Something that Arctic Cat owners should be aware of
 

Arctic Cat owners BEWARE!!

I am speaking from my own experience and please read for personal information only. One rider bringing light to other riders. In May of this year I purchased a new 2015 Arctic Cat Mud Pro 1000 LTD from a reputable dealer in Oakwood, Ontario. I am writing this today to inform everyone of my experiences with both the dealer and Arctic Cat once I had substantial problems with the bike. I am sure that I am not the only one who has had similar dealings with this brand. I feel that it is fair that everyone should know exactly what they are getting into before making a substantial purchase and what you can expect from Arctic Cat Customer Care. With the amount of competition that is in the power sports industry you deserve to have your hard earned dollars put towards a product and a company that you can rely on.

Here is the situation that I am currently in... On every trail ride this year (I have been on 5) I have been towed out on all 5 occasions when the bike shut down on me. I continued to bring it into the dealer where I purchased the machine after every ride. Not only is this an inconvenience of not being able to finish a ride, my expenses of taking the bike in/picking up and being without a bike for most of the summer because it is constantly in the shop. I got the run around the first few times saying it was the mods that I put on the bike which were dealer installed, so they took them off. I continued to have problems and after the 3rd time being pulled out of the bush I called Arctic Cat Customer Care to inform them that the bike has less than 60km on it and it continues to shut down on me. I was informed that it is a "dealer issue" and I'd have to deal with them. After the 5th time of taking the bike into the shop because the engine was flooded once again I was told by the dealer that they are not going to fix my bike due to the fact that water went down the snorkels, which was never the case on any ride. I decided to take the bike to another dealership to see if they could diagnose the issue. They called my original dealer in Oakwood, Ontario to find out what the scoop was. After hearing their reasoning they took apart the snorkels, inspected the air filter and air box all to which were clean with no remnants of water being in there at any point. When they took the air box off it was pointed out to me that the throttle bodies were full of mud, water etc. I was asked by the new mechanic if the bike shuts down once I got into the slightest amount of water which it did on all 5 occasions. It was also pointed out to me that the snorkel was never hooked up from the factory which was the cause of my continued problems. Now I have an engine that has taken in a vast amount of water again and the compression of each of my cylinders is below 40 psi according to the new mechanic. Arctic Cat said that they would not warranty this issue even though it was pointed out that the issue has finally been found. I guess that the "excuses" from my original dealer and not being able to fix the bike any of the 5 times that it was in there is their way of providing customer service? Instead, assuming what the problem was and documenting it without even looking at the bike is a much better business practice. After multiple calls and another email to Arctic Cat Customer Care I was informed that they weren't going to cover my bike under warranty even though it was their issue right from the start. I was treated rudely on the phone once Customer Care finally got back to me, accused that it was my fault for the problems with the bike and also have gone once again without them taking responsibility for their products. I was also told that Arctic Cat bikes are not meant to go any deeper than the top of the wheels. SAY WHAT??? Aren't the competition Mud Pro bikes snorkeled for a reason? Do Arctic Cat's promotional videos for the Mud Pro line not have them racing in deep water? I tried to escalate this issue with Arctic Cat asking to be contacted by a manager for which I never was. So I am on the hook for replacing my motor when it has just over 100km on it.

This is taken right from the Arctic Cat Customer Care webpage. Sounds like they should practice what they preach.

"We believe in enjoying the outdoors. That’s why we want to make sure your experience with our products and with our dealers is the best it can be. To us, your dealer should be more than just a place to purchase an Arctic Cat machine. It should be a place you look to for reliable, dependable service for years of riding enjoyment."

I hope that my experiences will help someone make an informed choice when purchasing a new or used Arctic Cat product. Having owned 3 Arctic Cat atv's (2 currently) and 2 Arctic Cat sleds, I can honestly say that I will never own another Arctic Cat product due to the way I have been treated throughout this entire process. When investing over $20,000 for the price of their top of the line bike, including mods, it is a shame that Arctic Cat will not look after their customers even when the issues were not the fault of the consumer. Please do your homework before making a large purchase so that you hopefully do not encounter the same problems that I have had.

All I wanted was to have a bike that will perform the way it was intended so I can enjoy the trails with my wife and friends. Customer services goes a long way which now results in a competitor having my continued business for years to come.


Ride safe!

