I am looking for an ATV for my son, it is his first and it is between a Polaris sportsman 90, and a Yamaha Grizley 80.  All I have heard is that I shouldnt get the Polaris because the parts are hard to come by and it will always be in the shop.  The Yamaha is about 300.00 more, and I am not sure qualit wise which one is better.  Can someone help me please??  Thanks!  

Well u should go with the grizz it is a better 4 wheeler i have had both before and the yamahas are bulit very well as far as breaking it want happin on a yamaha. I have had my yamaha for bot 2 years and i have never had anything go wrong with it. I drive my four wheeler in mud, snow, rain , a swamp and it is all stock my pick is the grizz.  

Before you decide try  doing a little investigating such as what model has after market Parts,fenders so on, This was a valuable lesson I have learned.Because sooner or later you will end up with a repair and if you can get a after market part at half the price you will come out ahead .  

If you want a four wheeler that won't crap out on you and its a beginner four wheeler. I say go with honda. I'm sure wolf1 will back me up but you can't kill them I have a 93 model 200 that has been flipped sunk and everything else in between minus basic maintance the thing will start first time everytime cold or hot wet or snow. So utility four wheeler wise I would go honda, racing four wheeler I'm partial to yamaha. POLARIS well they just suck in my opinion, anybody that has had one has had problems with them and then it cost an arm and a leg to fix. This is just my .02 so if it offends anyone I don't mean too....  

I would go with the polaris I have 6 of them and other then a recall on the 96 xplorer 400 for a 4x4 switch I have no isues at all I do a lot of trail ridding muddy and rocky areas I pow snow with  two of them all winter and rid them hard all summer me and my familey will swear by polaris
96 xplorer 300
97 xplorer 400
98 trail blazer 250
2000 trail blazer 250
2000 sportsman 500 rem.
2002 sportsman 90  

i wouldn't let a friend ride a polaris on accident much less suggest anyone buy one.

too many chances of them catching fire and burning your house down, OR the steering stem breaking WHILE RIDING,  OR the transmission locking up while riding, OR the brakes falling off WHILE RIDING, OR the throttle suddenly hanging wide open (of course while riding) OR the shock towers collapsing due to improper welding while riding, causing serious injury to the rider.  OR brake lines leaking hot fluid while riding causing serious burns to the rider.
(THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THEIR MANY, MANY RECALLS you can read the many recalls for polaris here
http://www.atvsafety.gov/atvrecalls.html)

even the co-founder of polaris went on the record saying "if we made 400 machines, we got back 500"
but what do you expect from a company that made it's name making farm tractors???!!!
and do you really want to go out and GET SERIOUSLY MAIMED or get possibly killed because your atv fell apart WHILE RIDING because the manufacturer couldn't get it right???!!


SO UM... YEAH I THINK YOU MIGHT WANT TO STEER VERY CLEAR OF POLARIS.


but 00shee350 is right with honda if you change the oil and filter you can give them to your grandchildren.

the 200 he has is a great machine, good and solid and always ready to go when you want to.
and i have personally owned several honda fourtrax machines, they ran forever (still running today) and gave little or no problems other than general maintenance.

Sport: i would go yamaha, or honda.
the trx450 is an awesome machine!! just be sure you have a really good grip on the handle bars.  tons of power!!!
the yamaha yzf450 is an awesome machine too.
as well as the suzuki ltz400

if you are a beginner you'll probably want to go with something like the honda 300 ex, or the yamaha raptor 350  still plenty of power but manageable.  

Wow I see alot of polaris bashing in this fourm I been a polaris owner sence 1996 and still have the 96. They have all been driven hard and but away wet two of my kids race their 250 trail blazer and no issues. The only thing that I can say smhalleck is their is a lot of differnt Machine out their for you to choise and just like every thing esle in this world they all have their good and they all have there bad I don't care if your looking at a 100.00 lawen mower or a 100000.00 car or truck they all have good and bad. The thing to do is just sit down and figure out just what you want from the machine and the it fits your kid remember this is my opion the beter the machine fits the kid per size the more comfortable the kid is on the machine the easier it will be for him to drive and ride. What I mean buy this is the hight from foot peg or board to seat and cleanerce of handle bar to  knees ext. Now as far as parts go I have never had a issue with getting polaris parts my one kid fliped hers and we got the stuff in good time some of it my dealer had in stock the other he orderd and we had in a few days put I'm sure this could change depending on the dealer that you are dealing with. The big thing is no matter witch way you go just make sure it the way you want to go don;'t make our choise just what other people tell you its you that has to live with it and repair it if some thing happens to it so make sure it what you want and feel is right for your kid  

hey partssource,

let me first appologize, it's not my intention to bash anyone who rides a polaris.
and
the last thing I want to do is bash a certain type of atv,
and I would love to be able to say yeah Polaris is the machine you need to buy!!!!  or buy american made. but i can't.

Iam not against anyone who owns a polaris, but i do have a problem with polaris AND the dealers i have dealt with.
and from what i have seen i think people should be aware of the problems with polaris machines.

Over the years i have seen alot of problems with polaris at my shop.
I have seen tons of factory defects, some polaris will admit to and a lot more that they wouldn't admit to.

I have tried working with the polaris dealers to get them to honor the warranty for my customer on these defects and they flat out refused time and time again.
I have had them even refuse to honor the warranty for
defects they do admit to.

I have lowered my labor rates for polaris to $20.00 an hour because the polaris owner shouldn't have to pay for the manufacturers mistakes.

the recalls i listed in my earlier post are all accurate and true as reported to "the consumer product safety commission".  and each of those defects is life endangering and HAS caused serious injuries to riders.

