One thing you can be sure off is the law of economics, supply & demand. The first year the Rubicon is out there will be limited supply, so demand will be high. With High demand comes little or no dealing on the price of the quad! In the following year 2001 their should be more units produced thus dealers might move off of the MSRP.

Does anyone remember when the Mazda Miata came out. Dealers were gouging people because of the demand.

After all these mega-corporations only care about one thing - PROFITS

 

a 2x to 4x swithch would be nice if ya wanted one, but i for one don't care. my quad goes into 4x4 on it's own when it's needed. there is no possible way i can have more fun just because i have another gizzmo on my quad for another thousand bucks.......

 

I'll do my best here guys, response marked with <<

I wish they would have given us a clue as to how fast the top end is. <<Sorry, we only had one day for testing and it snowed. We will do top speed tests when we get our long term test unit. It is supposed to be faster than the 450.
Also they said it felt "doggy" on the take off when trying to lighten the front end (for log hopping etc..) (it may have been the jetting at the altitude though) Thats kind of weird that it felt doggy but still accelerated faster than the 450..But they didn't say if that was the case in ESP.<<Yes, altitude and sea level jetting did play a partial role in the "soft" low end, the transmission also played a role because it smooths the power delivery and can be deceptive in how strong the power "feels". It seemed faster in the auto mode than ESP.
Whats the top end in low vs. High range?
Does High range have enough power for snow and mud?<<Top end tests waiting for long term tester. Plenty of power in high for deep mud and snow.
How low does the first gear go in ESP? If I read the review correctly, they said low range automatically selects D2. Does this mean that the low range automatic will have more pulling power than the ESP? <<First will last as long as any other user shifted machine. Low range is a mechanical gear range selector that engages the electrical D2 (see article for explanation) Low range in ESP is still possible, Low range and D1 is not. The ESP would pull similar to D2 in low.

Tom Bukowski

 

Thanks for responding TomB.
One more question, as Papico posted, what was strange about "because regardless of throttle application the engine rpm stays somewhat constant" in D1 and in D2. How does that compare with the automatic on the grizzly or sp?

 

One more question, as Papico posted, what was strange about "because regardless of throttle application the engine rpm stays somewhat constant" in D1 and in D2. How does that compare with the automatic on the grizzly or sp? << It is similar to how the SP or Grizzly maintains a steady RPM but to a noticeably greater degree. The CPU monitors everything and reacts very quickly to keep the engine at the RPM needed for peak HP (D1) or peak torque (D2).

 

yeah my marketing lecture is north american.....apparently the dealers put rather large mark ups on the cars once the demand was realised....and buyers of the first shipement of the miatas were selling them on at a profit...you guys are lucky in america....you have the largest market for atv's.therefore you get the new models first etc...i'd say we'll get it buy the end of the year...probably have a press release next month at our national agricultural fieldays