Just noticed a place not far from me that has been selling fire wood for years. They have a couple new Chinese side by sides and several atvs parked at the front now along with the firewood. I'm sure they have a top notch mechanic on duty and a good parts supply when needed...

 

I had no problems buying a Taotao 250 from an online seller this last spring. One of the wheels was bent in shipping and they sent a pair of new ones out right away. I've put over 200 hours on the machine since then and the only other problem has been loss of dampening in one of the front shocks which I replaced with aftermarket units.

 

We had a forum member here that actually went to one of the factories in China to see if there were things they could do to improve the product.

The company that was "making" the atv's was a company that had for years made washing machines. Not a huge stretch in products there.

So the first thing he notices is, they don't use torque wrenches. The test is them being rolled down some stairs, and if nothing falls off, it's all good. There was no real quality control. The main goal was putting out a certain amount of units. Welds were inferior, but if it held there, it was good.

This was more than a few years ago, so they have (hopefully) improved on some of these things.

 

There are some real differences in the quality of my 10 year old Taotao 250 to my 6 month old Taotao 250. The engines are excellent in both but the newer one has a nicely powder coated frame, some redesigned parts including the swing arm and front suspension, and all the fasteners are flange head bolts with nylock nuts.

Taotao is a major manufacturer of ATVs and lawn and garden equipment.