A friend of mine is about to buy his first quad, and he wants a real off-road battleship. I've steered him toward the Arctic Cat 650 LE because it seems to be the most kick-butt quad out there right now; however, I've never known anyone who has owned one. My question is, are there any reliability issues that Arctic Cat is dealing with right now? Anything he should be aware of? How is the company to deal with for warranty work? Be honest, please.

 

I have two Cats and they are indeed off-road battleships. I've got about 170 miles on my 650 and I've got 740 miles on my 375, and neither have had anything break. I had a ball joint replaced on the 375 because of a recall. I run stock sized tires, so I don't anticipate ever having axle or CV joint issues, as some have had with big tires and lifts. (Not just AC's have problems like this. I saw a Rincon with a broken axle and a Griz with a broken CV a few days ago. Both had huge tires, at least 27", and lifts.)

I run the crap out of my machines, but I take extra good care of them as far as maintenance.

 

Thanks for the reply. He's probably going to buy his in a day or so.

 

my buddy has one with 27 or 28 inch itp 589 he broke front drive shaft u joint after 40 miles otherwize good machine, keeps up with my rincon

 

i have a 500i with 530 miles and stock tires, i have not only had no problems with axles but have not had any other problems at all

 

Hate to rain on the parade, but I have owned about 10 differnet 4X4 wheelers and the AC 03' 500i was the least reliable I had ever owned. Riding a Honda again now. I never broke anything on my Polaris Sportsman 500 HO with 28" Laws riding about 1 1/2 yrs in the mud and that was the one I expected to have to work on every weekend. The Cat just wouldn't hold together.

Not biased towards Honda or against Arctic Cat, just got tired of all the break downs. Really takes the fun out of it.

Good Luck!!

 

not to doubt you but you didnt list any problems witht the cat just said you had them
if i had the problems i would have listed them.

 

My 500i, just over 3000 miles mostly hard riding, mudlite 26"*10and 12 - summer/ vampire27*10 all around- winter.

Defects: Broken left rear axle
Broken right rear axle
Broken right front outside CV joint.
Broken speedometer(2)
Right rear wheel bearing
Stearing column bushing
Numerous loose tierod ends
Light bulbs(3)
Loose muffler mounts
Well worn suspension bushings front and rear and shock bushings
Loose ball joint sockets
Transmission false nuetral(worse than all of the above together)

Otherwise it is fine!