I hesitate to respond. I'm not looking to bad mouth one machine so you consider mine...
But with that being said. The Can-am is a turd by every responce I've read. A slow disappointing machine with a bad reputation in the reliability dept.
Sorry.

 

I am pretty sure the Can AM 90 is nothing more than a Kymco (Chinese Quad) with a different sticker kit. I could be wrong but I remember a local dealer around here telling me that.

 

If they are a Kymco, I would be very very wrong.
A Kymco was a top contender at the nationals a cpl years ago.
Kymco's (Tiawanese) are rock solid machines. I'd recommend a Kymco to anyone.
I think the newer kawasaki and/or Arctic Cat 50/90's are Kymco's.

 

FYI: Seeins I have a horse in the race, I'm going to respectfully bow out of this thread.
I respect everyone's opinion and opinions are what makes forums a great thing when ppl need help or advice.

 

Kymcos are far better than the Chinese offerings. It's my understanding that Kymco is made in Korea. Could be wrong. But they made good quads when they first came out and are making them better every year. I believe the Yamaha 300 and Kawasaki 300 are both made by Kymco.

 

I think the KYMCO's are Taiwanese and they make them for several other brands.

I originally bought straight rear axle quads for my kids. Here in AZ we ride on lots of rocky, washed out trails. I found the straight rear axles prone to tipping while kids are riding them, they don't always understand weight distribution. Safety first, so I changed to the smallest independent rear axle bikes that I could find, the Polaris Hawkeyes. We have several thousand miles on rugged trails without any more tipping incidents. In fact, one friend would not let his daughter ride our Hawkeyes because their daughter previously turned over a quad and got hurt. I told him to TRY to tip one of our Hawkeyes by doing fish tails, he couldn't do it, (because they are fairly slow and real stable). His daughter rode ours without incident.

You can find the 2WD versions for less than $1500 and the FWD versions for around 2K, that should be the last quad you have to buy until they are 16. The only prevalent issues are carb jetting in high altitudes ($50) and a weak subframe ($240). Incidently, they are mostly made by Fuji Heavy industries (Subaru).