Here is something interesting that happened during my course of researching an ATV to buy. I have been posting a lot lately and you may already know that I chose a Kawasaki Prairie 650 over a Polaris Sportsman 700. Both in my opinion are good ATV's. I think that Polaris as a line offers the best line-up in the entire ATV market. Others may disagree or agree, its argueable. Living up here in northern MN, I am in the heart of Polaris country. Roseau, MN is 3 short hours away and the Polaris marketshare up here is nearly 50%. I am not here to bash Polaris cause I just may get another ATV in the near future and if I do it will definetly be a Polaris. (unless that new Honda Rincon really impresses me) But many of the Polaris dealerships around here sell both the Kawasaki and Polaris ATV's. And here is some intersting news: EVERY sales rep that I talked to in these dealership picked the Prairie 650 as a better all-around ATV than any of the Polaris's. And some of these guys are diehard Polaris guys. The Kawasaki Prairie 650 has made that much of an impression on them. In a Kawasaki/Yamaha dealership in Detroit Lakes, MN; one of the guys is a diehard Yamaha guy. He has owned Yamaha for years and he never leaves the shop unless he is wearing his Yamaha attire. But he too said that the Prairie 650 is truly amazing and he gives it a nod over the Grizzly, although he states that the Grizzly sure looks meaner. I know we all have our favorites, and for most of us here in the Kawasaki Forum this will make us feel better about our decision. Yamaha and Polaris make fine ATV's and I mean them no disrespect. But for those of you prowsing around here searching for an ATV to buy, you sure owe it to yourselves to consider a Kawasaki Prairie 650. I am glad that I did!

Daryn

 

i was going to buy a polaris but decided on the kawi because i had heard you had to work on them alot. ihave had a kaw since 85 with no problems so i bought another last year. the polaris looks primitive compared to the others.

 

I have one of each, the biggest selling point for the Kawi was it does everything so effortlessly. Nothing has broken, It was serviced at 12 hour, and the choke cables were replaced under warranty. The choke cables didn't cure the cold blooded nature of the engine.... That's about the ONLY complaint that I have about it.
I chose the Prairie over the 700 because it was available ( I bought mine in August 2001 ) and was about 100 lbs. lighter. I was more inclined to buy a first year of production Kawi than I was a Polaris. I know their QC has drasticly improved over the years, but there was still that nagging thought in my mind: Is it going to be a lemon ?

The Scrambler was purchased to mod out and tinker with, so parts breakage, etc. in the engine doesn't really apply. The rest of the quad has been flawless so far.

 

Glad to see that you like the 650, I like mine too, it is amazing that you can have this much fun on a +600lb machine.

 

650, no doubt.