Some of you might be aware that Artic Cat uses Kymco engines and running gear for their UTV's and their ATV's so now their newest offering to the UTV market is the 2017 Prowler 500 UTV. It is the Kymco 450i rebadged into the prowler utv format with just some minor cosmetic changes to the front plastic. This is nothing bad as the 450i has a great reputation and great build quality so AC is taking advantage of an already hot selling UTV to add to there lineup. If you are looking for a smaller size utility vehicle with high remarks from the general public then check out the new Prowler 500, or if you want to save about 2k look into the Kymco 450i as they are the same machine.

 

Just bought an AC Prowler 500 for the kids. Just took it to Colorado and did the trails up to 12k feet. The machine did great!

 

The 550, 700 and 1,000 are still Arctic Cat built in Minnesota, USA, I believe. To be honest, the old USA Made, Suzuki motors were very good, too.

 

The single cylinder 700 was a Kymco at one time and Kymco made engines for Suzuki for many years, not sure of the time span though. You are correct the older Suzuki engines were bullet proof, the only drawback to Suzuki in the early days was the high price of replacement parts, that really hurt them.

 

Arctic Cat doesn't even make a 550 anymore. Its 450, 700 and 1000cc engines. I think only the 1000cc vtwin is built by Arctic Cat. There is also a 700 twin used in the Wildcat that Arctic Cat builds as well. I think one of the Prowler models gets the 700 twin too. The others are all Kymco and the 300 engine as well. I believe the Arctic Cat 300 shares the same engine as the Brute Force 300.

 

Here's my new 500 Prowler I got for the kids.


















It went great in the mountains of Colorado, did everything my RZR did no problem. I relocated the upper struts to the outer hole for about 2" of lift, added LED headlight bulbs, USB charger, interior lighting, soft top, Windshield, and 26" MASS FX tires with MB wheels so far. I have a winch for it but no bumpers yet. Waiting for a bumper manufacturer to get back to me so I can order those.

 

Boy your "kids" are sure lucky to have a dad that is willing to buy them a nice decked out side x side !! Would you be willing to adopt an older "kid"?
Nice looking machine, you might try "off road body armor" for your bumpers, the owner Kurt is a real nice fellow and his products are well built.
He posts on the "Kymco" forum as well as on this forum.

 

The Prowler 500 is a great mid size utv. I noticed recently the Prowler 500 discounted quite a bit along with all the other A/C models. My local dealer had them listed for $7199+fees, down from the $8599 list price. Compared to the other utvs in this class(Honda Pioneer 500 and Polaris Ranger 500) I would definitely pick the Prowler 500/Kymco 450i over those 2.

 

they don't know how lucky they are! I would have done anything at that age to have a side by side. ... Of course they didn't make side by sides back then but a 4 wheeler is what I wanted! Yup, I found his site on the web thanks!

I got mine for $7499 plus fees... definitely my favorite UTV in the class, real locking front diff and nice steering even without EPS. Had I known about the Kymco, I probably would have gotten that instead to save even more money. Oh well!

 

Just wondering how these Kymco UXV450/Prowler are going now? Pros Cons? How many miles?

Also read somewhere slightly different gearing in both? Anyone know how/what is changed?

Im liking the look of these.

Thanks all.