I am buying my first ATV soon, a 2004 Honda Foreman ES. I likely will not purchase an extended warranty. The ATV will be used for hunting, snow plowing and light farm work. I am 40yrs old and won't be riding this machine hard.

Any advise on warranties?

 

Consumer Reports says to NEVER buy extended warrantie's. That includes anything from a new truck to a DVD player at Best Buy.

However, one reason I got my ATV was because it came with a free 2 year warranty!

 

All depends on how mechanical you are. If you do your own oil and filter changes, clean air filters, and do the minor wrenching that is probably needed, then you might as well skip the extended warrentee, and buy the service manual and do stuff yourself. If, however, doing the wrenching sounds like more than you want to take on, then buy the warrentee. You get the first 6 months for free, but it doesnt include maintance items...like oil change and valve checking.
Youre making a bet with extended warentees...you only win, if you end up with a POS. Thats if you can figure out the exclusions and disclaimers, and visit charges, and the rest of the fine print..sometimes theres so many hoops to jump thru to get the warentee work covered, that it isnt worth it.