Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire My Polaris 700 EFI is in the shop again

actually I was looking at it this morning - its not water cooled, it just has this crazy huge cooling fan on it.

the last honda my daughter had was a 2005 500 it ran 1000miles before it started smoking so bad that you couldn't trail ride behind it without choking to death. to me they are junk. only one honda left in the gang and its a honda bigred . the guy that owns it rides hard roads and runs 30 mph max. i guess it may last a while if you baby it.

I have owned them all. I buy, fix, and sell them, Polaris is just as good as anything made. very easy to work on, the 500 carbed sportsman is one of the best ATVs every made.

We have all kinds on our lease, and my 2004 Polaris Ranger 500 UTV is a reliable work horse, I mean a hoss. Other than electronic stuff...fuel pump, solenoid, it's been a beast. Had the carb cleaned once due to hard starting....very reliable.

Polaris: Moving to Mexico to get closer to customers
by Martin Moylan, Minnesota Public Radio
May 21, 2010


St. Paul, Minn. � Polaris Industries officials fleshed out the reasons behind its plan to shut down its parts plant in Osceola, Wis. The Medina-based company plans to shift much of the work and many of the jobs in Osceola to Mexico.

The Osceola plant, about 25 miles north of Stillwater, employs 515 workers, who make parts for the company's snowmobiles, ATVs and Victory motorcycles.

Officials say some of the work will be moved to company plants in Roseau, Minn., and Spirit Lake, Iowa.

Polaris CEO Scott Wine says the company is closing the plant and opening a facility in Mexico to get closer to key customers and to cut labor costs. He says many competitors have made similar moves.

"We have concluded that in order to remain competitive and position Polaris for growth in the global market, we must align our manufacturing operations closer to our evolving customer base and seek to lower our overall manufacturing and logistics costs," said Wine.

The company expects the move will help it eventually save $30 million a year, with much of the savings coming from lower wages. Officials didn't detail how much lower the wages would be in Mexico, though.

In Mexico, Wine says Polaris will be closer to states where its ATVs and related products have been selling especially well.

"Our ATV and side-by-side products represent over two-thirds of our total sales, with about 40 percent of that customer base located in the southern half of the United States," he said.

Minnesota state economsit Tom Stinson says such plant relocations have been going on for years, as companies try to take advantage of cheaper labor abroad.

"It's just part of the normal course of business. We just hope that we maintain the employment that we have in manufacturing," said Stinson.

Polaris has been known as a made-in-the-USA brand. A Wall Street analyst asked CEO Scott Wine if the Polaris brand and sales might suffer because some products would clearly be made in Mexico, not the USA.

Wine said he doesn't think consumers care.

"Based on all the consumer goods that are bought in the U.S. that are produced in Mexico, we think that as long as we deliver the quality and performance our customers expect that we'll be able to work through this from a brand perspective," he said.

Wine said it's possible Polaris could further expand overseas operations in the future, depending on how foreign sales go. The company is especially keen on growing sales in Latin America.

"As we grow internationally ... we will likely need to have operations there to support that. But there are no current plans," said Wine.

Polaris saw its sales fall 20 percent in 2009 to $1.6 billion, as the recession dampened consumers' appetite for its ATVs, snowmobiles, motorcycles and other vehicles. Still, the company earned about $100 million last year. The company hopes to boost its sales to $3 billion annually by 2014.

Polaris says workers at the Osceola plant will be allowed to apply for jobs at the other Polaris facilities in Minnesota and Iowa ---or with any companies that continue producing parts for Polaris in Osceola.

Polaris is negotiating with suppliers to sell them equipment in the Osceola plant. Polaris says it wants suppliers to take over making parts there.

Here is what i just purchased in a S BY S , the Kubota RTV900 Diesel. It is a Tank

I know of 7 Polaris ATVs and 3 Rangers and every one of them has been trouble free. I also know of 5 Honda's and 4 of them have had major and multiple problems. The neighbors to our deer hunting land have 3 or 4 Yamahas and Kawis and while talking to them last year you could see the lust in their eyes looking at our Polaris's. They vowed the next ones will be Polaris. I also know a company that does presribed burns and they had Kubotas and Polaris Rangers. They sold the Kubotas and bought all Rangers and said the difference in performance was significant. No way could an internet forum convince me that Polaris has any more problems than any other manufacturer. They have been great to me and that is all that matters.

Someone would put a sign out that says they dont want to work on Polaris because there is so much work doing that? Sounds like a pretty bad business model to me...or a guy who lost his dealership and is trying to make excuses.
Yes I live in MN. No, I do not have any connection to Polaris or any union (thank goodness) in any way.

"Someone would put a sign out that says they dont want to work on Polaris because there is so much work doing that? Sounds like a pretty bad business model to me...or a guy who lost his dealership and is trying to make excuses.
Yes I live in MN. No, I do not have any connection to Polaris or any union (thank goodness) in any way."

Nope, he came from a large[all Jap brand] dealer up the road a ways. He was/is factory trained by Yama,Kawa, Honda and Suzuki as a mechanic and was the lead mechanic there. Lived here all of his life and saw the need for a well run shop and used cycle/atv center.
He point blank told me he didn't have the time nor space for Polaris repairs.
He had all the work he could handle.
I have no dog in this as I have never owned[to have an opinion] a Polaris and can only relate my personal experiences with what I have owned.

Put that Rincon against the 300 Fourtrax in the mud and the Rincon won't stand a chance against the little 300. I've owned 2 300's (1 2x2 and 1 4x4) and they went anywhere I needed them too.

Having the right tires makes all the difference when it comes to being able to get around on a wheeler. Oh yeah, a driver that know's how to ride helps too.

i don't do deep mud anymore. when we all first started riding we buried every atv we had in 3ft of mud . after replacing brake perts and lots of other stuff that the mud destroyed over the years we all gave up on seeing who could run the deepest mud holes. oh, back then we had honda ,suzuki,yamaha,kawasaki andd only one polaris. the polaris was a 450-500 that had a fixed bed on the back. i don't remember what model or year it was. i'd say 2000 or so,but it would go thru deeper stiffer mud holes then anything else we owned.most days in the mud the polaris would just be cruzin thru the deep holes and we all would be fighting to keep up.