okay so i am new to atv's so need some advice.

Are the arctic cat 4x4's pretty decent quality or am I better off saving a bit more for a red one? I am looking foe something that would be capable of trail riding and plowing snow in the winter. I do not think I need a huge amount of power in a 4x4 atv but what do I know?
I am more interested in if I will be working on it more than I use it because I have no interest in doing that.

What price range should I be looking to spend for something decent from the early 2000's or should I avoid those years?

 

My 2005 400 4x4 FIS Manual does good on the trails. It's got enough power to do technical riding, but isn't very fast. So anything that opens up get's you dusted. Side by Sides and the bigger 800+ quads leave me sitting on flat/open trails where they hit 50+ mph and I'm still trying to get over 30mph, no hope in keeping up. But on technical trails with lots of hairpin turns and crawling, I dust them. The quads really torquey and really good at crawling over/through stuff and it weighs less than bigger engine quads and has more ground clearance than most quads.

So it's a trade off. Still plenty of fun. And it has so much torque that in low gear I can push snow with little issues as long as it's not a super heavy wet snow. The issue with heavy wet snow isn't the power, it's the plow. It just doesn't hold up, it flips over and I end up driving over what I'm trying to push.

I'm actually trying to sell mine soon, doing a tune up on it and putting some new 4wd parts on it. Comes with plow and plow lights.

 

I have a 500 and its been a great machine light and small and can make it go anyware. I was like you when i bought it and went small thinking i would never need any more power.. While i like the machine their are a few times where i could have used a bit more power especially in the winter. Wish i would have went up to a 700 or a can am 800 just for that little extra grunt.