I don't know about Ontario but you can sue for triple damages here in the States. Maybe contacting a lawyer and having him/her giving Arctic Cat a call might get them moving.

Sad that they aren't covering this. I would expect the makers' to cover a quad made for the mud to cover this.

Definitely a bad deal. It is a machine designed for mud and water, hence the snorkel. They even admitted it was a manufacturing defect. At this point, it would be easier and cheaper for them to simply give you a new unit. Engine damage has obviously occurred, not to mention what else might be messed up by water and mud getting where it wasn't supposed to. Either refund your money or replace it with a new unit. I'd rather just have the money myself. I'd buy something else.

You need to get more persistent with arctic cat and the original dealer. You brought it in under warranty and issues should have been documented by original dealer. Just because they could not find the issue does not mean its still not covered. Start threatening legal action and that you are going to go to the media. If you start searching around their are a few posts of where clamps were not tight from factory and missed in PDI. One of my machines included. Tell cat and the dealer that any judge in the world will grant the cost of the repair plus other expenses if this goes to court. Its not the customers responsibility to PDI their own unit to make sure everything is 100%

Not sure why the arctic cat forum removed this post.

Don't normally get involved in things like this but couldn't help but notice 5 times to the same dealer and it died out after each time it hit the water.. Mechanic should have caught this the first time in,the second time the owner should have looked closer himself at his own machine. He may or may not have caught it in time to keep from damage,but if mine I would have been looking it over from top to bottom. #1 the original fault is from the factory if the other dealer ship is telling the truth,#2 the first dealership and mechanic are at fault after 5 times of not finding the problem,#3 the owner bears a little also for not checking after the 2nd time in. Bad situation all around.

Old Polaris Tech, I agree with everything except for the new owner bearing any responsibility. He took it to the dealer under warranty with an issue. It was their responsibility to properly fix the problem that the factory left behind the first time. It appears to me if what he has posted is true that he went above and beyond by carrying it back 5-times. Then another time to another dealer which did discover the issue and stated it was a factory fault. The factory and first dealer are 100% at fault. Not everyone knows their way around an ATV. That is why we have dealers and service departments.

Yes I agree,but that's why they have owners manuals and service manuals also.If you're buying a machine that's sole purpose is to spend most of it's life as a submarine,you'd better know something about it before you ever throw a leg over one or you're asking for trouble.I've never liked the idea of factories coming out with snorkeled atvs,just a time bomb ready to go off for a lot of people that aren't familiar with one,but decided they wanted to go mudding.It's hard enough to keep some of them running on dry land the way some people treat them even if they know their way around their machines from top to bottom. Again I agree the factory and the first dealer is at fault,but after 5 times for the same thing? Common sense should have prevailed after the first time he got it back and it did the same thing again. It may or may not have changed the outcome of damage to the engine,but could have saved time,trips to the dealer and agony if he'd done some checking over his own machine. Guess I was on the wrenching end of these machines too long and see it from a different perspective.

The problem I see, it would be very easy for the op to have been going through the machine and forgotten to properly secure the snorkels. I AM NOT SAYING THAT HAPPENED. Just that any manufacturer is going to balk if you bring a machine in looking for warranty work with an intake packed full of mud. Hard to believe a competent service department wouldn't have checked the intake for debris on visits 1 through 4. Or that they missed it during pre delivery.

I can understand if the op wants to fire AC, but sounds to me they should fire that dealer first. Also a painful lesson on why we need to check over new machines or even ones coming back from major service carefully.

Things can get easily missed. Also im not defending the original dealer by anymeans but describing the problem and what you were in or doing at the time is Key. Im speaking from experience. The girlfriends machine had a intermittent no power issue that would always disappear when it was shut down and restarted. Issue was very randome. It had been to the dealer several times and i rode it but would never do it. We did not figure it out until we were doing a deep water crossing and i noticed she was not moving. One again se said it had the no power issue. I immediately knew what it was. After winching her out and draining the clutch housing i found the intake clamp had not been tightened from factory. I asked her when you had this problem before did you go through any water of course she said yes every time.. Key bit of info not presented so both me and the dealer were looking at the wrong end of the bike

Lucky for me I rate myself about a 7.5 on a 0-10 scale for mechanics. But I am a diligent 7.5! I myself research heavily before any purchase. I service everything we own myself. At the same time I know people that pumping gas into a tank is as far as they go. Even the dealer changes their oil. Not likely they would even know were to start with troubleshooting. Not saying that about the OP, just making a point. If you are a retired wrench you would definitely see it differently. I would too, already would have been all over that machine like stink on a turd.

