is it because of the superior drum brakes/no
is it because of being the most powerful?/noway
maybe its the 3 wheel drive front end honda uses.
how about the real soft ride of the foremans/it does have a soft ride when a honda rider rides 5 to 10 mph all day long.polaris is superior to honda in many categories.but what honda has that i like is good engine braking on rubicon.is everyone brain washed to honda?ever hondaman i ride with always says its the reliability of the atv/but what hes not thinking of is that nothing tears up on any atv when u ride so slow and easy.i ride fast and hard and every atv i ever owned broke down a few times including a 300 4x4 honda and a 400 foreman.my self i have had better service out of polaris .i hope no one takes this in a bad way be cause its the truth.what does everyone else think?

 

If you like it?Buy it!Regardless of who is #1 in sales.Polaris is #2 anyways.I chose my 99 Sportsman and my 00 Xplorer because it had more of the features that I liked.Now I also own a Honda Recon that I think I will soon be getting rid of.The front drum brakes wont stay dry after a day of minor mudding and water crossings and im getting sick and tired of removing and cleaning them after riding.

I say to each their own?
Bill

 

Honda is good at paying attention to the little details and producing durable long lasting quads. I also think part of the long lasting part comes into play when you place underpowered engines in them that hardly make enough power to hurt themselves.
And in recent years its not impossible to see a Honda broken down on the trail.
I have owned Hondas, Suzukis, and lots of Yahahas. Honda is #1 one at at least one thing,
ADVERTISING![img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Polaris may be # 2 in overall sales, but the Sportsman 500 is the #1 selling model in the United States according to the 2001 annual stockholders report published by Polaris[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

Honda makes qaulity products with a hell of a reputation. If they made a 400cc two-stroke it would be in my garage. Their models just do not meet my needs (speed with long-travel suspension & 4X4).

 

They maybe # 1 in sales every year, but that is because hondu's quit once a year has gone by. Polaris owners buy once and there happy until they need to move up to a bigger Polaris machine. If you go out there and count every working hondu and Polaris, you'll find that there's more polaris.

 

As far as sales go I am pretty sure the difference between Honda and Polaris is pretty small. In fact, I have heard that on a month by month basis, sometimes Polaris sales are greater than Hondas.

I do know that the third place company (Yamaha) is way back there compared to Honda and Polaris.

What I am saying is that if Honda is #1 in sales, it is not by much.

 

They have been around longer and more than likely have a bigger dealer network. Feature for feature Polaris is better in 99 percent of categories. MY Polaris machines have actually been more reliable than the Honda I owned. Honda's tend to be under powered and under suspended, and use a 3x4 system that won't let you abuse it, you get stuck and need to be towed out, way before you could possibly hurt much of anything. They are simple machines, barring the Ruby, they use technology that has been around for 30 or more years in there motorcycles. The only reason a Ruby was made is because Polaris is number 2 and gaining fast. They new they needed to make something competitive.

 

I've seen the stuff 3wd's couldn't make it through. Steep, wet, muddy, loose, and rutted up trails are hard for most 3wd's I've seen. But I've seen some experienced riders who can manage some tough stuff. Most of the time it comes down to experience, but you'll get alot of times when you need that forth wheel spinning to get ya out. I've seen some unexperinced Polaris riders who couldn't make it through some stuff too. I was one of them, but now I ain't no mo!hehe

 

One thing that was mentioned on here was advertising. I got into quads 1 year ago. Before that I had NEVER been on one and I cant say that I had ever seen one in person. When a friend mentioned how fun they were I looked in the yellow pages under motorcycles. For a new person looking at something that I had never looked at before name recognition kicked in. Right away I saw Yamaha, Honda, Kawisaki, and Suzuki. I did see Polaris in there (BTW absolutely NO mention of AC or Bombardier in the phone books here). I went to look at Yamaha, Honda, Kawisaki, and Suzuki and liked what I saw. I did go to Polaris just out of curiosity. I ended up picking a Honda mainly because it seemed to fit what I was looking for and it was made by someone I had heard of. At the time I had no idea of the pros and cons.

Now this can also be affected by regions. Down here there are no snowmobiles so Polaris is not something you hear of too often. Before I knew that they made quads the only Polaris product that I had ever seen that had the word Polairs on it was a little robotic pool cleaner(BTW it is TOP of the line). I have no clue if they make it but it does say Polaris on it. I think that where there are snowmobiles people will be more likely to know what Polaris makes and be comfortable with their products and choose them.

People that know very little about someting are going to go with a brand that they are more comfortable with.

Both manufacturers make decent quads and both will have problems. Our next quad will probably not be a Honda...nothing to do with them, I just want something different to play with.