Polaris has been careless, they have had these defects for years, and it takes them so long to do anything about some of them,
and the rest they simply don't seem to know how to fix as some of the same old defects keep showing up year after year in the new models.
even the 2008's had recalls on them in 2007.
and polaris is not all american made.
they are co-owned by fuji heavy industries.

so to be clear, iam not against anyone who owns a polaris, iam against polaris selling defective atv's to their customers and then charging them to repair those defects.

in my opinion with all of the problems that polaris has with their machines, they should be forced to close down until they effectively deal with them.

and yes every atv has it's problems but you don't see yamaha or honda or even suzuki with a defective steering shaft. or shock towers that collapse due to weak welds.  the defects that you see with polaris are far and above totally different than any you see with one of the big four atv makers.
are they very dangerous to the rider.  
if you read the recalls you find out that thousands of polaris atv's are recalled not just one or two.
you actually see that anywhere from 6000-40,000
at a time are recalled on each recall.

we all go out to ride and have fun and there's always a chance that you could do something and get hurt...
 do you really want to up your chances of getting seriously hurt by riding an atv that is already defective from the factory?  and especially when polaris knows they aren't putting quality first.  

Well I'm done on this poor smhalleck just want ideal a ATV for his kid I've gave my opion on the Polaris deal and I would go out and buy a new one tomorrow if I needed one but I've found out that I would only deal with Menetto power sport in Clifton Park NY he is not the first Polaris deal that I've Delt with but he has been the best. smhalleck just remember to weigh out all your options be fore you buy because it you and your kid that has to live with the buy.  

yes and if you grab your kid a polaris predator or sportsman 90cc then just know that they are made in Taiwan.
and are junk.

the best bet would be to grab a yamaha raptor 80cc or or a honda trx70cc, or the grizzly 80cc

great machines and they wont let you down.
or hurt your kid by falling apart due to defects.  

id say yamaha raptor 80 the're fun 4 their size, perfect bike for a little kid to brag about to all his little friends hahaha  

i bought my son an 01 polaris scrambler 90 and i sit here and wish i had spent the extra money for a yamaha or honda or even an eton viper (tons of aftermarket/upgrade parts). i am looking to replace the entire carb on the machine to something with more parts availability. polaris doesn't even list a rebuild kit for the mikuni carb that comes on the bike. to buy the indivudual parts from polaris, you're looking at close to $100 just to rebuild it. wanna replace the entire carb? $300. i have seen them as low as $260. for a junk (in this instance) mikuni carb. you can buy a race keihin race carb for just a little over half of that. to buy the float valve needle and seat, is $30 for the needle and hanger, $13 for the seat and o-ring. you can buy an aftermarket needle and seat as a pair for $7. $13 if you want a mikuni set. i regret buying polaris and i'd probably try to sell it to someone else as is for half what i paid for it if i wouldn't feel like i was ripping them off. taking less than half what i paid i would feel like i was ripping myself off. if i did sell it, i would turn around and buy a yamaha. i ride a 660R, my woman rides my old YFS200. i have ridden my raptor hard for well over a year, the last few months on a daily basis. the only problem i have had is a chain break. my woman doesn't ride her blaster as hard as i used to. it's been ridden hard, put away wet, beat, abused, unmaintained, and generally neglected. my 7yr old stepson could get on it right now and kick it twice and it will fire.

again, i wish i had not bought a polaris. i never will again, and had i known then what i know now, i wouldn't have then either.

in reply the the person looking at 450's, remember the yamaha 450 is a race bike. thus no reverse. i think they are electric start however. if you are going to be a casual/woods rider, you will find yourself really appreciating a raptor. raptors have reverse, which you will find yourself quite happy to have as a casual rider.  

I purchased a sportsman 90 2008 in November of 07 for my daughter.  After 5 months of riding, it went in the shop and they can not fix it.  They have replaced almost all of the components.  It will not run for more than an hour.  It cuts off after it gets hot.

Polaris customer and technical support was absolutely useless.  I am appalled at the way I was treated as a customer, and I will never buy another Polaris product.  

The dealer I purchased from has finally agreed to refund our money because he can not fix the machine.  For this reason, I'd like to buy another one from him, but his only other product line is Can Am.  I don't know enough about Can Am, but based on what I've read here - I'm considering a Grizzly.

Does Yamaha actually make the Grizzly 80?  What about the 125?  Will the 80 hold up to true trail riding?  

the 80 will do alot better than that polaris would have.

i think the grizzly 80 would do him nice.
plus it wont fall apart like the polaris did.

Polaris atv's are junk, and Polaris is well aware of it.
but people keep buying their atv's and paying out of pocket for repairs on their defects so Polaris really doesn't care about fixing the problems.

you are very lucky to have gotten the dealer to refund your money,  now get that money and run from polaris to another manufacturer.  

TO WOLF
I purchased the leftover outlaw 500. I did see that there was a recall on it. The dealer replaced the sprocket before I picked it up. Now I was racing a LTZ400 in PA and I was mad. It seems polaris builds slow motors. Dont get me wrong I think its a fun to ride machine, but 500 cc vs. 400cc I cant believe I lost. Monday Im going to a local suzuki dealer to trade the outlaw in. I mean 3 differant wrenches to change the oil, come on polaris. Before I bought every atv mag was saying how nice the outlaw was. This is the future of racing. I really wished I would have got the LTZ 400. My question to wolf, Do you think this is the way to go. I mean Im no fix it motor guy. I was looking at the 450 class and it seems and I was told that there is alot of top end work in the future. I like speed and ripping it up. That s why I wanted to buy a 450. Honda wouldve been my choice. What is the speed difference between the LTZ 400 to the LTZ450? Is that true about the 450 being that they are derived from dirt bike motors?