a friend of mine is looking at a 2000 sp500 it has 3000 miles on itis that alot of miles for machine??? how many miles do you guys have on your 500.I posted this msg before and now its gone, so who ever replied to my post please do it again.

 

I had 550 miles on my sp500 when I sold it.

 

<< a friend of mine is looking at a 2000 sp500 it has 3000 miles on it. Is that alot of miles for machine??? >>



It is really hard to say, based upon the usage of the machine during those 3000 miles. Sportsman models manufactured after February of 2001 cured, a lotof minor annoying details that had plagued earlier models. It is a tough call to make. If a person is fortunate enough to afford a new one, that would be the way to go. But we are not all that lucky.

On some of the earlier Sportsman with 3000 miles of mud, I would stay away, seals in the gearcase will start to go, and quite possibly the cv joints have been strained. I never have personally experienced engine failures, but some people like to bring up stories about bad cam lobes. I asked a technician friend about cam failure and he told me that 90% of the time it was caused by a person who did not change the oil regularly enough. He said in a Polaris with dirty oil the first failure will be the cam lobes. I guess you would have to ask yourself, is your friend with the Sportsman 500 a &quot;maintenance freak&quot;?