Recently I was trying to decide whether I should buy a Chinese ATV or spend the extra money to get a used, name brand. It was hard to find good information on this topic so I want to share my experience to help anyone who may be in a similar situation.

My background:
I am 28 years old and I have never owned an ATV before and in my entire life I have only had about 3 total hours of ATV riding experience. I am not a great mechanic but I can perform basic tasks on my car such as changing oil and brake pads. However, I do have friends that are mechanically savvy, I am resourceful with the internet, and I am willing to learn how to work on ATVs.

What I was looking for:
I was looking to buy my first ATV to use for trail riding around my house. I only own about an acre of woods, but neighborhood collectively has about 10 acres of woods that I have been told that I can use (at least from some of the neighbors). I don't own a trailer, and I didn't plan on using my ATV outside of my woods. I only wanted an ATV for a few hours of light riding a week. I didn't need an ATV that could holdup to daily chores around the farm and I didn't plan on taking my ATV off of jumps or anything like that.

The Contenders:
I was looking at the following ATVs
1) Tao Tao ATA-250E ($1165)
2) Tao Tao ATA-300H1 ($2000)
3) Used 2004 350cc Yamaha Raptor ($2600)

The 300H1 was pretty much the Chinese counter part of the Raptor with a slightly smaller engine and slightly less quality. The 250E was one of the cheapest Chinese adult atvs that I could find. Everything on this quad was a little smaller than the other two (frame, tires, engine, gas tank, etc...), but it was significantly cheaper.
I decided against the raptor because $2600 was a little out of my price range and I wasn't even sure how much was was going to enjoy this new found sport. I decided against the 300H1 because I couldn't stomach paying $2000 for an ATV in which I was unsure of the quality. So by default I decided to play it safe and get the 250E.

Ordering experience:
I ordered a Tao Tao ATA-250E ATV from q9powersports.com for $1165 with free shipping. The next cheapest price was from dirtyatvs.com for $1300 with shipping. Before I ordered, I called up the company to make sure that they still existed and I wanted to ask them a few questions about what I was buying. So far everything seemed to be good. I ordered the ATV from their website and payed VIA PayPal. When ordering, I opted out of the $45 lift gate charge and I made sure that I had friend at my house during delivery to help me get the ATV off of the truck. I also got to choose between a free ATV cover or a performance CDI box. I chose the cover which ended up not being big enough to cover my ATV, oh well.

Delivery:
A few business days later I received a call from the local delivery company who wanted to setup an appointment for delivery. The ATV was delivered to my house just over a week from my order date. Luckily, the delivery truck had a lift gate on it anyways so I'm glad I didn't pay the $45 to guarantee that service. The ATV sat inside of a metal frame with a flimsy cardboard box over top of it and it sat on a wooden pallet. I quickly checked over the ATV and noticed a few discrepancies. I asked the truck driver what happens if I received the wrong ATV and he said that he doesn't take deliveries back so I'd have to work out any shipping problems with the company I ordered it from. I was a little skeptical at this point, but the ATV that I received looked "close enough" to what I ordered, so I signed the papers and sent the truck driver on his way.

Investigating the ATV discrepancies:
I ordered a Red/Black 250CC, water-cooled ATV. I was sent an all-red ATV with a tag that read 200CC air-cooled. After spotting a radiator on the ATV I know that the tag must be incorrect. However, after checking the Tao Tao website, it states that the ATV I ordered was supposed to have a 200CC engine. This is a little deceiving since the model number is 250E and most of the sites that sell this ATV say that it comes with a 250CC engine. Lastly, the paperwork that was sent with this ATV says that it is a 2009 model, not 2011. Lessons learned.

Initial Assembly:
It took about 2-3 hours for myself and a friend to assemble this ATV. We had to install the tires, handle bars, brush guard, rear rack, and some other small components. We had to change the oil, add coolant, setup and charge the battery, etc... For the most part we didn't use the instructions and I don't know if they would've been helpful anyways. There was only one bolt that wouldn't install correctly. It wasn't a very important bolt and it ended up getting installed by cross threading it. Q9powersports sent me a packet with setup and maintenance instructions. So we performed those recommend steps as well. It basically said to change the oil, because the oil that was sent with the ATV wasn't very good, and it also said to tighten every bolt on the ATV. Also, upon inspection, I noticed that the ATV's metal frame had a few gouges in it, almost as if it were made with low grade defective steel. It didn't seem too weaken the frame but it is definitely a negative. Lastly, I installed the battery after a two hour quick charge and the ATV was finally ready to go.

Initial Ride:
I had two issues with starting the ATV for the first time. They weren't problems with the ATV, rather safety features that weren't documented very well. To start the ATV I needed to 1) Reset the kill switch properly and 2) hold the brake in while trying to start it. Once I figured this out, the ATV started right up and and I took it for a slow test drive around my house a few times. Everything seems to be running well. After starting the ATV a few more times, the battery was dead. I thought that this may have been a problem with the charging system, but it turned out that the battery had a weak charge from using the 2 hour, 6 amp quick charge. So I charged the battery overnight with a 2 amp trickle charge and all was well.

