Saw this almost every day at the shop on used machines people had purchased from individuals. People would complain about repairs needed and would be turned off Polaris completely because of previous owners abuse.Same thing that can be said about any model if abused. Just like fire arms,nobody complains until some one abuses them.Then it's the fire arms fault.More than enough abuse on these to go around now days.

 

Probably goes more for cars and trucks too. The old Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge etc. I think the manufacturers never expected people to keep atvs for 10, 15, even 20 years or more. Ideally, they would like customers to buy a new one every 4-5 years. The average customer doesn't do that. Most buy used since atvs depreciate so quickly, you can get them for a much discounted price by not buying a new model. New ones are so expensive now that they turn many potential buyers away. And you can't always foresee future problems judging by the condition at time of purchase. As a general rule, the older the owner, the better it was taken care of. Not always the case but it is a large majority of the time. I always hate craigslist ads that say it needs this or that and it will be fine but I don't have the time or money to fix it. That usually means it has more things wrong with it and they're trying to make it sound like an easy fix. If it were an easy fix, they would have fixed it. Machines with no problems sell for more money than those with known problems. And you always have the owners that think their machine is made of gold and want way more than what its worth. Just have to find a happy medium between price and condition.