ZoomZoom, I have had that horrible experience of being on the pulled end of the rope...a lot. If you had read all of my posts, you would have known that I had previously owned a Polaris. I was the proud owner of a Scrambler 400 4x4 for about 6 months. This machine was brand new so there was no real maintenance to be done aside from the air cleaner and chain oiling. It did leave me very bitter, if a person pays upwards of $7000.00, they expect that machine to perform. I promise you this to be true; I was pulled back home so many times by my friends and other passers-by, that I left the towrope tied to the front end and stuffed the rest down into the recess below the nose guard. There is nothing more embarrassing than to have someome pull your new mean machine home everytime you leave the driveway. I've had several machines: Suzukis, Kawasakis, Yamahas and Hondas. Guess what? I still have them all, no real problems out of any of them, if that interests you. I do maintain my vehicles, but remember they were built to play on, too. Simply put, I like to ride and not walk. This topic was about over-rated atvs. My vote for this position is Polaris. If you don't like that then I am sincerely sorry, but I did pay for my opinion. I truly hope you have nothing but good luck from your machine.

 

I actually did have a 99 500cc Sportsman with ALOT of problems.I got fed up with the warrenty repairs,I finally took the quad to another dealership and it was repaired correctly.Why did I buy another Polaris?I just seen far to many of them WITHOUT ANY problems riding around.

I'll take my 00 Xplorer 400cc 4x4 and match it against ANY other manufactures utility 4x4 in respect to traction and speed.I have had a few defective parts on this ATV,like tie-rods,a drive shaft,sprockets and chain,all in around 1500 miles of use.I can really see why the other manufactures dont have the problems Polaris does?When im in the mud,they are usually sitting by the side WATCHING me.Its tough to break anything just watching,
Bill

 

Slinger... sounds to me like you had a lemon, I'm sure every brand makes one and you just happen to be the unlucky person to get one. In all honesty I can't say my machine hasn't had any problems. Shortly after I bought mine, I had a cracked piston which in turn cracked the engine block etc... I was a good 10-15 miles from my truck and it still got me back to my truck. Since the repairs where done my machine has been running sweet. I also had to tow my buddy's Xplorer once cause a tie-rod broke but that was because it had been bent for the longest time & it finally give out one day. That could have been prevented if buddy would have changed it instead of his choice of risking it as it was.
Slinger, you're entitled to your opinion/choices just like everyone else. If I had a choice between buying a Ford truck or a Dodge, I'd pick the Dodge even though my Laser was a POS back then. If you noticed so far I haven't rated any machines or bashed any models as I usualy don't like starting arquing, but sometimes I get caught in the web.
In the meantime have fun, live long & zoomzoom!:-)

 

Slinger didn't have a lemon, he had a Polaris and that is what you can expect. I had a '95 Scrambler 400 and it was the biggest POS I have ever owned. In the past I owned a '84 Suzuki Quadrunner 185, '86 Quadsport, '87 Honda 250X, '96 Yamaha Wolverine, and presently a '01 Kawasaki Mojave.

The Polaris was not at all reliable. It constantly required attention for loose fasteners, headlight bulbs that fell out, chain tightening nightmare (3 seperate chains!), hard to service counter balencer oil, transmission oil, coolent reservior, belt drive. From the laughable wiring, to the lawn & garden equipment style frame, to the bouncy struts, paper element air cleaner, plastic held on with a seemingly 50 seperate bolts, the wheel studs consisting of bolts not press in studs, heavy overall weight, and awkward handling and ergonomics.

I had never owned a machine that needed more work or attention. I rode it hard (as hard as all my other quads) and it simply did not hold up. I will never again buy another Polaris fourwheeler. Polaris cannot be compared in quality to the Japanese quads.

Didn't we already go through something similar to this in the 70's when Japanese cars were making inroads into the U.S.? American vehicles were piles compared to the Japanese products, now they are pretty much equal. Polaris has a lot of work to do if they plan to become even close to that of the big four.