One other note on the Renegade is that there is an 800 available that is scary fast. Most reviews I've read said the 500 rides better because the 800 is tough to steer because of the massive tourque. It wants to keep going forward.

 

In my biased opinion, the Honda 400EX is the do all sport quad. It may not be the very best in any one area, but it's so darn good at everything that it's hard to overlook. Plus you get legendary Honda reliability.

 

I would find a way to get out on your local trails and see what everybody is riding, even if that means just going to one spot and sitting there and seeing what goes past.

Do keep in mind that the inexperienced in many parts of the country will tend to pick a utility, becasue they have no idea what the capabilities of a light sport quad are. They imagine that you need a huge 4wd monster to go anywhere at all, so if all you see are utes, don't necessarily take that as the last word.....

My motto is to never ride a ute anywhere I can ride a sport!!! That said, sometimes the streams get to deep, or the rocks to big, or there is snow, and a ute is called for, but that is only 10% of the time even in the nastiest terrain that I can find.

 

reconranger is right, there really is only a few scenarios where a ute will be better and/or faster than a decently set up sport quad and skilled rider. I really like the Suzuki Z400, if you are buying new it is extremely hard to beat that bang for the buck. There would have to be a VERY significant price difference for me to pick a 400EX over the Zuk. Yamaha's 700 Raptor gets you more power and better suspension, but not necessarily better handling. The KFX700 is fast, but I never found them to be all that sporting when it came time to change directions. Hard to go wrong with any of the 450 race quads, but they will have a harder edge to the ride and the others are better choices if you are going to be doing much slower speed "family" type riding. They also are more expensive and more maintenance intensive.

 

If you like speed, I would say get a monster utility atv such as the xp 850 or canam 800R and you can keep up to anything on the trail. They are big, mean and solid. Full independent suspension and tons of travel to eat up anything on the trail. Sure you can't take 30ft jumps but that's just asking for trouble anyway. If you are on wet muddy trails in the rain, you can run it hard in 4wd where most sport quads would be slowing down. Sport quads are 1 dimensional whereas utility quads work everywhere and will be much better at getting you home if you come across difficult, steep or muddy trails. My 2 cents.

 

A ute is just plain STUPID, if one doesn't truely need all that extra hardware! Very few folks actually NEED a farm work tractor, and the term "sport/ute", is just marketing hype. And, there is the "beer bellied redneck" factor, that just naturally follows along with utilities....not at all the image I wish to project.

While I do own a couple of utilities, the Rancher 420 is more of a sport quad than many "sport" quads actually are. The future will also hold new "hybrid" designs, that will split the difference between a utility and a sport quad.

 

Whats the good of all that power if you don't have a situation to use it?

 

It all depends on what your conditions are going to be where you are likely to ride. In my case I started out with a 2wd Kawasaki Lakota 300. Nice light throwable quad. Was great on open roads, trails, and for ripping around. Not great in New England where there is tons of rock covered hills and lots of deep water and mudholes. Even with good riding technique a sport quad is going to get stuck simply because there are only two tires providing push. And those tires don't have as much weight on them as a utility to get down to that traction. Great on surfaces where flotation is desired though. Sand dunes come to mind. If you aren't going to be in mud or water more than a few inches deep you should go with a sport quad. If you plan on deep water and mud and lots of slow rock climbs a utility is better suited. Also, there are 3 quads that have 4wd but not quite as much weight as a full bore utility. CanAm Renegade, Polaris Scrambler (dated design in my mind), and the Yamaha Woverine.

 

Sorry Reconranger. Apparently I hurt your feelings with my comment that sport quads are 1 dimensional but I think that 90% of owners would agree that sport quads have a very limited use and application. You apparently felt the need to call utility atvs stupid and 4wd owners beer bellied rednecks. Well you can keep riding your sport quads and drinking your apple martinis. Just seems to me that grownups should be riding full-sized atvs. Nothing funnier than seeing some big dude ride by on a sport quad. Looks like a cowboy riding a goat. When you grow up to full sized atvs come and see me. An atv without 4wd is just as useless as a truck without 4wd, and I wouldn't own either one. I don't care what kind of situation you're in, 4wd is always better than 2wd. If you don't have situations that require 4wd then you aren't trying hard enough. Most people that say that 4wd doesn't make a difference really mean that they couldn't afford the upgrade to 4wd and they should just say so. Go test drive an xp 850 or a Canam 800r and you will know what I mean.

 

Tundra, calm down here a minute. Have you ever even ridden a sport quad? Everybody needs to evaluate what they want to do with the machine before deciding what to buy. For what I like to do(race harescrambles, fast trails, and some play mx) a ute is way out of line. I can even go further and say I have no use for any quad with 4x4 at the current time. I just got back from a nasty muddy scramble where I passed pretty much every ute that entered and they probably had a 5-10 minute head start on me. There were 3 inches of rain 2 days before the event, and it rained day of as well. Plenty of mud, ruts, roots, slimey hill climbs, creek crossings, etc. I really could care less what everyone rides, might even own a ute myself someday, my point is that your average sport quad is light, has true 2wd, and is a heck of a lot more capable in 90% of all trail conditions than your average ute is.

To the OP, another way to look at this might be if you were to buy a motorcycle, would you want a full fairing rocket, or a HD or other cruiser?