UPDATE !!!!
My friend went to the Walmart where I saw them and they were ALL GONE! After accusing him of lying he said he talked to the manager about it. They said they sat around too long so they moved them to more rural stores. At this point I can rest easy knowing that, at least in my neck of the woods, ATV's will continue to be unknown to the population at large. There has been a lot of good issues raised so far in this post... the Mom and Pop dealers can keep their clients, Walmart can keep selling toothpaste and Colt can keep paying too much for his ATV's. lol. I guess the next logical question is... If Sam's Club or Farm and Fleet or some other place like that starts selling quads, how far would you drive to save a couple hundred bucks? These places already have shop areas and people willing to work on stuff like that. Would you buy from them if you knew they would service it?

 

A friend just bought a MONSOON for 1400.00, they were 1300.00 at Walmart in town but they are sold out now. He went 50 miles south of Peoria and bought it for 1400.00.

Anyone know anything about these? He was told it was a Yamaha engine????? Nice little bike for his 4 year old and 1300.00 cheaper than a similar honda at the dealer. It has electric start and a backup kick start, centrifugal clutch and rear disc brakes. He said he's had it 30-35 mph..

Heck my Wolverine doesn't even have a backup starter.

No, it isn't a Honda or Yamaha quality, but for 13-1400 dollars, it is a disposable. Throw it away and buy another. You could buy 2 for the price of one.

 

Wal-Mart selling ATV's???....what next...LOL!!!!

I think Zellers is selling ATV's too.

 

I've worked on a few of the Monsoon's, couldn't tell who made the engine (it is similar to the yamaha YFM80/100 engine), although the work I've done on them has been basic stuff so far (clean carb, change spark plug, clean air filter). I do know that they are the same as the Impulse that is sold by our local Polaris/Ford Tractor/Kubota dealer, so parts are available through them.

Living in "rural america", our Wal-mart sold them, but did not replace their stock because they sold slow (wife works at Wally world). And as with their lawnmowers, warranty work is done by authorized factory service centers. Don't know of anyone that wants to shell out $3K+ to become authorized for just a few ATV's in the area (authorized for their lawnmowers is $3K for one engine, $3K for another, and $2K for the mower itself). You would have to do an awful lot of warranty work to justify this expense.

Contrary to SOME peoples belief's, not all independant shop owners are high school dropouts (I have an engineering degree and have been around the world with it)- actually the majority of the dealer mechanics are exactly that, besides the point that a lot of dealer mechanics are mostly "parts changers" and have no clue as to troubleshooting or diagnosing a problem on their own. For that matter I can name NUMEROUS jobs that have come from the dealer who could not figure out what was wrong (the best one yet is a dirt dobbers nest in the exhaust pipe that would let the ATV run, but only to 1/4 throttle, after the guy had spent $600 at the dealer to only end up with the same problem). You put your money where you want, in my opinion most independant shops do a better job, have parts just as good as OEM, and don't bleed your checkbook dry like the dealer does. I do recommend to my customers that for work covered under warranty to carry it back to the dealer. I don't have "come-backs" on my work, other than a few and far between oil leak from a gasket that did not seal completely.

Now actually I feel the whole point of this topic was why would Wal-Mart sell ATV's in an area that is not "user friendly"? Those guy's in the suits that have flat buttocks from sitting behind a desk have no clue other than trying to make a buck or two, so they buy up a bunch of these and ship them out to the stores, then end up seeing where they made the mistake, so they send them to areas that have the potential marketing. When it gets down to some "yuppie" trying to close down public riding areas, that is a subject just like guns. You've got those who want it, and those who don't. You will always have someone who wants to take your "rights" away, but have you ever heard of someone wanting to "save the roaches"?

 

I also saw these wally world atv's.We went for a vacation to gatlinberg tennesee recently and they where near there.I am not sure of the name of the town.I was kinda shocked that they sell atv's.