigslist are terrible about that. A 2012 550 but no eps with 3000 miles for $3850. Buying used, I'd prefer a machine not having eps, no warranty to cover it potentially going out.
http://semo.craigslist.org/snw/5002754551.html

 

That's the good thing about EPS , if it ever goes out you don't have to fix it ,it will just steer like a normal ATV . Just enjoy it while it lasts.

 

I hope that's the case but I've never ridden an eps machine where it wasn't functioning. I think there would still be some added resistance from the eps components still being there. Probably makes the steering heavier than one that never had it in the first place. But yeah, its not going to make it impossible to steer like if it goes out on an automobile. I bought a truck once in which the power steering pump had went out. It was a cheap truck, only paid $400 for it. The person I bought it from just drove it like that. It didn't take long to decide no power steering was no fun. It was almost impossible to steer if it wasn't moving. To make a turn, you had to start turning the wheel well before you got there. $150 and a remanufactured power steering pump installed later and it was fine. I couldn't have imagined driving the truck for 2 years like they did like that. 2 weeks was long enough for me.

 

I,m just taking a guess that a EPS ATV with the power steering not working would just handle like a normal ATV.
It would have to be a cheap fix for me to get the P.S back up and working. If it was like $400 to fix I'd say ,forget it and get a nice set of tires instead.

 

I guess you'd have to own one and have the power steering go out after the warranty expires to find out. I think Yamaha's system is pretty bullet-proof though. I probably wouldn't worry much about buying a used Grizzly 550 or 700 with power steering. Yamaha's system seems to work the best too. It offers more help at lower speeds and tapers off at higher speeds where you don't need it anyway. I rode a Grizzly 700 with power steering before and I'll admit I did like the feature. Even in 4wd its still easy to steer. Not too easy either, nice balance of feel and assistance. I almost bought one brand new several years ago but my conservative side finally won out and I couldn't let myself spend that much money on an atv. Spending a fraction of the price for a nice used quad and paying cash sounded better than making payments on something new. Like for instance this Grizzly 660 that I just bought. Its value won't go down much in the next 3-4 years if I decide to sell it. Might go from being worth $3000 to maybe $2500. A new quad that sold for say $9000 in 4 years will only be worth maybe $5000-$5500. Losing a few hundred sounds better than losing thousands in a few years. The initial hit was made by someone else that forked out the money to buy it new.

 

Geez, I remember when power steering was an option.