I've wondered for awhile what amount of raves and problems there would be for each of the major ATV makers. I took "Today's New Topics" and went through a whole days worth to see what I'd come up with. It is not scientific, just a curiousity. I didn't keep Can Am as they only had a couple posts for my sample. So, I broke it up into number of posts, problem posts where people needed to repair something, and raves or information. Arctic Cat had 8 posts with 4 being problems and 4 info/rave posts giving 50% problem posts. Honda had 24 posts with 9 being problems and 15 info/rave posts giving 37.5% problem posts. Kawasaki had 10 posts with 4 being problems and 6 info/rave posts giving 40% problem posts. Polaris had 56 posts with 22 being problems and 34 info/rave posts giving 39.2% problem posts. Suzuki had 17 posts with 5 being problems and 12 info/rave posts giving 2.9% problem posts. Yamaha had 13 posts with 4 being problems and 9 info/rave posts giving 30% problem posts. I just found it interesting that the number of posts for Polaris and Honda had a similar percentage of people having problems.

 

MooseHenden you have to much time on your hands. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

You've got that right BioWare. Laid up with a bad disk in my back. Stinks because I could be making over $50 an hour here in Massachusetts doing renovations. People aren't buying new so much now. So, to keep the house they have, they are having repair work done. But, the back hurts all the time and goes up exponentially with hard work or even hard play. I can do about an hour of strenuous work before I have to quit for the day. Then I have to rest up for a few days or more until the pain levels back off. I was always wondering. I was getting the feeling that Polaris were extremely problematic from the forum. I know my quad has never had a problem other than my foot brake. But, the Honda owners say our quads are lousy. So, I did an informal look and found that, at least on this forum, Honda and Polaris owners post about the same percentage of problems. Of note also was that about 90% of the Polaris problems were machines older than the 2000 models.

 

Be intersting to see how much if any the numbers would change when spring comes and they are fired up for the first time of the season?

 

Sorry to hear about the back Moosehenden, i hope that it gets well soon.

 

I have really seen this forum change over the years! Back in the day, we use to talk more about design and riding style, etc. But, there seems to recently be a flood of "problem" posts. Most of these are trivial, and are posted by folks who could have diagnosed their problem easily if they had only not been so cheap that they weren't willing to purchase a service manual (or even read their owner's manual).

Also, many of these may be kids who lack basic mechanical knowledge. I grew up working on the cars with my dad, so I got this by osmosis. Cars now are such "black boxes", that folks don't work on them themselves, so kids don't get this experience. (Same with manual transmissions. Nobody has one in their cars, so nobody wants to shift a manual quad anymore!)

And...there doesn't seem to be the ability to handle much technical information (like jetting principles, for example). I use to teach General Biology, to mostly freshmen college students. These kids got through high school, and somehow managed to get into college, yet when the info got to complicated, many would have big problems. I think our elementry and high schools, have been letting us down!

 

I see what your saying recon. What I've found these days is not so much that kids haven't been taught but, that they don't want to learn. They have become too dependent on others. For example when something goes wrong with anything at my home be it the car, the a/c unit, or the quad first thing I do is grab a manual or search the internet for info to see how to fix it. Because if I can pay someone to do it, by god I can do it too. Most in my generation I've found simply call ma or pa and let them pay someone to do it or ignore it and move on.

As for the results I was surprised that the Polaris community is so active. I never would have guessed.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Sidewinder500

Be intersting to see how much if any the numbers would change when spring comes and they are fired up for the first time of the season?</end quote></div>

That type of problem falls squarely on the owners shoulders and not any of the manufacturers.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Scootergptx

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: Sidewinder500



Be intersting to see how much if any the numbers would change when spring comes and they are fired up for the first time of the season?</end quote></div>



That type of problem falls squarely on the owners shoulders and not any of the manufacturers.</end quote></div>

Oh i completely agree that it does but since there is no "hey I'm a moron forum" they will be posting in the manufacturers forum LOL

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>I think our elementry and high schools, have been letting us down! </end quote></div> I couldn't agree more! I am homeschooling my boys (17 and 15 1/2) because of the state of public education here in Massachusetts. They are so concerned with social engineering they've lost the basics. My sons are scoring in the top 90% of students in standardized testing. I try to do as much of my own work as I can and have my sons work with me so they can learn hands on. I have a tendency to break bolts so I have to be very careful. Still, there is always that satisfaction to get something put back together by yourself. Whether it be carpentry or mechanics or a PC. I may take a welding class after I'm done teaching my guys. It's the only thing I don't quite know how to do.