My son has outgrown his Kazuma 50. We have had very good luck with it. I want to keep him under a 110cc. He wants a Yamaha Grizzly 80, which would be perfect if it had an auto and reverse. We trail ride a lot, and he's not into speed. He wants racks on the front and back. I bought him a Tao Tao 110 with everything that he wanted, but the gearing makes it very hard to ease around on the trails. Are all youth atv's with automatic like this. His top end on the Tao Tao is about 40mph, 25mph would be tops for us. We need torque on the low end. Are the name brand youth atvs better geared for the trails?
What are my options?  

My son rides a 110cc but is a 3-speed manual w/reverse.  He had some trouble at first(he was 8)but now he rides nearly as well as I do(he's now 10).  With the manaul you can pop it down in first to get all the low end you need for going up grade and second is near perfect for just cruisin along on trail rides.  This particular machine will run between 16 to 20 mph in second.  The only time its ever been in third is when I've played around on it myself.  First and Second are all you need for just trail riding which is what he and I do anyway.  I know the autos are nice but maybe you should consider a manual it would be a good learning experience as well.  It took my son three or four rides to figure it out.
However if low end is what your seeking on the machine you can try changing the front cog if it is a chain drive.  Going up 1 or 2 teeth will give a lot of lowend but keep in mind it will decrease the top end which for trail riding won't matter much.  

the name brand atv's are alot better.
the yamaha grizzly 80cc is a great machine.
and you'll be able to limit the throttle.

and with the name brand atv's you get a real warranty and a longer lasting machine which will hold it's resell value better than the chinese atv's.

my sons started out on automatics and had no trouble making the transition to gears and even a manual clutch.