Sadly I can imagine yours is not the only Mud Pro with this problem. Even though it is a factory snorkled machine, if there is any problem at all with the snorkel and mud and water get sucked into the engine, I'm sure the dealer will cry abuse and refuse to honor your warranty. It wouldn't take much, a bad seal that might be hard to even see and as soon as you're in deep water, your engine takes a big gulp. Probably goes for the Can-Am XMR models and will probably be the case for the new 2016 Polaris snorkled machines. Many people think because it has a snorkel, they can go through water as deep as they want. Just because it has a snorkel doesn't mean its a submarine. I'm not implying the OP did this but enough people will do it that dealers don't believe any owners when they bring the machines in full of mud and water. Many people buy these type of quads and abuse the crap out of them. It ruins it for everyone else.

I'm not taking any advice from a one-post chump. I'll calling BS.

How do you figure that? I posted similar experience on a 500 so are you calling mine BS as well? Mistakes happen things get missed, and yes sometimes tech's look in the wrong spot to solve a issue. It happens. The original post was just informing people and everyone that buys a new machine SHOULD go over it from top to bottom and make sure nothing was missed at the factory and during the PDI. I checked mine over when i got it and found several connectors that were not pushed in all the way or one of the pins had pushed out. Unfortunately i never checked the GF's when she bough hers.

I think what he's saying is, people who put up only one post on a forum that's about how bad a company has been to them, aren't always truthful. At least if someone's been on the forum for a while, you can get a feel for how they are about things.

It IS a bit telling to me that he hasn't responded to any suggestions. He just became a member so he can vent, not to be an active participant. It DOES get old sometimes.

I wasn't talking about you, Chump.

Sometimes people do just come in here to vent. It does seem like the op kinda took themself out of the conversation though. In the end, this forum is really for entertainment purposes only. You can't really get too upset if someone doesn't want to follow up on something. Maybe its just not really that important to them.

But what was done here isn't venting. It is an attempt to hurt a manufacturer, a kind of hit and run character assassination if you will. I am sure this isn't the only forum op signed up for and did this. Could be a legitimate complaint, more likely this is a dealer issue. Could even just be a fan boy that would never even buy an Arctic Cat...

he posted up on just about every forum atv related... for some reason he removed the post from the ac forum..
these forums are for information and amusement i don't blame the op for posting up. after what he went through i would be doing more

One person's post does not condemn an entire company. There's a guy on facebook that constantly bashes Can-Am because of problems he claimed he had with his Commander. There's no way to prove any of it, or even if he even owns or has ever owned a Commander. He might be some guy working for another company just trying to get you to not buy Can-Am. Sort of like political mudslinging. Instead of promoting their machine, he simply bashes the competition to make them look bad.

Sadly, if he would have spent that time checking over his machine before he submerged it, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I have a better solution, DON'T SUBMERGE it in the first place. A snorkel does not make your quad a submarine.

Yest definitely true but maby he did not have the know how or sometimes even those of us with experience miss things.

Then that is sorta pointless to spend the extra cash on a MP. If they cannot go through any depth of water then AC should take it off the market. Im sure those guys on youtube go allot deeper. AC would not want to see how deep i have been with my 500

In reality, AC probably isn't liable for mud and water getting in the engine. I'm sure there is some fine print somewhere(there always is) basically saying that if you go too deep, its 100% your fault for any damage you cause. A manufucturing defect should trump this but its hard to prove that the faulty snorkel wasn't caused by the owner's abuse.

Wouldn't be surprised. In that was the case, that lawyer language in a warranty is more important to the company than keeping a customer happy. I wouldn't buy from any company that treats someone like that.

:yup:

I've been up to the rack in water many times with a stock Outlander Max. And over the rack in one water hole that surprised us a bit. Still, no water ingested and it pulled right out of the hole. A dedicated mud machine like AC, Can-Am, and Polaris makes should be able to go up to the snorkel without drowning the engine. If not, it's just expensive wrappings. I would EXPECT that any of these machines would have everything sealed up the way they should be for the money.

