These two ATVīs are very close to each other - according to product data.
But I would appreciate any suggestions from those who has real experiences.

THX a lot

 

ozark more suspension travel. recon electronic shift. both great quads i have an ozark and i love it. for what it is it goes good. it pretty much comes down to do you like honda or suzuki better

 

The Ozark will start in the cold weather. Honda's are not well known for cold weather.

 

pick the one that is your fav. color......They are about the same

 

I prefer the Ozark over the Recon. I didn't really care for the electronic shift on the Recon. My Z250 (almost identical to the Ozark, biggest difference is the plastic) is about bulletproof. I have ridden places that would make the Suzuki engineers cringe and have not had a problem yet.

 

We bought two Ozarks two years ago and it came down to the Ozark vs the Recon. We picked the Ozark because of more suspension travel, bigger gas tank, bigger engine, more ground clearance, and we thought it looked better (at the time)

We rode both and they felt very similar to each other.

We will concede, however, that the shifting is more notchy on the Ozark than the Recon and the ES is a good selling factor for the Recon as well.

 

Thank you!
I always liked more the Honda brand than Suzuki, but after going through the Honda forum I have learnt that if I decide to buy a Recon it could face with some serious problems as it was written in some comments.
Just read some of them:

- My new Recon hates water/mud - help?!
It sounds stupid but seems it was true:
Link to the post: http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=497585

- Recon es not shifting
I have seen this serious problem more times even in the case of Ricnon and Rancher!!! But for me the manual shifting is not a problem
http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=496214

- Recon has white smoke in the crankcase
Maybe not a real problem. Link: http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=499120

- Recon power loss
Link: http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=494368

- Recon engine problems
http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=493049

- Recon driving me crazy
http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=486656

- Recon help. My 01 recon keeps stalling while going uphill
http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=487613

- Recon electrical problem
http://forums.atvconnection.com/mess...hreadid=486006


Off course I have met also some Ozark problems in the forum, but not so many and not so serious ones.
I think the Ozark would be really more bulletproof and in addition it has better parameters than Recon. The only advantage of Recon is its Honda-image and thanks to this it is easier to re-sale.
I have test-driven both and were very similar, maybe I would say Ozark had a little bit better performance, but the shifting was smoother by Recon. But generally both of them were fine.

I rather want to know more about their reliabilities, what you cannot experience during a test drive. All the comments from the forum helped me realized, that Recon is a little bit sensitive princesses, who you have to protect against mud, dirty water and cold weather, while Ozark is really a wild boar.
The most of ATV rentals have even Ozark because of its reliability. I have never seen one, who had Recon - at least in Hungary or Slovakia (Europe) where I live.
If you have any other opinion, lets share it! I put this comment purposely both in Suzuki and Honda forum as well to know the opinions of the both side :-)

 

i don't know much about the honda recon myself, but is it possible you are seeing all these posts about riders needing help with their recons because there are soo many more recons sold than ozark. i haven't looked up the sales numbers but i think honda outsells suzuki pretty good. if that is the case, i wouldn't worry about seeing more posts about problems. the new brand katzu four wheelers they are selling in my area now. there arent' alot of post about problems with them on the forums but i would attribute that to relatively low sales numbers. if you see twice the problems with a honda but four times as many are sold, that actually means a less percentage of people are having problems. don't let those posts deter you.

 

I had the ozark 4 months and loved every moment with it. I drove it hard and it didn't want to break. It's sporty enough for jumping and going hard on corners. I'd take it anywhere but had to let it go for a Kawasaki kfx 400 just last Saturday. I will definitely miss my Ozark, but I just wanted more speed and something sportier. I would recommend the Ozark over any 350 utility in a second.

The brand new Ozark may seem slow and rough for the first 5 hours of riding, but when I changed the oil to synthetic , had the valves adjusted, and when it finally was broken-in, it rode like a beauty - smooth and strong.