New to ATVs could use some input... If you please.

[Old man]

So I am currently looking at buying an ATV, I am hoping to figure out what I need, what I want and of course what can I afford. It will be used for work/hunting and occasional trail riding, but nothing crazy. It will spend 80% of the time in the mountains and during the winter it will have the secondary purpose of being my transportation to and from my mountain property. I grew riding Honda ATVS back in the day, but until recently I preferred motorcycles. I even plan on selling my TW200 to help finance this purchase. My big first question would be are Kymco ATVs a good purchase? I have more questions but will refrain until I have tooled around a bit more.

Thanks,
  Gabe

[Bratman2]

I consider the Kymco to be a great buy. My first ATV was a Yamaha Grizzly 450, bought used. I only paid $900 more for a new leftover 2014 Kymco 450 in 2015. I consider the Kymco to be a better machine in performance. It is more powerful, you set more in the machine while on the Grizzly you feel like you sit on top of the machine and I think the Kymco has a slightly better ride/handling. The brakes are much better on the Kymco. The Yamaha has locking front differential were my Kymco doesn't. It seems though the front differential on the Kymco has way more traction than the Grizzly when the Grizzly is unlocked. Only problem I have had with my Kymco is the speedometer quit working mid summer last year. Needs a new sensor which is a $40 something part that I have been dragging my feet to buy and replace. Good luck on your purchase. Also Kymco makes all of the 500 and down Arctic Cats last I know, I didn't know if you were aware of that. They are good machines.

[airshot]

Not meaning to steal a thread here, but when I saw the speedo issue, thought I might jump in here.  My speedo stopped working on my uxv as well but sensor is 120 bucks, so I just removed mine and cleaned it really good including the electrical connection. That was morw thn 7 months back and it is still working great.
 As far as Kymco products go...they are well made and designed. Great quality control system....however there downfall is name recognition.  Resale suffers due to lack of name recgnition. When I bought my utv, I pkanned on keeping it a long time so resale value didnt mean much to me. More than 3 years later, I have no regrets, been a great machine and has more than 1000 miles on it. If you plan on trading in the near fuure then reconsider, but if you buy it to keep it then Kymco will be a really good choice. Do look for a model with diff lock as it makes a big deal when the going gets really tough!

[Old man]

Thank you both for your replies. I am seriously thinking of saving up some loot then buying new. I have not seen too many used kymco’s around. That base mxu 700 has me thinking pretty hard.

[airshot]

You are right, few and far between from what I have seen.  I have been a Kymco owner and no complaints in 3 yrs and more than 1000 miles.  Just be sure you have a good solid dealer just in case you have any issues.  Everybody is always looking for the deal of the century but...when they have an issue, they have nobody to help them out. I did not get a gret buy...just average, but my dealer has been excellent when I have a question, need parts or help.

[Bratman2]

Airshot has a good point that I didn't think to even mention. Name recognition. Like him, we still have our Grizzly we bought new. So selling the Kymco or looking to get rid of it was not factored in for us. So I agree, if you think you may want to move to a different unit soon or trade it may not be the best buy. We planned on keeping ours a pretty long time.

On the speedometer sensor, I think I remember you posting about cleaning yours. Tried that with ours and it started working for a very short time. Maybe I should give it another shot!

[airshot]

Dont forget to clean the electrical connection also!  I used dielectric grease to helo keep it clean, lots of crap gets thrown up in that area...