Trail Riding:
Within the next few days I decide to take my ATV on some of the trails that I made in the woods behind my house. First, I tested the ATV on my street to see how fast it would go. I had it up to almost 40mph and I weight about 230 lbs and it was only half way through 4th gear. I have no doubt that this machine could hit 50mph. After that, one of the tires came loose, but that was because I didn't tighten the bolts enough when I installed it. Then I took the ATV on some trails and rode it a little harder. 3 more issues arise. The first one was the rear caliper came undone and I lost 1 of the bolts that fastened it down. This was my fault because I must have missed that bolt when I was tightening everything down. So I went to lowes to get a replacement bolt and everything was well. The second issue was a link in the drive chain broke. After further inspection there were at least 2 more links that looked weakened so this ATV was shipped with a defective chain. The warranty did not cover the chain so I had to buy another chain from the ATV shop down the street for $20 and it took about an hour to install. I did notice 1 other issue. When I was taking a turn too sharp with too much weight on one of the front wheels (usually going downhill) the wheel would lock in place completely sideways and I have to get off the ATV and twist the wheel back in place to fix it. I'm not sure, but this may be an issue with the adjustment on the tie rod, but it's not a huge deal to me because it doesn't happen too often.

After 1 week of riding:
The ATV has held up nicely. I had 1 issue with a roller guide for the drive chain being bent out of place, I think this was because I drove over a log that was too large to drive over. This isn't a very important piece anyways so I just bent it back in place and all is well again. Another problem was that the two indicator lights for reverse and neutral were not working properly. Upon
investigation it was because some of the soldering points for these LED light bulbs broke. This should have been a 1 hour fix, however, in the process of fixing it I burnt out the light bulb and blew a fuse. So I had to go to Radio Shack to buy a new light bulb and fuses ($5). I soldered the light back in place and they work just fine now. The last problem I had after 1 week of riding was the radiator hose popped off because the hose clamp wasn't tightened property. This was a simple fix.

After 1 month of riding:
For the next few weeks I had two small issues that were easily fixed. First, the rear brakes stopped working because brake fluid was leaking out of the caliper. The caliper is separated into a right and left piece and they are held together with two bolts. One of the bolts on my caliper came loose and when the brakes were engaged, brake fluid would leak out of the seam where the two pieces came together. Once I tigtend the bolt, the brakes were working again. Secondly, I discovered that two bolts that held the back plastic in place were missing nuts. I assume that they fell off while riding. I replaced the nuts with no problems.

Conclusion:
1) If you want to minimize the amount of time spent working on your ATV, don't buy a Chinese ATV.
2) If you want a high-performance ATV that you plan on riding extra hard, don't buy a Chinese ATV.
3) If you want a good starter ATV at a very good price, buy a Chinese ATV.

Although I have only ridden it for less than 20 hours, my ATV is going strong and I am happy with my purchase. Most of the issues with my ATV could have been avoided if I took the time to properly tighten every bolt before riding. However, if I were going to spend over $2000 on an ATV I would probably spend a little extra money and buy a better quality ATV. I hope that my experiences help you to decide which ATV is right for you.

 

Welcome to the forums and thank you for your detailed report.

 

Welcome to the forums! And I enjoyed reading your in-depth report about your Tao Tao.

 

Great post. I think your experience is similar to mine. Several problems, all fixable, but I have the expertise to do so. Chinese quads are not for everybody.

For someone who says "I am not a great mechanic", I think you are proving otherwise.

But down the road one year from now, if your experience is the same as mine, you will have other issues like:

1: Swing arm bushings failing.
2: Rubber shock mount inserts on all the shock absorber mounting eyes disintegrating and falling out.
3: The rubber airway between the air filter and the carburetor intake disintegrating.

All of these I fixed myself. But I have a machine shop in my garage. Not anything like MWQ's to be sure , but certainly capable of turning turning a few parts and making custom airboxes...

I did buy my quad from a brick and mortar dealer who could have done all of this work, but they are 90 miles away. I opted to do all this work myself.

I have about 2500 miles on my quad so far.

The only other thng I would suggest for those who do opt to buy a chinese quad is to make sure you are buying a quad as generic as possible. Get one of those quads that everybody seems to be making. This way you will have access to parts from a zillion sources for a long time to come.

 

how much extra time (setting up, repairing, waiting for new parts, ordering) money & frustration invested compared to just buying a nice, well taken care of brand name atv for a few bucks more???

welcome to the forum-

and good luck with your atv

 

Welcome to the forums.

Nice write up.

One of the major keys when buying a chinese brand is going in to the purchase with the expectations of having to work on it. If you're ok with that, you'll have a better experience.

Also, if you do order online, from a reputable dealer, always use a credit card. Those little discrepancies may be minor, but a lot of little ones add up to it being a different quad than you ordered. You'd be surprised what a phone call and talk of disputed charges will get you.

 

scurtis60, you did good!

I know in my neck of the woods, ~$1200 buys you a name brand machine that's dead or dying. $2000+ gets you something well used that's going to need work.

You don't need to be a mechanical genius to own one of these import ATVs, but like said, you will need some tools and at least the desire to wrench some.

Regardless, I would have to put the cost cut-off on a new "full-sized" Chinese ATV right around that $1300 mark. I just couldn't recommend anyone pay more than that for one.

Your experiences basically mirror mine with my kids little Taotao.

Joel

 

Around here in mass- you can easily find a nice honda 2000-2002 300ex or 400ex for about $1200 - $1500.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more from me as I come looking for repair advice.

 

Same here. I bought a 250ex for my son with lots of extras (full skid plate, nerb bars, aftermarket bumpers all around etc) for $1300.

I bought my 2001 Suzuki King Quad for $1500 with new ITP Mud Lites, a winch and snow plow.

Ive had other quads even cheaper.....a older 300 Honda 2wd utility (1994 I think) that looked like it just came out of the shipping crate - $700.

If the used market in your area is good - it just doesnt pay to go Chinese.

That being said, I have owned a few of them......and they turned out to be fair machines if your riding in the yard - use one often and its a viscous ride/break/repair cycle that NEVER ends.