I know a few dealers- and every one of them would gladly allow you to take a few laps around their private track if you walk in ready to drop $10 - $15k to compare a couple of bikes. Most dealers have particular demo atv's of their popular models for this purpose alone.

They can't have everyone putting miles & hours on all their new atv's and not buying it though! How are they going to sell it? I wouldn't purchase a "new" atv for $11k that has 15 miles of pavement testing on it- or 15 miles of "varied" terrain testing. That's not new- it's used.

Testing a new / used vehicle that has the potential to go 200,000 miles on paved roads is a lot different then testing a new atv on a track- that you may or may not buy- huge difference!

 

Go take a look at both of them for yourself. I was completely set a few times on an Outlander, but stuck with the XP. I still feel I have the best ATV available for me.

 

I drove the XP at the dealer test track ( though it wasn't the XP I ended up buying, they had to order a camo model in) and drove a buddy's new Outlander 800R. As I stated in the Can-AM section, they are both excellent, but very different execution. If you can, drive both of them, and see which one fits your wants and needs better. I liked the XP's seat better, and was used to the Polaris control setup from my earlier SP 500HO. The ergo's on both are as good as it gets. Both machines are at the top of the Big Bore heap, and the rider is the deciding force. (Or in other words, it's Ford vs Chevy, or Remington vs Winchester. Both are excellent, It's a matter of preference. I Like Chevy's and Remingtons, BTW)

 

Ford???

Let's see- which ever atv has a noisy power steering pump and a POS AOD tranny is the bad one

and- Winchester all the way!

 

Funny to me because my work van, a '06 E-350 superduty owned by the company I work for has had the tranny replaced, and the power steering pump whines like a supercharger! I used Ford vs Chevy based on sales numbers, and history. Dodge doesn't sell near as many trucks as the other two. Heck, Toyota sold more trucks in 2008 than Dodge.

Oh, and I own several winchesters... all of them more than 50 years old, and one is 110 years old. They are beautiful rifles to be sure, but for tack driving, repeatable accuracy, they don't touch my 3 Remmy 700's, or my 722.

 

How about them Toyota sales #s now? Selling the most does not mean anything to me as if it did I would buy everything from Walmart! Just sayin. LOL

 

D57H, I threw the last bit about Dodge and Toyota in there just for you!

I knew it would bring a comment out of you! LOL

 

Here is a older shootout 2006 Outlander 800 vs a SP800 so you could just think about going up against the newer XP850. ATV Source - Machine Reviews - 2006 - Outlander "vs." Sportsman

 

Thanks I do so appreciate it When it comes to full size vans Ford and Chevy can have them. What a pain in the a _ _ to work on!

 

I don't know if that's too valid anymore... it's from '06, and the Outlander has undergone vast improvements in many areas. I've driven an older outty 800 and it doesn't compare to the 09-10 models. The XP is totally different from the SP 800, and better in every way.