Bomby Outlander 400; word is they are as fast as 500HO, full independent sus, visco-lock front diff, good suspension, good ground clearance, & reasonably light at 575lbs.

 

i looked at the Outlander 400 but just cant get over how it looks.
Honda has a new Rancher 400 4x4 comming out in spring, or one with a gps in the sunner, it kicks butt on paper.

 

keep it coming guys! i have not heard much about a rancher 400, thats pretty cool. yoy know, i wish honda would finally make something with diff lock.

 

Yea i agree the outlander is a nice atv,but the looks are kinda hard to get used to,like all new stuff,but the eng,semi-ind susp,are killer,i think the ski led underneath could use a bit more protection on the side a tree limb can go funny ways you know.

 

The Sportsman 500 is a good choice, they are plentiful and all of there reliability issues are well known and easy to maintain and repair. Polaris CVT's are about as good as you can get. They've been making them for over 30 years. Even if you smoke a belt, $40.00 and 20 minutes later you're on the trails again, not so with other Utility tranny problems. My 2000 Sportsman has been abused for 3 years now and the belt is still in good shape.
With the Hondas you pay a lot a get little in the way of performance, comfort and options.IMHO
The Vinson is a good quad at a good price.
I've never ridden any of the Bombardier quads but have heard good things about them.
Lots of great quads out there in your cc range, ride a few of them and figure out whats important to you, then get the quad that fits your needs best.
Good luck.

 

its lots of good atv's out there,but personly i love my cat,when going gets tough, the tough gets going.

 

I agree troutmaster, around here Cats rule however, the Grizzly has more power & better ride if you unhook the stabilizer bar unfortunatly also cost about $1000. more that the 500I. As for the Polaris clutches, they are the worst of the autos, they are the only clutches that slip the belt to get underway while the other auto's use an regular oil bath unit to get underway.

 

I have the 450 Kodiak and completly satisfied with the quad, Only thing I would trade it for is maybe a big bore Arctic Cat with diff lock, someone said maybe AC coming out with 700cc quad. I just hope Suzuki has nothing to do with it.

 

I'd have to go with Arctic Cat, best "bang for the buck". Nobody around here will touch a Polaris, why? 4 reasons 1) Really bad resale value 2) hard to work on, no one around here wants anything to do with them other than the Polaris dealer 3) Gease fittings mean high maintenance, all you gain is to drive what grime there is in the zerk fittings into the part you're trying to protect, and 4) Lack of a manual tranny on all models except the 425. They claim to have the best ride, and it is good, but with 2 people, or a rack full, your ground clearance is gone, looks like an old sagged out Suzuki. As far as power, they're on par with everyone else. Reliability is questionable.
I personally think if you're going to buy an auto quad, polaris has the best clutching, they've used that same system sucessfully since the early days of sleds. It's proven, and it works, it's just the rest of the chassis and steering that's iffy. Go ride a Cat, solid and powerful, but it won't pass a race bike. If you need speed rated tires on a utility bike, you're barking up the wrong tree to start. That's my half cent.

 

check out ATV tv's web site; they just had a 3 parter on rating 400 class atvs; I beleive their rating was as follows: suzuki (eiger?), bombardier outlander, honda rancher, kawasaki prairie, yamaha kodiak, yamaha big bear, polaris sprotsman, artic cat
if you can catch the repeats of those shows or check the web, u will see how they rated them and why; it was quite informational

personally i would go with the automatics with locking front differential, good power; but it really depends on what you are going to use it for

'97 Kodiak