I have been studying the ATV and UTV market for a few months. Initially I wanted a side by side, but with their height on a trailer, I couldn't get one into my garage due to vertcal clearance. As somewhat of an aside, in the interim I bought a pop-up camper. That meant whatever I bought would be a tight fit in the limited remaining space in the garage.
My intended uses are for piddling around on a 12000 acre hunting lease and working my food plot here in south Louisiana. Secondary uses are occasional getaways to riding destinations, including trips to the Rockies. My 55 pounf black lab will spend time on the bike with me. At times my wife will too. My budget was about 5 grand. I lived in Kodiak AK for 3 years and used a 2WD Suzuki 160 extensively there. I often loaded it with my wife, ice chest, rods and reels and rifles and rode for miles across a mountain pass through some pretty nasty stuff. On the rare occasions I got stuck, I got off and basically threw the machine out of the hole. I mention that because I was willing to entertain the idea of a smaller machine.
Right off the bat most smaller machines were eliminated because they don't have fuel injection. Many like the Recon have drum brakes. I don't go mudding, but partial submersion is hard to avoid in my neck of the woods and drum brakes don't fare well. At my price point, that left the Kymco MXU 450i, Honda Ranchers and Polaris Sportsman HO 450 and 570's. When I first started looking there were a number of leftover 16's on the market, but by the time I had narrowed my choices, most of those were gone. A local dealer is a Polaris wholesaler who sells stock 450s for $4499 and stock 570 for $4999. When they get a truckload in, they outfit most of them with larger tires and rims and other accessories to try to make profit. Those that they leave stock sell quickly. The Polaris machines were my top choice though I had misgivings about their quality. Our local craigslist ads are littered with older Japanese machines selling for close to their original price. There are few older Polaris machines. I think that says something. It didn't look like any base Polaris bikes were going to be available at my wholesaler for a while, so they were eliminated.
That left Ranchers and the MXU. I could get a Rancher 2WD for $4300 or a 4WD for $5200. These machines run a manual transmission, solid rear axle and rear drum brake. They are stone cold reliable, long living machines though. In comparison, Kymco has an IRS. disc brakes, push button 4WD and is an automatic. My lab will appreciate the non jerky automatic! I found a Kymco dealer about 35 miles away who had a leftover 2016 450i LE that he was willing to sell for $4999. The LE adds nice aluminum rims and a winch. On top of that, Kymco was offering a free 24 month warranty on their '16 leftovers. They also have a Military appreciation rebate for $250. That put the machine at $4749, with no freight or set-up fees. When I started comparing it to the Honda, the Honda edged it out in 2 categories. Known reliability and resale. I did my homework on Kymco. They have solid history and are developing a decent reputation for reliability. Otherwise, the Kymco offers so much more for the money.
I bought the MXU 450i. Pardon my long introductory post. In doing my market research, there wasn't much out there on Kymco, so I thought it may be worth it to others if I drop my thoughts here for all to see.
