I also looked at an older Sportsman 500 before I found my Grizzly. I might have bought it too but the 4x4 wasn't working. Might have been an easy fix but I didn't want to find out. Also almost bought a Honda Foreman 450 but the Grizzly was only $500 more. Couldn't pass up that much more power for an extra $500. I assume you got a good deal on the Sportsman. They're pretty solid machines.

 

Not only power, I had a 450Foreman ES and the power was not bad but it rode like a cement truck. IRS or nothing for me.

 

Not sure how good the deal was, but cheaper than anything else I found with the same miles on it. Paid $2500 for it.

 

I paid $2700 for my 06 Grizzly 660. It has a little over 3000 miles on it. I ended up spending a few hundred more getting a few things fixed or replaced after buying it but still much less than most of the same condition in my area, most wanted around $4000. I have about $3200 in it and it has a new belt and belt guides(that's why the belt had to be replaced), new battery, and new brakes all around. Other than oil changes, it shouldn't need anything other than a new set of tires for a few years. The Sportsman I looked at was a 99 and the seller wanted $1700 for it. It probably wasn't nearly as nice as the one you have but it did have a working winch. The 4x4 not functioning was a deal-breaker. I have owned a Polaris with that problem and it wasn't a cheap fix so I wanted no part of that. It didn't have any front brakes either. I'm a bit biased toward Yamaha and the Grizzly seemed to be the best deal I could find for the money. Some people were selling Kodiak 400's for almost the same price as I paid for the Grizzly and most used Foreman 500's were more expensive too. I love Honda's reliability but I wanted more power. I know they have the Rincon but it still falls a bit short too with its 3 speed auto that doesn't help either. And they weren't cheap either.

 

PO put a new winch on this one this spring. It supposedly has new brakes all around this spring also. Says the oil has been changed twice a year with Mobil 1. He gave me a quart he had left over. It really doesn't need anything. The left front strut at the top of the spring squeaks, but other than that it looks good to go. All the axles and drive shafts look good, all the plastic is in good shape, too. Doesn't seem like I got too bad a deal on it.

 

Sounds good, mine doesn't have a winch, I'll probably add one eventually as well. That's probably the only other thing I might add. Just changed the oil and diff fluids on mine as well. My plastic had one noticably bad spot on the right front fender. Drilled a few holes and put in some large zip ties that I already had to keep it from ripping any more and pull it together. Its hardly noticably now. Racks are all straight, Grizzly models to this day still have steel racks. I prefer those over the composite racks Polaris and some others use now. The reason I got my Grizzly for less than average was because its condition wasn't perfect but it starts and runs great and the 4x4 engages perfectly as it should. The previous owner said he got a great deal on a Grizzly 700 and just wanted to get rid of the 660, didn't want to keep both of them. A few scratches here or there and a tear in the plastic aren't that big of a deal to me. I bought it to ride, not to look pretty.