Hi my name is Brianna and am looking to buy my first quad. Someone I know has a 2003 250 Trailblazer 2 stroke for sale. It has a fresh engine rebuild from a Polaris dealership. He's asking $1800. I'm new to quads and would like to know if it's a good solid reliable quad and if the asking price sounds fair? Any advice on the quad would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance!!

 

If it's clean,not abused and does have a new engine.Might be worth it. Keep in mind KBB has it listed for $1000 and Nada at 900 retail. It would have be in almost perfect condition even with a new engine to be worth anything near $1800. Ask for repair receipts on the engine. If it's just a top end,no. If it's been rebuilt from the rod and bearings up then it might be worth your time. Plenty of clean entry level Trailblzers out there besides his.

 

You can do better for that price. I bought a nice 2002 Arctic Cat 400 FIS (4 stroke) for $1,400. IMHO a 4 stroke will be faster and use half the gas. Unless you really like the "da did ding ding, pop,pop" and smoke. I had a 2 stroke Polaris 400 sportsman, before getting the AC 400. The 4 stroke AC 400 is 10x better. Only thing the 2 stroke could do better was pop a wheelie.

 

Price sounds way too high. I had a Trailblazer many years ago. Its an ok quad but compared to something like a Scrambler 400 2 stroke, its very underpowered. A Scrambler 500 would be better. Its basically the same size and you can get it with 4wd as well. Granted it is quite a bit heavier, the 500 will still blow it away on performance. A lot more power and the 500 4 stroke is just a much better engine than the 250 2 stroke. No need to buy 2 stroke oil either. I know Polaris has the automatic oiler but many times those fail and that is the cause of a lot of them needing to be rebuilt. They end up running the quad without oil and burn the engine up. For $1800, you should be able to find a Scrambler 500 in good condition. A trailblazer should be in the $800-$1000 range.
There are other choices out there for an auto quad in that price range though. Yamaha made the Kodiak 400 in a 2wd version that would be in the same price range. Might even be able to find a 4x4 version for a little more. I dislike the chain drive on all these Polaris models. The chain will slowly stretch over time and will need constant tightening or it will pop off when riding. Yamaha and also Arctic Cat as Hydrex mentioned have shaft drive which requires zero maintenance and gives you more ground clearance too. You can find good deals on old Arctic Cat models as well. They would be utility machines but did come in cvt auto so would still be good for a beginner. The 400 did come in an auto, as well as a 500 in auto as well.
Honda has the ES utility 250cc Recon which is a good beginner quad. Its not fully auto but the push button electric shifting is almost as easy and makes better use of its 250cc. It still tops out at around 48-50 mph, plenty fast enough for a beginner. Its also much smaller and lighter than any of the Polaris models, making it easier to handle and more manuverable on the trail. You get racks front and rear so it can be used to do some work if you want or just haul a cooler if you get thirsty out riding. You should be able to find one of those in the $1500 range in good shape like this one http://evansville.craigslist.org/snw/5873333578.html.

 

I had a Trailblazer 250 for about a year, maybe 2. It didn't have enough power for me but other than that it was a good quad. It got bad gas mileage because I was WOT a lot of the time. Some other people I knew had engine trouble with their Trailblazers but I don't think they did any routine maintenance like cleaning the air filter.

 

Thank you all so much for your expertise! If he doesn't drop the price, I'll probably look at other options. Thank you again!

 

Just show him the KBB and Nada quotes,allow extra on the rebuild and try to work him down from there. If he isn't willing to budge,walk away. Plenty of other clean used machines out there for that kind of price he's asking.

 

Another one to look at that would be pretty cheap would be a Polaris Trailboss 325 or 330. It basically replaced the Trailblazer after 2 strokes were phased out in the early 2000's. 325 cc and later larger 330cc 4 stroke engine 2wd quad with a rear rack and cvt auto. Here's an example of a good used one though someone took the rear rack off 2002 Polaris trail boss 325 but for $1100 its a pretty good deal. Here's another one with the rear rack and also the optional front rack(the blue one in the pics) and the bigger 330cc engine Polaris trailboss 2003 and Suzuki 2004 Even if you only plan to ride for fun, its nice to at least have a rear rack so you can haul a cooler.