I read thru this a few times to be sure I wasnt just misunderstanding your point or something.

I have to disagree with your take on reliability and maintenence, and owning both yamaha and honda quads I have had just the opposite experience and opinion.

Both these brands are very good (go buy some of the chinese stuff out there LOL) and are mostly well designed and built. The difference is in the little stuff that can drive you crazy (like some of the things you mention potentially being bad on an older quad) and this is where the Honda excells. Honda just puts a little extra effort into their products, and this becomes more evident with time.

I thought the idea of comparing the maint on a 2 and 4 stroke was a little off but though it is not apples to apples neither is the performance or design. We really need to look into more than a quads stock performance when making decisions and comparing them etc. I dont think there are too many riders (who are knowledgabe and honest) that wouldnt not admit that the YFZ450 makes some great power, and even most of yamaha's performance machines produce good amounts of HP too. Not that Honda is some underpowerd POS but in stock form Yami puts that little extra emphasis on the engine. Honda on the other hand will plug up the hp a little and spend some extra on those little things and overall design.

If you agree with that or not what I am missing is why would someone want to hold onto the newer machine that is easily replaced and would sell for a better price or less loss than the older one with all the time and money into it? Sure the R has lost value since the pro production class and so many other riders and racers learning how much easier it is to keep up the pace on a 4 stroke, but thats only another reason not to sell it, and now the depreciation is there and it wont change much from here on.

Plus as you said there are just too many r's for sale and that will hurt the price even more.

I think if the author of this thread really wants to sell that R I have a few thousand waiting for a quad like that, but if you want to get more $$$ into your hands then just sell the one that is more popular or "hot" right now and let the yfz go.

"take the money and run"