I would like to buy a dependable atv for my 4 year old and 8 year old. What are your recommendations for a reasonably priced atv for each of them?

 

where do you live? If you can find a local place, sometimes you can save a lot on shipping. If you live within driving distance of Edison, NJ I can tell you a great place to get some cheap.
What you probable want is the smaller, Fully automatic ATVs. They come in sizes usually 70, 90, or 110cc. Most of them are pretty equal in quality. When my son was 8 we got him a 70cc made by a company called Avanti. (pics are on my profile) Different companies make this size bike and they all look like they were made at the same place. maybe they were, who knows. But I can say that thing ran great, never had a problem with it. we just sold it for $400 because he just outgrew it. It still pulled him around great and has plenty of power for a 70cc. Sometimes you can find these cheap and in pretty new condition just because the kids grow so fast. Ours looked Brand new when we sold it. Look on craigslist.com and click on your city on the right, you can find stuff on there sometimes.
It's when you have to get them shipped that you pay more. Still, you can find the little ones for around $500 with shipping. there are so many sites, just search around.
bestpricedatv.com
here's one for example. You can see the small ones look pretty much identical to the Avanti I owned.
Jersey ATV
thats the one near Edison, NJ. You can get a 90cc for $400, but I don't think he ships. Not sure. I think the small automatic ones are all pretty close in quality. when you get into the larger sizes is when the brand matters more.

 

I found a site that had a bunch of complaints about bestpricedatv.com so I got scared about buying from this entity. I am not very handy so I should probably buy local but our little town has only kawaski which thet want $1800 for a 70cc.

Thank you for your response!

 

Check out a site called www.atvtrader.com I think is the link. You might be able to find something there. Depending on where you live and how far you are willing to go .

 

Well, I can tell you if you don't trust any of these cheap online sellers you can find a Pep Boys store. They sell Baja ATVs and Dirt Bikes. PepBoys.com
You can go buy them at the store, if they don't have the one you want, they will order it. Of course they are a bit more expensive than some of the online dealers.

I was poking around and found atvdiscounter
they seem to have free shipping and claim to have a 12 month warranty. I never used them though. I still say, it's when you start getting into the bigger machines, where quality means more. The small ones seem to be pretty equal, and dependable. If you do manage to find a local dealer of these machines, they are probably getting them from these same web sites and marking them up a few hundred dollars to make a profit.
I do the exact thing you do. I look around and do lots of homework and check for reviews before getting anything. (most of the time) still, you can always find someone that had a really bad experience with one particular company, even the best.

I see the owner of Raceway ATV is a member here and has his own forum room. Check our his website...raceway

 

I am looking for my son who currently has a Baja 50 from Pep Boys. He has basically outgrown the 50's frame but he isn't close to being ready for a 250 etc. I don't want to go over a 90 or maybe 110. My biggest issue is trying to find out what size frame these online outfits are showing me on the pages.

 

well, best thing to do is....go out and measure the Baja 50, L x W x H
Then compare to the size they give you on the web sites. Most give the size. Think about how much larger you want to go for him. The thing you gotta remember is how fast he's gonna be growing. If you don't get one large enough he is just gonna outgrow it in 2 years or so. Most of these youth ATVs have a throttle limiter screw near the thumb throttle. So even if you get one that has the potential to go too fast, you can keep it turned down until he is ready.
You know your son best, go by how quick a learner he is and how well he handles the Baja 50. I just bought one of these Viva 150cc predator for my son. He's 10, gonna be 11 in November. It's a bit smaller than some of the other automatic 150's I've seen out there, But not too small. I plan on setting the speed for him until I think he can handle it. I"m picking it up at the Fed-Ex terminal on Monday. I plan on putting on some reviews of it here. (Not a lot of Viva reviews out there). Honestly I'm not a big fan of those semi-automatic transmissions found on some 110's out there. I'd rather get an automatic or a manual, no half way. We got a Sunl Typhoon 110 for him in February. That was semi-auto, he just didn't like it. I ended up selling it already and ordering this new Predator. I have pics of the Typhoon in my profile, it ran good (despite being a Sunl) and we had no problems. I think if we would have got the fully auto version, he would have liked it.