Im going to add to this on why its so important to check your own machine out. I still cannot figure out how i missed this. Our 1 500 has had a random no power issue from day one. Could never duplicate it and dealer could not find anything. After a deep water crossing i realized the GF was giving the wrong info it had power but belt was slipping. Found the belt housing intake clamp really loose. Thought at this point i had checked the machine from front to back. Well after another water crossing yesterday it was still taking on water. So i started pulling things apart while i waited for water to drain. Well the rear exhaust tube for housing was totally missing. Dont know how i missed it and their is no way it can fall out as you have to remove plastics or drop tank to get it in.

Arctic Cat has done some very cool marketing!!

Too bad the whole world have good tools and bad service

This had nothing to do with service from ACat - it was an individual that abused his product.

Is this really representative of Arctic Cat as a whole? There is no way to really determine this. Every warranty case is diffferent. Every dealer is different. It is assumed a warranty will cover manufacturing defects but a machine like the mud pro will be subjected to conditions most quads won't because it has a snorkel. I've never had a snorkel on any quad I have ever owned. I know why people have them but I assume if you do manage to suck water in through them, it can actually be worse than if you didn't have one at all. Most likely the depth of the water will be greater and obviously more water will get to the engine. I'm sure in the owner's manual somewhere it does give a maximum recommended depth that is well below the height of the snorkel to take away some liability from Arctic Cat. There are so many limits placed on atvs that are stated either on the quad or owner's manual that never get read. I believe this is the case here and the owner will probably end up losing his case and either pay to get it fixed or sell/trade it in broken.

didn`t read all the posts on this, but I would never buy any atv that wasn`t a Japanese brand . jmho

That is fine, just know that this is a one post hit and run smear job. The op is blaming cat for a dealer prep issue. He also has quite a bit of personal responsibility in this situation, as he repeatedly abused the machine and did not do normal maintenance. I would have found this issue after the first time the machine was drowned because the airbox and filter should have been cleaned. Then again, I don't use my atvs that way, but common sense should have led to the answer. Shame on op, shame on his dealers mechanic too.

That's one of the more ignorant things I've read here....

Well I did read all the post. but having delivered Polaris and ac for 10+ years and talked to countless mechanics at the dealerships and in peticular the ones who handled many different brands I ended up buying a honda. It was fairly common to find loose nuts and bolts on the floor after my deliveries were done. Js

Yes I found plenty of bolts in crates.. These were ones that were dropped during assembly and another one was used. Dealers/set up techs have a set up sheet that has between 15-20 items to check such as proper torque on lug nuts,bar clamps on down the list. Sign off initials are required and this list is furnished to the buyer along with owners manuals. If any of these items are missed/falsely checked by set up people,machines come back or a customer complains about this or that,they won't have that job very long..:) We along with "reputable" dealers had dedicated set up guys that that was there only job to ensure all was done right. We were located between a Kawasaki and Suzuki dealer with Honda dealer just a few miles away. I heard tales from all of them on some of the things they found over the years so don't just think that Polaris and AC were the worst. Even beloved Honda waited years after everyone else had water craft before they felt safe enough to launch their first one. Horror tales from the techs on these I talked to when whole engines had to be removed and replaced! Most of this comes down to the dealers. Some dealers cared enough to see the product out the door right,while others just uncrated them and slung em out the door at cheaper prices than any one else. These are the dealers I heard most about because we got a lot of their customers for future repairs and service even on brands we didn't sell! After all is said and done most of the atvs are made over here anyway so I don't think you can say each machine was made by an an inferior class of people or product. A LOT happens between the time you dropped off atvs and the time they go out the doors to the customer. Or a least there was supposed to be... :)

Do all dealers have this check list? The one cat we have had a few problems that i contribute to a bad PDI. Especially belt exhaust tube missing and their is no possible way it could fall out..LOL

All are supposed to have some sort of check off list at least from all the other area techs I talked to. Don't think I've ever in almost 23 years of dealing with them ever found a large item missing from the factory. Even they have QA guys that have to sign off an entire machine and could get canned over something like that..Or should have been.

Some people think Japanese is the way to go but we had 5 brand new Toyotas here where I work, and with less than 1,000 miles all 5 where having issues. One had an engine replaced, another a tranny, etc, etc. We have since gotten rid of them and now have Mitsubishis and F150s.