So I should introduce myself here since I'm more into utility type ATV's. I'm from Utah and have had a few ATV's in the past. After a Polaris killed my taste for ATV's in the latter half of the 90's I've been utterly disinterested in them until a recent vacation.

I and my wife went camping with an uncle of hers that has a couple old King Quads. We were able to take them on a few trails and decided we liked that and we should look into getting another ATV. I think one of the first trail rides we take will be the Paiute trail out of Richfield. We live within a 2hr drive of there so it shouldn't be too difficult to take different sections of it from time to time.

For the past couple weeks, I've been on the phone and in several dealers from north to south. I felt that an entry level 250 class 2wd quad would be the best choice for my wife. After looking at the Recon, Ozark, Bayou, and Bruin. My wife and I narrowed the list down to the Yamaha Bruin 250 and Suzuki Ozark. Anyhow after a long story short SHE and I as well (though I wasn't going to influence her desicion heavily) decided she liked the Bruin the best. It was my first choice from the beginning, but I figured I'd let her choose since she is going to be driving it.

Then I spent a few days working on price. Needless to say I will be heading out tomorrow to snag an '05 Bruin 250 in red. She wanted blue #1, with red #2, but they sold the blue one just before I arrived there on Sat. So she said red would be fine.

We arrived at $2995 selling price and $3,303 OTD. I think this is a pretty good deal since ALL of the other Yamaha dealers said the same thing, "They are paying you to take that, I can't touch it." This is likely true since the next best price was $3,515 OTD. I'm still going to push them to throw in a rack bag or some other accessories for it.

My project is finding myself a 400cc class 4x4 with a manual trans preferred. I've test driven the Eiger, Big Bear, Bruin 350, Rancher, and Artic Cat 400.

My favorites are the Eiger and Big Bear falls a somewhat distant second.

The best buys are on the Big Bear by $400 thus far and I havn't really even priced it much since its the Eiger I like most. Wich sux cause I can't really get a deal on one right now. I may have to wait for a while to see if the dealers loosten up a bit. I'll keep y'all updated as things unfold.

Anyhow after looking around at the various ATV boards, I felt this was the best one to be a member of and I'm happy to be here and looking forward to a lot of trail riding and ATV discussion.

 

Welcome and good luck on your new purchases.

I wish that I was only 2 hrs away from the Paiute trail. That is one place that I want to ride sometime in my lifetime.

Good Luck,

Cirviver

 

Welcome to the forum JSSuper, congratulations on a good deal and for getting back into the sport.

 

hey JSSuper...the Eiger is a great machine and is capable of doing pretty much whatever you ask of it...has excellent power and good handling...i also like the fact that everything on it is very easy to maintain and it's easy to take it apart if something were to break..i give the Eiger a 9.5 in everything

 

Welcome jssuper, Man i wish i lived that close to those trails. Dont forget about moab, its awesome too.

 

Well I drove to Gunnison to pick it up today after I got finished at my jobsite. Sweet little machine! I told them it needed a rack bag to push her over on red, and they agreed to that. Its not the best bag by any means, but it saved me $50 or so anyway. She drove it down the street and back and seemed very pleased with her new ride.

I owned a Timberwolf as I said before, and this new Bruin has a lot of updates that fixed gripes I had with the wolf. All in all I'm happy with the machine and deal, now if I could just get Suzuki dealers to loosen their grip a little we'd be in business. Honda, after-all, agreed to $5180 OTD + a winch or $200 worth of other accessories on a Rancher 4x4 manual shift. I expected it to be more than that for the Honda machine.

Anyhow thanks for the welcome's [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

JSSuper,

I worked with a lady who's husband knew or worked for that yamaha dealership in Gunnison. They also own the Ford dealership there. She told me they give you such good deals because the only reason that Yamaha dealership existed is so that the owner can get snowmobile parts at cost. I was going to check it out back in 2003, but I went with a Suzuki Vinson 500 Manual Shift instead.

Paiute trail, is awesome. We are going back down there in September.

 

I think you're right Darthlarryboy. It was Freedom Ford in Gunnison, but we have done a lot of business there in the past. I decided that since my wife wanted a Yamaha Bruin I'd go visit them again. Its been about a dozen or so years since I was in there but the owner and sales still remembered us.

I may still end up with a Yamaha myself, but I'd like to go Suzuki also. I kinda think the Suzuki dealers out here are price fixing. BTW I'm from Spanish Fork so you being from Payson, we're practically neighbors [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

We should get together and trail ride, maybe even hit paiute trail. My wife and I are looking for others to ride with.

I'm heading out on a fishing trip for this weekend so I'll look to follow up when I return.

 

Spanish Fork! them fighten words right there [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I actually live in Orem now, grew up in springlake.

I think all of Utah price fixes, at least compared to prices in the East.

 

Jssuper welcome to the forum. Folks on here are both friendly and helpful. I think all of the quads you mentioned will serve you well.