My good buddy is one of the salesman at a local Motorsports dealer. I was in the market for a new mid-sized wheeler. I had my heart and mind set on the new Yamaha Kodiak 450 EPS. I even laid money down for the dealer to order one. After a few weeks and no luck locating one with power steering, I found an ad from the same dealer on 2017 Can-Am outlanders they were "blowing out" as the ad said.
I the one I found had power steering, which is a must have for me. It was $1200 less than the Yamaha. The one in the ad was sold (i know...shocker) but they had one left in camo. The camo is lame, but for $1200 less I can learn to live with it. and has aluminum wheels, which the others didn't. The savings let me get a Winch and still have some money left over for a beer and pizza for a week.
I took it for a 25 mile rip on Friday and it was awesome. MUCH different than the Honda Foreman 450S I'm used to.
The outlander was smoooooth and for a 450, pretty quick. The belt drive is a bit noisier than I'm used to but I've not had an automatic wheeler since 2005. I imagine I'll get used to it. The seat is nice, the racks are decent but I need to get extensions on the back at least, maybe the front. The breaks are something else. I know they're new but they're good enough to throw someone if they're not paying attention. The camo pattern must work as well because I came within a foot of hitting a deer that blasted out of the woods in front of me.
