Trying to decide for my 12 year old. Polaris Phoenix 200 or Honda 250EX. Any suggestions or experience with the polaris?

 

Purchase the honda...hands down.

 

honda is proving reliable, the phoenix is really a Chinese quad imported by polaris

 

The pheonix is the worst atv to ever hold the polaris name badge, I understand the customers that own them now are eligable for another 6 momths warantee at no charge due to the amount of problems.

 

As to which one is better, I can't say. I have not ridden the Honda in person and from what I saw it was a decent machine. We have a Phoenix. We like ours so far. It had a few minor glitches, but now it seems to be solid. The dealer told me the '06 will have a higher reving CDI and a new gear ration in the rear end to make it peppier. This thread should help, Phoenix review also do a search of the forums for phoenix. Some hated them, we like ours.

 

I bought the phoenix for my 13 yr old son and my 11 yr old daughter the quad runs great they beat the crap out of it and it seems to hold up good I get on it and so far so good the only thing that I dont like is the rear drum brake pretty much worthless but all in all good quad.

 

Wait and get an 06, guy here bought one for his kids and he's had a lot of problems with it.

 

LOL ...

The Phoenix is not the worst to ever get the Polaris badge ...

The old 250's were some real problem childs back in the day .

Rick

PS ----> That little honda is a pretty good unit , hard to go wrong with a new honda . (exception to the rule the 1985 XR200 )

 

For what it's worth, here is my opinion about both quads !!! I took delivery of a new Phoenix back in January for my 9 year old son. He has gotten very bored of his Viper 90. The first weekend of hard riding, we had problems with it back-firing, getting it into reverse there was a bit of grinding, the headlight assembly kept popping out every time he took a good size jump, and we burned up a starter when the engine was warm trying to start it !!! Needless to say, I was not impressed !!! In March, I was taking a two week vacation to do some camping and go four-wheeling. I was afraid that the Phoenix would not make it through a good week of riding, so I bought a used 250ex for a back-up for him to ride. The 250 was jetted, had a K&N air filter and had an aftermarket pipe on it. I ride a 400ex with a lot of modifications on it and I got to tell you, this little 250 was fast !!! Quite a bit faster than the Phoenix !!! He started our trip by riding the 250, and in the sand he absolutely loved it !!! When we got to the trails and hill climbing, he just could not understand upshifting and downshifting. He actually rolled it down a good size hill because he tried to climb it in 4th gear and ran out of engine !!! By the way, that barrel roll down the hill didn't even phase the tough Honda !!! He swapped quads and rode the Phoenix for the rest of the week and we didn't have any problems with it at all !!! The Phoenix has been totally under water several times and still starts with-out any problem. I guess what we learned is ,the Phoenix did have several problems at first, but once they were fixed, it has been an excellent quad !!! We all know that Hondas will last forever with a little maintanace, but my kid just couldn't get the shifting thing down. The fixes for the Phoenix were, for the back-firing problem, there was a little switch on the throttle that was out of adjustment and once fixed, no more backfiring. The trans. had 80/90 weight oil in it from Polaris. Once we put the proper fluid in it the grinding problem got better. (You still sometimes have to blip the throttle to get it into gear sometimes, which is a Polaris thing.) A little silicone to hold the headlight in and he hasn't lost it yet !!! One more thing about the starter. We recieved a new sparg plug in the mail from Polaris and lo and behold, it actually fixed our hot start problem !!! The actual size of the Phoenix does scare me a bit for an 80 lb. kid, but he does not ride like an idiot and does know his limits. After him riding it for most of the summer now, I went from wanting to sell it the first week-end we had it to now i'm getting ready to buy another one for my wife !!! As far as the 250, I am going to sell it very shortly here, and yes, I am a very devouted Honda dude !!!

 

I have ridin a Phenoix and it felt like a 50cc to me , but I have been use to riding the Sportsman all day and for months, but it still felt like a 50cc and sounds like it to !