What happened to the CAT, it lost in everyway, I thought the new 500i would of competed in everything against the other 500's atleast.
Why is it so slow compared to the other 500's.
Why can't it pull with the others. Its supposed to have all this torque and weight, well the 600lb machines killed it. The only thing it had was the ride and ground clearance.
Is this true information or did or what. I was disapointed in AC. I thought they would of had it atleast compete with the slow HONDA.
Any real answers from everyday people.
Thanks
2000 Grizz
4200 km's.

 

The person that wrote that should be fired.( Be careful of all that 14 HP )[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-mad.gif[/img]

 

I was also disappointed after reading the "Shootout Review"

It was amazing how slow the Arctic Cat was compared to the competition.

Does this mean how inefficient the Arctic Cat and Suzuki transmissions really are? I know they deliver less than average MPG with the automatic.

Is the reason, the automatic transmission design deficiencies, the low gearing, or the low stress designed powerplant?

Would a 5 speed 500I be faster in a drag race with an automatic 500I?

 

[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]This is the very reason that I no longer subscribe to any ATV rags. I get tired of seeing them trying to jump, wheelie and powerslide every quad that they review. Then tear it apart because it doesn't handle it like a 250R. I can think of something wrong about every quad that I've been around, even mine. As amatter of fact chose my AC because of the simplicity of it. I like the manual 2-4 wheel selector, low gears, bicycle speedometer, single lever brakes, soft suspension, heel toe shifter, big heavy frame and weight of my AC. My second choice would have been the heavy, no tank to grab ahold of Traxter.
But that's why they make so many different kinds. But I don't need some dried up old dirt bike rider trying to tell me that my quad is too heavy to be a trail rider.
You can count the pages of ads and see who the next ATV of the year will be. I'm not saying that it should be AC at all, but they could at least get off of their butt for building a good heavy quad.
The manual will lose in a drag race with the auto up until about 3rd or 4th gear, then it is so long.

 

ya the problem is they came in last in the pull off too, they were beat by the other 500's and I thought for sure they would of been in the top 3 with there weight and torque, but they didn't. Engine size has nothing to do with pulling power, its torque/weight which they are supposed to have.
They said at the end to leave the AC on the farm for farm work.
The shootout was more geared on UTILITY and it got killed. Is this false advertising as I thought the AC should of been in the top contenders seeing it is heavy like the Quest, not as but close.

 

Actually it did beat the Rubicon in the sled pull. But with the Grizzly they said it took some body english to get it to pull as far as it did. I just wonder how much body english they did on the AC to make it do so poorly. I've had an AC hooked to a sled it does not run out of power it runs out of traction. The same with most other brands, even when you weight the quad down to 1200 lbs on hard ground. My AC has never run out of power. Even our 250 4x4 doesn't run out of power, with the front end locked. Traction is a different thing though. You need to put a lot of weight on the front. This is the way the AC is set up, heavy in the front. Common sense tells you that a heavier quad will win. This is why at ATV pulls everyone gets right up to the class weight. 10 or 15 lbs can make a lot of difference. I believe the results would have been different if some of the AC owners on this board or any other one would have been driving that 500i. At least they tested an auto so we didn't have to listen to them complain about how they hate the rocker shifter. Seeing how most of the AC owners that I know like their awkward rocker shifter.

 

I was also very surprised with the article,However I do not think the AC machine they tested was running up to Spec (The 14.2 rear wheel horse power should have been a clue to the guys doing the shootout).I don't think it would be as high as some of the others but closer to the 21.8 HP that the vinsen had tested at.The last paragraph of the article says (quote)"The Arctic Cat 500i is a decent worker,and we've had better engine performance out of other Cat 500's in the past. Where not sure what happened to this one, but it did/nt seem to perform up to its abilities.Regardless, the utility only Arctic Cat is a good worker but doesn't like to play. Leave your cat at home and enjoy its plush ride. (end Quote) Maybe if Arctic Cat had done more advertising in the magazine,the Mag. Staff would have requested another machine to check the specs against to see if there test Cat was being fairly represented! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img].All I can say is that it sure does'nt feel like mine has only 14hp. when its hauling my big butt around. I guess we'll have to wait for another mag. to do a shootout and hope that Arctic Cat does more advertising with them before the article prints.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

I would like to see the odometer of the bike they tested. Probably never rolled a mile before until they got on it. What I'm saying is, they probably didn't give it a break-in before they tested it. Remember, there are two ways to lie... say something that you know is false, or, withhold important information so that the real truth is distorted. Sure, the AC might have underperformed (that part might be true), but they could be hiding the underlying reason for why it underperformed. As the old saying goes, "he who pays the piper calls the tune". As long as these magazines see Honda and the others as their "pride and joy" manufacturers, nothing will change. Hopefully, these mags will catch on that even though AC has low market share, no other quad maker has been even close to Arctic Cat's sales growth over the past few years. The sooner they realize that, the sooner we'll get to enjoy unbiased reviews. Until then, I'll make my own decisions about which machine I think should be "left on the farm".

 

IceCat, I was going to mention something about the Break-in also becouse I know my cat sure was tight, but it is looseing up real nice. So far I have about 7 hours on it. I decided not to post anything about wether or not it was "broke-In" when tested because I would hope that they were all factory fresh machines. Then again you never know!

 

From the pictures it looks like it was pooring raing when they did their testing. I would think that the conditions would make it near impossible to perform accurate/repeatable pulls, drags... ...just about anything really. Seemed very unprofesional/unscientific. I don't know how two magaines can test the same machines and come to totally differant conclusions. Dirt Wheels loves the Grizz and the Prarie, and thinks the Quest and the Polaris 700 are so-so. ATV Magazine thinks the 700 is the greatest thing since sliced bread, really likes the Quest, says the Prarie's suspenion is mush and they really don't have anything to say about the Grizz.

To be fair, ATV Magazine does seem to have a more "Tell it how it is" aproach, they don't have any problem telling you what they don't like. Other magazines right a glowing article followed up with a couple inconsequential nit-picky things to gripe about to give the article some credibility.

the 14 hp might be pre-break in but it doesn't seem that low. If the Vinson, which (I think) has the same 493 motor with higher compresion and more agressive cam puts out 22 hp I would expect the Cat to be around 18ish.

I'm going to be getting a new quad soon and had been looking at the ACs. I couldn't find a 500i around here, there are plenty of dealers but none of them actually have any ATVs, they said they don't sell well. I had been liking the looks of the Cats but between the bad reviews from the dealers and the article in ATV Magazine I've pretty much decided against the Cat and will most likely buy a Praraie.