After buying the proven reliabilty of Honda in many different products over the years (car, brushcutter, mower etc.) I was a little nervous in buying a Polaris machine. But the package of features was there from a large manufacturer.

As a buyer, the presumption is if you have a competitor like Honda you lift your game to meet their standards, or you simply go out of business. This bit of common sense doesn't seem to have gotten through to Polaris Industries in the US. The writing is on the wall, Toyota has just overtaken GM as the world's biggest car manufacturer, simply because they are better, and GM has allowed them to become so.

Anyway, to the nitty gritty. Let me point out first that none of the following issues affect the actual quad's perfomance as an ATV (so far), they do, however, point to sloppy QC processes within Polaris that make you ask the question "if they can get all these little things wrong then what's to stop them getting the big ones wrong as well?"

Out of the box, one of the headlamps didn't work, not blown, but a broken filament. A simple QC check on the factory floor would have picked it up.At $27 USD for a replacement globe it's worth mentioning. The bushes that hold the seat to the frame were mangled as if the person fitting them didn't know what they were doing. Instead of removing and replacing them they were left floating around in the seat holes. No matter what I do the battery won't hold a charge above 12.5 v, it should be up around 13v new. This indicates either a faulty battery or alternator.

The front brakes are squeaking not through dust, but through bad adjustment. The speedometer/odometer has been working only on and off and as of yesterday has gone off permanently.

All of these issues have happened in the last month as I am quietly running in the engine, what issues will come up once I start to push the vehicle a bit more? If there are more I'll be posting them here.

So far my local dealer, Race Motorcycles, have been great, fixing everything under warranty (as they should!)

But it shouldn't be up to the dealers at the other end to fix problems that should never have got out of the factory door in the first place.

 

I have 2 07 hawkeyes and have been impresed so far. the seat rubber mounts came off mine also on one but that was from trying to put the seat back when it wasnt in line (after refitting them put a drop of dishsoap on them it keeps them from pinching when you put the seat back on)
all other things you posted on I havent seen sounds like you had bad luck on one [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-sad.gif[/img] sorry to hear that becouse as I said I love these atvs and I have run them in everything PA can offer with no prob at all [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Not one problem with my 07LE to this point, bought in Jan. I installed the 06 seat latch on my 07 seat along with the omitted front cv boot guards the 06 has that the 07 doesn't.....