Oh yeah in comment to the last post, I think a 6-7 hundred is a must and I plan on doing the financing thing so the $$ factor is somewhat flexible. Under 8Gs and less than 200 bucks a month will work for me.


Now how can I convince the wife that she will want to pay for that to boot. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

looking at your size and weight, i would go with the grizzly.
here are some pro's and cons with them.
pro's for the grizzly.
light steering.
wonderful power responce.
actually controllable 4x4 system.
alot lighter than most big bore 4x4 quads.
easy to trail ride.
easly modable.
great looking.
exelant guages, including a GAS GUAGE.
ability to throw it around in corners, off camber, mud.
sportsman pro's.
great stock tires.
great work horse.
weight to haul alot more than others limit there's to.
solid design.
4x4 whenever you need it, without asking for it( pushing a button)
power in a twin engine.
yellow, lol!
cons for the grizzly
real bad stock tires.
yamaha sucks for a company!!!( this is personal)
weak floorboards. ( moddable)
side panel mods needed.( modable)
shifter is touchy till ya get used to it.
all the posts that some have experianced...
cons on the sportsman
4x4 system is not at a touch of a finger.
VARY HEAVY!!!
sinks in mud i went right through( seen this more than once)
no gas guage.
more expencive to maintain.

i think it kind of rely's on what you'll do most with it.
if your for all out trail riding, muddin, and tight trail riding, go with the grizzly. if your more of a cruiser, looking for the best ride in a quad, and want a work horse to boot, get the polaris.
i know i have left stuff out, but i am too long now, lol
good luck, and let us know what you deside!!!

 

Thanks Mich660Griz,

I'm in MI also and about an hour or less away from you in South Lyon. My pops lives in Eastpointe so let me know when I can come over and ride your bike [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img][img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-wink.gif[/img]

I like the way you layed out the pro's and con's of each they made since and were honest and not bashing one or the other, thanks for that. Tell me this, where do you ride around here? Do you have to go north all of the time or is there something somewhat close to us?

 

i was born and bred in east pointe. 10 mile between gratiot and kelly.
the closest place to ride legally in michigan is called the mounds. its a city run atv park. costs are 50 bucks a season, and its a 200 achre place. it has it all for off roading, like mud pits, dirt race track, sand pits, lots of water, and smooth cruising. if you take i 75 north to exit 125 i think, its there. can get exact directions next time i go. your more than welcome to ride my quad, as long as you leave me with a large check, lmao!!!
if i were shopping for a new quad today, the one thing i would first do is check on the close dealers. you might even want that to help sway ya one way or the other. personally, i wont buy another yamaha product. dont like the dealers, hate the company even more, lol. this is hard to say consittering i have only owned yamaha's in my life till i just recently bought a snowmobile. its a polaris. the new 700 is a quite solid quad, mabe moreso than the grizzly. i do love my grizzly though, and find nothing it cant do.
good luck

 

Thanks so much for the info. Here is a link for The Mounds. That place looks awesome and it pretty darn close to me (one hour north) if that. Maybe I will head out there and try and talk to some people.

Tell me why you hate Yamaha (the company) and what sucks about the dealers you've used? As stated before I have no bias towards the Grizzly or the Sportsman, I'm just trying which would work best for me. In my opinion, either would do just fine and I would be happy with either or. My pops was out for dinner with us tonight and we chatted about the two quads quite a bit. I now have the seed planeted in my wife's head and I hope that does me some good. She has a hard time when I spend a few hundred dollars here or there but when its thousands its a bit more of a problem. I have no clue what our tax return is going to look like since this is only our first year in our house but hopefully its hefty so that I can use part of that to take off some of the blow. We'll see.

So come on and lets here those first hand experiences with Yamaha and Polaris. From what I see of Yamaha they put a lot into their website which is nice for me while browsing. I also like the idea of that CD they have out that has the manual, parts list and so on. I know those two things have nothing to do with nothing but it makes the company look good for some reason.