Nice Kymco. Seems most people know little to nothing about them but have an opinion! Being they make ATV units for at least two (Arctic Cat and Kawasaki) I agree. Plus a coworker told me last night he could have swore a friend of his had a Suzuki sport ATV that was made by Kymco. I purchased the leftover MXU 450i for well over 2 grand less than what the original owner claimed he paid for the 2010 Yamaha Grizzly 450 in January of 2011. Same size, way more power, steering feels lighter, handles the bumpy stuff slightly better and even has a tachometer. Only thing it doesn't have the Grizzly does is front differential lock and 24" compared to 25" tires. I can buy some might nice 25's and still have 1.8-1.9k leftover! I doubt I will be looking back regretting this purchase. Did I mention "way" more power!! It is a fuel injected, four valve hemi head!!!

 

Here is a photo of the MXU700i that I saw at a manufacturer exhibit in 2014. It did not come to market for a while, but now you can buy them...$6800MSRP. No PS, but a lot of other features for those who want everything: IRS, CVT, FI, engine braking, winch, etc.

Since my last post on this Kymco thread, I have purchased, repaired, and sold a 2007 Kymco Venox 250, a V-twin crusier m/c.

 

I am a current owner of a 450i Kymco utv, have owned it for almost 3 years and have had O issues. In fact it has been an excellent machine. Parts are readily availiable thru any dealer and Kymco USA has a website with a microphish listing all factory part numbers and I believe you can order thru Kymco USA. My dealer has anything I need in a few days. I use my machine for work around my property, plowing snow, and some trail riding. Just got back from a weekend of trail riding on some really knarly trails where many machines broke down or had serious issues. I made the whole course with flying colors, now the machine is covered in mud and fine gravel mix, had to winch out of mud holes on two occasions, and even rolled it sideways down a muddy hill with no broken plastic or any other damage. Very tough, well made machines. Mine has about 800 miles on it, no complaints

 

Nice 450i. Does it have a rear differential? IRS?

There is a sporty 4x4 ATV called the Kymco Maxxer 450i, which I think uses the same engine you have.

I don't know why the photo I tried to post did not take. It was going to be called the 750i, but they seemed to have
settled on 700i.

I have not had problems getting any parts (online) and it has a real dealer network, so I put in the premium brands
category (of 8). Maybe not quite the Japanese Big 4, but premium nonetheless, IMO.

 

My machine is a SxS not an atv. Yes the same engine that is used in the atv models. The 450 engine was built as a race engine and made Kymco famous by winning 2 cross country championships with it. Kymco is there own mfgr, they build for other mfgr also such as artic cat, suzuki, and started by building Honda engines. When Kymco started selling there own machines Honda decided they did not want the competition. Kymco had all the Honda secrets! Since then Kymco has grown very popular but are slow to expand. They hit the market big right when the US had there big recession so Kymco as been shy since. You cant beat their quality for the price! They had the fewest complaints per 100 units of any mfgr in 2017! If anyone might be curious the highest number of complaints came from the largest mfg (Polaris)

 

OK, so I looked it up on the Kymco USA website. Kymco IS offering a rear differential in their "turf-mode" UTVs. That is
an important option that not all makers offer. Even their lowest-priced unit, the 450i has IRS.

Many makers are getting into the UTV (SxS) market, and it is easy to see why: folks commonly pay well north of $15K for
their Gator, Mule, Ranger, Rhino, or RTV. Your 450i UTV has an MSRP of only $8K, which is even less than a lot of large
ATVs. I don't really see ATV and UTV buyers to be interested in both, however. The markets are quite different.

Not only is Kymco making a hi-quality UTV for a low price, 2 major Chicom makers have also set up UTV dealer networks in the
US: HiSUN and CFMoto, and they also have low-priced UTVs.

 

There are many companies that offer lower cost UTV/ATV's but look carefully, the 2 you mentioned have much higher number of complaints per hundred units manufactured and also a more difficult time to get parts. When I bought my machine, I shopped for more than 3 months and drove hundreds of miles to do actual comparisons. Also read hundreds of pages in all the various manufacturers forums in articles that compared there machine to others. Many dealer do not allow a test drive or if they do it is around the parking lot. My Kymco dealer is 2 hrs away, but they allowed me to go into their shop where they had one apart, actually putting it together as they come in a crate and the dealer assembles them. They let me look over any thing I wanted to see, the shop manager even took some things apart so I could see better as to how well they are constructed. They have some of the best welds in the industry, full welds all around not intermittent welds. Also look at there frame material thickness, much heavier than other mfgrs. Best part is they have an actual test track, hill climbs, water crossing, mud hole, etc to allow you to try all the features. When I compared what I was actually getting with other mfgrs it was an easy choice. Of the dozen or more dealers I went to, none treated me as well or showed me as much as the Kymco dealer did....NONE by a long shot! The closest price I could get to a comparible model was more than 1500 more money. I can honestly say I did not see another UTV in the under 8K price range built as well as the Kymco, and have parts readily availiable.......

 

It would be nice if Kymco made a sporty utv. Yes they have the 700i but is still a utility utv. Something like a Rzr or Wildcat would be cool and I bet they would sell.

 

Should not compare stuff made in Taiwan with junk made in Communist Red China. Taiwan is a democracy, China is still an oppressive communist country that has very loose controls on consumer protection. I have had my designs stolen by Chinese companies, no recourse. Taiwan is a country that respects US patents, etc. Kymco makes top notch products, BTW, how many nukes does Taiwan have aimed at us? None.

 

subscribed, this seems like a very interesting thread