Now I am an old timer in my late 60"s.

In 1994 I bought a Polaris 2X4 300 and I had that thing for 10 years with NOT 1 PROBLEM. Just your regular changes, battery,plugs and lubrication. I lived on a farm and really used this machine but did not abuse it! NO PROBLEMS!

Now that I am retired, I love to surf fish and so I wanted to upgrade my ATV. My wife also likes to ride, so I did a lot of research and bought the 2007 Sportsman 500 EFI X2. BADDDDDDD MISTAKE!!!!

Here I am on the beach and only 500 miles on this machine and problems begin. Finally ended up replacing the ECM ( Warranty was up of course) after all kinds of trouble shooting. Now after 2 Months with the replaced ECM, the Digital cluster is acting up again!! See my post on Fuel gage flashing.

I found out with my first problem, If my battery happens to be LOW, I can't even start this machine with the pull starter, What's with this??

I guess I am "OLD SCHOOL" the more stuff you have on a machine the more to go wrong!! I wish I could have bought just a plain Machine without all the Fancy Electronic stuff not needed by me.

Thanks for letting me blow off steam.

Surfcaster

 

Yep, I agree, the more electronics the more issues there is. And electrical is not easy to fix most of the time. Nor is it cheap. Carb for me. Wait till these EFI's get 10 years old. Can pull an old 1985 honda 3 wheeler out of the grove after sitting for 10 years, add some gas, maybe some misc maintenance and it will fire right up. Thats not happening with an EFI.

 

Yeah, like you I'm not at all impresed with my X2 500 either. My fuel guage went out with 120-ish miles on it, out of warranty by a few months, way too much for me to pay to fix it too.

A great big disapointment in their product ....

 

With my 2006 Sportsman I am on my third ECM.........However I did not need to pay for any.......Caper..............

 

I'm sorry to hear you are having problems. I hope you can get them ironed out. I've had pretty much no problems with 1500 harsh miles. Maybe it's one of those Friday afternoon on the assembly line things.

 

I haven't had the problems you have had, except the pair of 2001 Xplorers we had. They were piles of junk. The 1994 and 1996 400 2 strokes we had were almost unstoppable. Had the 1994 around at a buddies house up until last year. It still ran very good. The '96 was great until I sank it. Wasn't the same since.

Now, I believe the machines are better, but probably won't last as long as some of the old "tiny tractors" we use to have.

 

I'm with you Surfcaster. I feel sorry for the guys that never experienced reliability, dependability, & uncomplicated systems. Today, we expect things to breakdown repeatedly & we're told thats normal for "trick of the week."

 

You can buy a old school machine as Polaris still sells the carb model . I'v put now over 5100 miles on my 2008 500 carb in under 24 months and only one fluke problem I broke a flywheel key its a great machine I ride it almost daily .

 

Have 2007 sportsman 500 efi Deluxe with 7600 miles on it..Very few minor problems..Also have a 2009 Sportsman 550 XP with 2600 miles and have yet to have a problem..We also have an 1986 trail boss 250 which has been a realy great machine..Still runs great..

 

Count me on the old school side of things. My 1988 trail boss was a sad neglected thing when I got it, but cleaned right up and runs fine. (okay, the fact that the plastic PVT cover sags when it gets hot is a negative, but I have a good field solution for that)