I am looking at buying a new ATV and am going back and forth between Honda and Arctic Cat. Has AC lived up to its expectation of being Honda like in Quality? I'm interested in hearing from any owners or anybody that rides with owners of AC ATV's.
What do the people say?

 

My riding buddy,who owns a Honda 450s with 27" Mud Bugs, says that he has heard bad things about Arctic Cat. But he didn't mention that untill I passed, with my stock tires, in the same spot the passed with a good bit of trouble.

My Arctic Cat has never broke on me in the 7 months, 1500 miles, that I have had it. It has been just as reliable as my buddies 450s. I can out perform him in almost every thing except mud, but that will change after I get some better tires. The only other thing that his 450 is better at is shifting smothness. But it is almost impossible to shift his out of reverse when its on an incline of any grade, so you can say we are equal.

Any other questions?

 

My AC 454 has lived up to everyone of my expectations. I have gone everywhere on it and have gone through some messy ****. I love it and wouldn't own anything else. One of my buddies has a Honda 300 4X4 and swears it is 10 times better than my 454. I keep my mouth shut until we go riding and then show him up. Just joking Honda owners. Ive owned mine about as long as Boner has owned his and I havent had anything wrong with it. What size bike are you looking for? I have found the 300's to have little power. Sure you can put them in low but I can go up hills in 3rd gear on mine that I had to put the 300 in first. No thats not just engine size either. They are just lacking in power. Anyhow back to the subject It has lived up to any expectations that I ever had out of it. I hope it stays in good condition too.

 

i've owned 5 honda atvs and never had a problem with any of them.i abused my honda 300 4x4 and in 5 years replaced 1 wheel bearing.but i want 500ccs water cooled,hi-lo range and gears and if honda made it i would own it.now i own a 99 arctic-cat 500 and so far its been a real work horse and i have no complaints about it,i know i made the right choice.so get the one that suits your needs you wont go wrong with either one

 

Bigbadcat, yes, the engine size does matter. Comparing those two machines for power is like comparing a Honda 300EX to a Yamaha Breeze. The Honda 300 is an 80's design and the Arctic Cat 454's came out in '96. They have liquid cooled motors compared to the Honda's air cooled engine. Compare it to a Rancher once, you might not feel the Honda is very underpowered.

Frankd, ever hear of the Honda Rubicon?

 

Rooster the only reason I didn't get upset over that remark is because I realized already that I didn't specify Arctic Cat. I think the Honda 300 has more power than the AC 300 anyday. Oh by the way the 454 came out in 97. It was the Bearcat. It looked like crap too. You have probably seen them though.

 

So far I've had my AC for 4months and have 300+ miles on it and have had it in the shop twice now.First time the nuetral safty switch went bad 17 miles from my truck leaving me stranded not able to start it manually or electricaly because the bike thought it wasnt in nuetral even though it was.Second time we were on a night ride and about 1 hour into it the headlights went out so we checked the fuses and it was the problem so we replaced it and hit a bump and it blew,so that ride got screwed up also.Now keep in mind that this is only the second time taking it out and so far I havent been able to even try the damn thing out for more than a hour each time without towing back to the truck with my wifes Polaris so to say the least I hated Arctic CAt at that time I thought they were the biggest pieces of shi* ever.But that was then this is now I've had the bike out several times since then and no problems what so ever.And as for the 300 AC not having enough power my wife has the xplorer 250 4x4 2 stroke and it keeps up just fine all day long.Is the 300 lacking power???Well ok if you get off a AC 500 and get on a AC 300 yes.If you get off a Honda 300 and on to a AC 300 no!!!My entire family owns the Honda 300 4x4's and in the drag race we are dead even every time.You can't compare a 300 to a 500 and say it lack's power.I could have just as easly bought the 500 it wasnt really that much more however when I rode my friends sportsman I knew I had to have the Independant rear suspension theres nothing like it what so ever.However we do some really long treks through the mountains sometimes two days without seeing any towns so Gas is very crucial.That reason alone turned me away from the gas hogs 500's.I just went 96 miles yesterday with my wife to Crown King AZ which is completly up hill climbing and never even hit my reserve switch do that on your 500's.You see every Quad has its pupose dont disqualify one because of one downside opinion.There's several things good and bad about the 500's and the same for the 300's.

[This message has been edited by xplorer (edited 01-09-2000).]

 

Rooster- He was talking about the AC 300 when he said they didn't have any power. I think he rode one one day that belonged to someone else and it was severely lacking. When he said engine size didn't matter, he was referring to the honda 300 compared to the AC 300 (though he didn't state it). What didn't matter in this instance, was that even for a 300 class bike, it still had less power than he imagined it would. Meaning that- in comparison with other brand 300's, the AC is fairly weak. He has ridden the honda 300 several times and is pretty knowledgeable of its power, so he did have something to compare to when he rode that AC 300.

It wasn't a comparison of the Honda 300 and the 454 AC by any means. That is a no-brainer. The 454 will run with the 500 AC all day long, and then some. Other than an extremely, almost unnoticeable drop off from a dead start from 4rth gear, there is absolutely no drop off in noticeable power between the 454 and 500 AC models. I only speak for the 1998 model 454. The older 454 Bearcat may have some differences, but acceleration and top speed on my 99 500 and his 98 454 are pretty much dead on. His may even be a little faster, but that could be the 1" smaller (and lighter) tires on his. It will also have a slight effect on the speedometer reading with taller or shorter tires as well. I have driven the 454, and I must say that I still would prefer it even over a 450s honda. Definitely more bang for the buck when you consider what you can find 98 454's priced at brand new still. More power as well when you compare that 454cc to the 432cc honda.

As an answer to the topic at hand, I think Arctic Cat exceeded expectations. They have been found to be extremely good bikes, and that is not expected this soon from a relatively new manufacturer. Don't expect them to take a large part of sales ever, but do keep in mind that they are as good of machines as anyone else has. Advertising sells, and a good example is Polaris. They sell a lot and they are the worst built bike on the market.

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Andy Bassham *(1999 Arctic Cat 500 4x4, 1989 Honda 300)*

 

I own both the Honda 300 4x4 and the Arctic Cat 300 4x4. In a drag race they are dead even.

 

i have heard of the rubicon but its an automatic and i want gears.so the only 500s with manual shift are suzuki and arctic-cat