A group of us ride ATV's in the Arizona desert all winter every year. Some of the guys are in their 15th season riding out here. I have been fortunate enough to ride here for 5 winters. We see all kinds of machines. Lots of Polaris and Can Ams and fewer Hondas and Yamahas for some reason. However there are definitely more problems and more dissatisfaction per capita with the Polaris (especially) and Can Am machines than with the Yamahas and Hondas.
I own 3 Yamaha Grizzly 700 EPS machines. They are, by far, the most comfortable quads to ride, with very ergonomic control placement, good seats and extremely nice suspension. The Yamahas and Hondas seem to be tied for first place in reliability. The 2015 Grizzly 700 EPS that I ride out here is just turning over 10,000 miles, all of it on the rough trails out here, and it has needed nothing more than routine maintenance and a set of tires now and then. My buddy has a 2017 Honda Rincon that has needed boots on the rear axle already but is otherwise solid. It is definitely not as comfortable as the Grizzly, though.
The guys with Polaris quads and side by sides seem to be having lots of suspension, transmission and axle problems and the guys with Can Ams seem to have more than their share of electrical glitches. One good thing about the Can Am quads in our group is that they are 2-up machines and have longer wheelbases than our Hondas and Yamahas. This makes them a bit more stable on some of the steeper, rougher trails.
Personally, from what I have seen in thousands of miles of riding out here, I would consider Honda and Yamaha tied for first place, and everything else tied for last.
Bobby,
The Rincon you speak of even though is a 2017 model is the same machine Honda has been making for over a decade so I would not expect the ride to be that great, however I do own a 2017 Honda Rubicon with IRS that is by far the most cush riding 4 wheeler I have ever rode. That's in comparison to Can-am 500's, Yamaha grizzly 450's and 700's, Suzuki KQ's, Artic Cat 700 and etc. I'm not saying it is THE best but it is the best I've rode. I've even got buddies with Can-am's and Polaris' that admit the Honda rides much better than theirs. I have always owned Honda's with the exception of 1 Artic Cat and 1 Yamaha so maybe I'm biased.
Now when I bought my SXS last year I did buy a Can-am Defender. I drove the Yamaha Viking, Honda Pioneer, and Polaris Ranger and the Can-am seemed to be the best ride, quietest, least amount of vibration, smoothest shifting and most powerful machine of the bunch. It just seemed to me that it was a better quality machine in all aspects than the others. I only have about 500 miles on the Defender to date so hard to say how it will hold up but 0 problems to date. Dealer said the Ranger had long been the #1 selling but the Can-am's were catching up quick. Guess time will tell.
