It's for sale at one of my local dealers for $3150. My kind of riding is old logging roads and roads up in the mountains. Nothing too technical, I have the Rancher for that. I like speed so I like to make sure I'm on a trail with few obstacles on it. What do you guys think of the Predator? Should I be looking for something else? $4000 is my budget. I posted this in the Polaris forum also so I hope I don't get too much of a biased answer lol. I want the good and the bad about it. Thanks in advance.

 

Well I'm on my second preddy and think I can give you some insight as I have owned a few sport quads: 2002 raptor, 2005 z400, 2005 predator (stolen), and a 2002 blaster as well as having ridden all sorts of atv's. My first thought is that is a very good price! The preddy has been a pretty solid atv for me. Is it the best? Absolutely not.....I think yamaha is hard to beat, just my opinion, though. Would I buy the predator again....well, they don't make it anymore as a predator, it now falls under the outlaw lineup as a straight axle and with a ktm 525 motor....major improvement! Honestly, the new outlaw is one of the best atv's out of the box. Now, as for the 06 predator you are inquiring about. They have a very restrictive air intake which is good and bad. With a simple addition of a new airbox and exhaust it really perks it up and makes you forget about the lack of low to mid range power. Top speed it really flies, which is where it seems to pull away from many other atv's. For the money I think the predator is hard to beat....good shocks, axle, steel braided brake lines, good tires/wheels, all standard equipment that would cost much more to add to any other atv....and they are less expensive to start with. I have ridden the preddy in the mountains on tight trails, in the sand, mud, snow, you name it. Even did some rock climbing in it! LOL! But wouldn't recommend it!!! It performs well and is truly a fun ride. It corners and handles very well, sits low, not tipsy, pretty stable up to about 70 mph then the rear end begins to wander....a little unnerving but once you get the hang of it and sit back a little it is not a problem.

I know many people have and still do bad mouth the preddy, but usually they are the same people that have either never ridden one or bad mouth everything but their pick! The first years (03/04) had some minor issues with the transmission, but never heard anything bad about the fuji 500 motor. BUt you have to remember that this was polaris' first crack at building a true sport quad whereas the big 4 have been doing it for many years now.

I say at that price go for it!

 

One thing I've heard is that they're hard to wheelie. Being this is going to be my first "sport" quad, thats something I really want to be able to do. Does the Predator really have this problem?

 

Well with what I have done with my 07 that is definitely not true! However, it does seem that my 05 was more difficult as they had the "no bump steer" front end. They changed that in 07....maybe even 06?...and went to an anti squat rear end. Lightened up the front. In stock form they are harder to wheelie than say a raptor. However, with an intake, exhaust, and jet kit it will wheelie just as good and still have a respectable top end. However, the raptor wheelies the best imo!

 

NADA says Low Retail $3,145 and Average Retail $4,135. $3150 is almost $1,000 off what it's worth. What are you waiting for? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

lol my money! I don't have the money yet, which is good so I don't buy on impulse. I'm making sure I buy a good atv.