New Polaris Sportsman 800 Twin EFI All-Terrain Vehicle Named "Best of the Best"
December 8, 2004


Polaris Industries today announced that its new 2005 Sportsman 800 Twin EFI was named the "Best of the Best" all-terrain vehicle by Field & Stream Magazine.

"We are thrilled to receive this prestigious award from one of the most prominent outdoor publications," said Bennett Morgan, vice president of the ATV Division at Polaris. "The Sportsman 800 Twin EFI sets Polaris apart by offering consumers a machine that can handle and conquer anything you put in its path."


To read whole article ATV Rider click here.

Click here to see Field & Stream article.

 

Not much of a surprise there, I have the '05 700 EFI and its awesome all-around...with the extra power of the 800 it would be hard to beat for power, styling, storage, AWD, EBS, suspension, handling, comfort, accessories, etc....

 

There isn't really anything to dislike about the new 800, other than the price LOL...[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Its great the quad owners are so uncomfortable and unsure of themselves and their machines that they feel the need to collect and exalt positive opinions of thier machines that are often made by biased or uninformed people who hold positions of minor importance or prestige.

I'm not attacking you so much as the great emphasis that everyone in all different parts of these forums places on the reviews and awards that come out from these partially fraudulent sources.

The 800 is a great atv, and you dont need others to agree to give that statement credibility.

 

F**k off!

Every product on the market, from cars to computers to tv's, has a magazine writing about, reviewing and comparing it with it's competitors. Usually there is a fair amount of accuracy and truth and sometimes some biased opinions included. People enjoy reading these articles, comparing what's written with their own experience and debating with their friends (or a**holes on the internet.) After too many years of what us happy Polaris owners believe to be unfair ripping on our machines, it is nice to get some positive press for a change. If you have valid points to challenge the conclusions of this particular article, that is fine. But just to mouth off that all reviews are biased and uninformed simply proves how biased and uniformed YOU are!

 

I posted this article for all the potential 800 owners, not so people would agree or reassure me that I made a good purchase. I know, for my needs, that I made the right choice. I studied and/or tested most of the models in the class of ATV I was looking for and made my decision based on that.

It just seems, to me, that there are some people giving bad advice. And simply because they or their friend have a particular machine and think it is the ATV to end all ATV's and that any other ATV brand or model could not possibly be any good. Also, I would have to put more creedence in these reviews, than some guy you know nothing about, spouting off for one reason or another.

Speaking of spouting off, thanks for your concern Maddog, though it was a little patronizing. Not a good quality in a person.

 

It's real simple.........the guy is just a jerk.

 

And thats the way it should be. You did your research and found the quad that best suits you. Magazines have differing opinions on what they want and dont want, like and dont like. Its similar to taking someone else's opinion for it without any first hand knowledge.

I do honesly feel that the 800 and rest of the sportsman line are great atvs. Magazines very from one to another and from year to year on thier standards and conclusions, consistency is not one of thier virtues. They may find things they hate about the sportsman that never bothered them before next year when a different quad comes out and use those things to declare the new quad a winner even if it doesnt do those specific things any better. The conclusion of the magazine next year will not effect how good the 800 is now, or how good it will be then.

I'm trying to state that I think too much stock is placed in magazine reviews for the atv sport. Most people on this board have seen one of these magazines review one of the atvs they have had experience with and more often than not the reader and magazine come to different conclusions and have different standards. The same can be said of the auto industry. Those people have the luxury of comparing the 20k dollar grocery getters they test with their memories of how that last 200k dollar ferrari was. They will have different standards, perceptions, and conclusions than the typical middle income reader who doesnt often get to see a new ferrari, let alone drive one. Auto magazines also exhibit strong preferences towards certain automakers. Motor trend likes BMW, a lot. Car and Driver has their share of bias as well.

My point is that too much stake is taken in these reviews, and people treat the articles and conclusions as fact when in many cases they are far from it. I feel that these magazine articles should only be given the same clout as you would another person with first hand experience on that atv and similar ones.

Mlebout, you did not make any conclusion on the article, you simply posted it and linked to it. For that reason I stated that I was not attacking you directly, but rather the emphasis put on these articles in general. Perhaps by placing it in a post that did not see a significant demonstration of a member quoting a magazine review as fact I have turned some of you against my statement. I'm sorry if you dont like or dont understand what I'm trying to say, but I have no apologies for making my statement. As I said I was not attacking Mlebout but rather addressing the forum as a whole. I simply used this latest posting of magazine results as the arena to say it.

EDIT: Do a search for dirtwheels or atv sport and you will find plenty of examples of what I am speaking of. There was one in the Yamaha forum just yesterday with raptor and pred owners alike citing the opinions of others with great importance.

 

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

MAddog, I get where you re coming from, and that has been my stance for years. I really dont pay Attention to Mag reviews and Shootouts. EVen if everything was perfectly fair, the point is, your taking 5 riders out of 1 million riders and taking their opinion on what is or isnt right with a quad? Take 5 different riders, Isnt there a chance youll get a DIFFERENT finishing order?
Tak 5 Riders Age 50, and 5 riders age 19 and put them on 5 big sport ute machines and the results would surely be different, because different people feel that different items are important.
I think These guys Just thought you were coming down on the machine, when In actuallity, the way I took it was, Hey its a Great machine, we dont need a mag to tell us that.