Which models to avoid and which ones are good machines. Especially older Rangers or Mules.

From my experience of owning over 20 UTVs so far I'd stick with Kawasaki and stay away from Polaris for sure. The factory warranty tell you all you need to know....

Polaris: 6mo warranty and they won't sell you anymore "factory" warranty, only a secondary market warranty

Kawasaki: 36mo warranty and they will sell you up to 6 years of "factory" extended warranty

As to older models, 610s and 3010s are bulletproof, the 4010s will give you throttle body issues unless you run only non-ethanol gas in them, otherwise plan on a new throttle body (fuel injection) every 300-400 hours.

The Mule PRO-FXT is by far the best utility UTV on the market and they are pretty much bullet proof. We currently run 4 of them here at the ranch and 2 up in AR and had virtually no issues with them.

In my opinion, second best in CanAm

I believe Polaris has a one year warranty. My 2021 Ranger XP1000 came with an extra year warranty on a IDme promotion(medical field) my wife qualified for. So with a full 2 year warranty I started leaning Polaris over Kawasaki.

I started out sold on the Mule solely due to it's reputation for mechanical reliability. After spending a weekend in my hunting partners Ranger, looking at my likely use and environment, the good history my hunting partners had with them, I bought my Ranger. If I used my machine daily, farm use, work, I may have decided differently. Also I didn't want the doors on the Mule. We mostly are on dry, bladed dirt roads. We cover 16k acres so there are a lot of 30-45 minute rides to a hunting set up. Speed and comfort were a big consideration. We do get some mud, climb steep rocky hills and carry 600 lbs of feed at times. I've had it 14 months, two deer seasons and have 170 hours. The fluid maintenance is easy.

Tell us your needs, environment and amount of use.

For a non-crew cab model I think Honda's are hard to beat. I love my Pioneer, and am not a fan of my Ranger.

The first thing we do is take the front doors off. I'll put a PRO-FXT up against any other UTV on ride quality as long as they have similar tires on them. Stiff sidewall tires will make any of the ride rougher.

I do like the drive on the Honda, direct shaft, right?

I have a 2018 Can Am HD 8 crew cab and have nothing but great things to say about it. Has a touch over 430 hours on it and it hasn't lived the easiest life, but is quiet, very peppy and does everything i ask it to do and some things I don't think it could do.

Next machine will be the FXT Pro- a Tad smaller machine, but I don't need the large bed in the can am anymore so I'll be interested to spend some time in that rig. I don't think you can go wrong with either the FXT Pro or the Can An Defender. I stay away from Polaris

No belt mafia. Kawi is loud as hell, Polaris and can ham are equal. Honda is what I bought and when it works right it is a great machine and I did not break it.

No belt mafia. Kawi is loud as hell, Polaris and can ham are equal. Honda is what I bought and when it works right it is a great machine and I did not break it.

FWIW....Polaris machines seem to be much easier to find that either Kawasaki or Can Am's.



It appears that dealerships have a decent amount of Polaris inventory in stock

My 2006 500 has been great. Perfect for what I'm doing....

Need help loading big mulies I’ll help

My 2006 500 has been great. Perfect for what I'm doing....

Those year model Polaris’s were very reliable.

As explained to me by my dealer ( who sells Kawasaki, Polaris, Can Am and Yamaha ) the later year model Rangers had parts farmed out to China, the rear ends had major issues at low hours. My buddy had 4 Polaris rangers in the shop with rear end problems at around 20-30 hours. This problem was around 2015-2019 so they may have corrected the issue by now.