Thought i would give a comparison of the two for those of you trying to decide which one to purchase. Like many things, it is going to come down to how much you want to spend, what kind of riding you want to do, and what kind of rider will be on the quad.

Hands down, the better of the two quads is the Suzuki. It is faster, has better suspension, and just all around a nicer quad.

HOWEVER...lets not leave the features of the DS250 untouched. This is where the three things I said it depends on comes in play.

How much do you want to spend? The Suzuki cost me about $1000 more than the Can Am. That is significant.

What kind of riding are you going to do? I don't do a lot of big jumps or anything like that. I'm 40 years old and my body doesn't heal like it used to so many times I take the safe route. I do have a flat track in my field and it has one jump that is maybe a 3ft high jump. The Suzuki hits it and lands it effortlessly. The Can-Am doesn't really seem fit to handle even a jump that size. I don't know it for a fact but it almost seems like it bottoms out the shocks on the landing and this is with it not even jumping as high as the Suzuki can due to not being as quick. However, if you are only minor trail riding, no big deal. Cornering seems fine with it. Brakes are great however the fronts on the Can Am are noisy. This may go away as the quad has time to break in some more. (they sqeak).

Lastly, who is the operator going to be? The Can-Am has one very distinct advantage and that is that it is it has a fully automatic transmission. Enough said.

As to the other benefits of the can am such as Water Cooled....to this I say Big Deal and actually consider that a disadvantage as it leaves the possibility of it leaking some day and me having to fix it. I have owned the Suzuki for 3 years and I live in the south. It has never had an issue with heat.

The can Am does provide a 12v dc outlet on it which I could see as being a life saver under the right circumstances. Think NAV or dead cell phone battery.

So, if you are looking at buying one or the other, it should really come down to the three main factors as listed above. Budget seems to be a big factor in all of our lives now a days and the Can Am can't be beat for that. The suzuki's can be had for pretty decent prices in the used market though as it seems many people don't care for a 250 so the market is always soft. It takes a while for sellers to realize this but eventually they do and they come to their senses price wise.

Hope this helps.

 

Having bought an 06 ds for the wife, I can say this about it.

It starts, it runs and it looks nice.

Bought it to replace a Trail Blazer 250 that needed a top end rebuild. We were going on a ride before I could get it fixed, and found the ds at a very good price.

The ds is a lot narrower than the tb, and with a full size adult, tends to tip more in the corners. Wheel spacers would fix that. But then you're just adding to the cost, and making a case for buying another brand.

I've loaded the ds in the back of the truck, and it takes half throttle to get it rolling up the ramp from the bottom of it. Just no bottom end.

Fortunately, I finally got my "stuff" together and will have the work done on the tb in the next week. The wife will be happy again, which will make me happy again. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

We'll keep the ds, just as a loaner to those who go riding with us. But I honestly couldn't recommend going out and buying one.

A better comparison is the trx250 and the z250.