Hey guys, I need a little advice here...thanks in advance to all those who help!

Looks like I'm going to upgrade my 99 Big Bear 350, I've found a guy who is going to buy mine so that puts me in a position of getting a different bike.

The local Kawasaki shop has 2 used 650 Prairies. The '02 is a camo w/ no visible damage and 21 hours on the meter. He also has a green '03 w/ 30 hours in comparable visible condition. The story on both bikes is that the previous owners owned for a short(obviously) period of time, never rode, and then traded for street bikes.

Anyhow, my uses are primarily hunting, w/ some trail thrown in occasionally. I pull a 4X8 trailer loaded w/ goose decoys into disked corn fields and use it for transport during deer season.

I noticed that the '03 already had a hitch(not sure what this would cost for an add on to the '02), but I really like the camo(on the '02) due to it's reported ability to hide scratches.

The price is the same for either bike 5600.00.

Soooo, I guess what I'm wondering-are there any other considerations that I should take in prior to making a decision? Anybody got any good advice?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

ksduckhunter

Since you will be using it primarily for hunting, I would definitly go with the CAMO. Some people might think that the 02 should be cheaper then the 03, but the CAMO is usally more money then the Green one when purchased new, plus it has less hours on it. So I think that the price is OK. I purchased a new 02 Camo 3 weeks ago, and they had a green one beside it, and I liked the look of the CAMO way better plus I have to agree, it seems to hide scratches better.

As for the trailler hitch, I think they cost around $25 and they are pretty easy to install. I would just ask the dealer to install one for you.

 

I bought my '03 in january. At that point many dealers were offering BRAND NEW '02 models for $5500-$5800. Don't pay more than you should, I wouldn't pay more than $5000 for an '02 that was used.

 

KSduckhunter,

Go camo and get the reciever hitch from Cabela's. I replaced my hitch with a reciever so I could put a hitchrack on it for decoys or dog box. I would tend to agree with Lightman on price, 5k probably tops even with the low hrs.

 

I owned an 02 before it was stolen and now own the 03. I like the 03 better but I don't know if it's worth the camo. The camo is a few hundred dollars difference in price and the hitch is standard on the 03, which is why you see it there. My dealer charged 49.95 for the hitch on my 02 model. I do think the 03 seems slightly more powerful and it does have a few improvements. I say it's more powerful because I had the stock dunflops on the 02 and have ITP 589's on my 03 and the 03 still feels a little more powerful. It's just a matter of if those improvements are more important than the camo. But even in camo, I still think the 02 should be a couple of hundred cheaper than the 03. The hours difference isn't enough to worry about.

 

Oh and another thing, the CAMO's are the fastest [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Just joking. They are all fast.

 

That is a little high for the 02. I bought a new Red 02 (out the door, tax and titled) for 6057 last month so that is $5634.00 pretax and such brand new with 0 hours. Just want to make sure you get the best deal you can!
Good luck!

 

Hi here in Dallas Tx in November Peak Hunting Season I paid 6018.00 Out The Door farm exempt.
The 4 Year warranty was 350.00 This Is for A 2003 red 650[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

sorry but green is faster than camo because they let a little more power out on the 03... but with a few mods you would have them equal ie magic box etc... the 03 might have a different clutch in it as well. I heard some new 03 has a different clutch in it. Did any one else hear this? My next bike is camo.

 

Kawi650

It's funny you say that. I've heard the same thing around here also. The 03 are supposed to be faster. Now another interesting thing that I've heard is that the Red 02 and 03 are slower then the Green-Camo 02 and 03 bikes. I didn't beleive this so my uncle who purchased a Red 03 a week before me was telling me that he could hardly get 90km/h with his bike. He asked me how much I was getting on my 02 Camo, and the fastest I've had it was 102 km/h and it was still slowly climbing. I figured that I lost a few km/h due to the bigger tires, but my buddy Chris who has an 02 Camo with stock dunlop got 105 with his. So we decided to try the red 03 vs. my 02 Camo and I was way faster then him on the top end. I was pulling a couple of bike lenghts ahead of him. He still has the stock dunlops. So I don't know if this is infact true, but it seems like the red ones are a bit slower. He was kind of disapointed, he purchased the 03 thinking it would be faster due to the updates, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe the green 03 is faster. Now one thing that I did notice when we had the 02 and the 03 idling side by side, the 03 sounded louder and meaner. He also has about 1100km's versus my 700km's.