• last year
We ABUSED the all-new Can-Am Maverick R for nearly 200 miles in the Nevada desert. Check out some of the machine’s quirks, along with everything we love and hate about the dual-clutch side-by-side. Is it good enough to dethrone the RZR Pro R?

Check out the story at https://www.utvdriver.com/reviews/can-am-maverick-r-pros-and-cons-review/

Check out the full feature at: https://www.utvdriver.com/utv-videos/can-am-maverick-r-spec-sheet-review/

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Category

🥇
Sports
Transcript
00:00 (engine revving)
00:02 (engine revving)
00:05 - Welcome to Nevada, where it is still hot as can be,
00:32 but it is totally worth it because we are driving
00:34 the all new Can-Am Maverick R.
00:37 I wanna show you a bunch of the cool things
00:39 that didn't get covered in some of the other things
00:41 that we've read and seen.
00:42 Then I'm gonna give you five things I love,
00:43 five things I hate, and I'm gonna tell you exactly
00:45 who I think this rig is for.
00:47 Stay tuned, this is one of the best rigs
00:49 we've had our hands on this year.
00:50 You don't wanna miss it.
00:51 So let's start outside.
00:52 Early photos of this thing, everybody thought,
00:54 well, that's a weird looking rig.
00:56 In the flesh, it is super attractive.
00:58 The tall knuckles give it a super distinctive front profile.
01:02 See it coming down the trail,
01:03 those big arms moving up and down, very cool.
01:05 Big old three-piston calipers up front,
01:07 two pistons in the rear, another tall knuckle in the back.
01:10 Big old cargo bay, look at that.
01:12 Center up exhaust just like before.
01:14 Thing looks proper gnarly from the rear.
01:17 These ITP Tenacity tires have taken
01:19 an absolute beating today.
01:21 We did over 100 miles doing every bit of 99 miles an hour
01:26 and multiple occasions.
01:27 Occasionally, cruising along 75, 80,
01:30 like it's absolutely nothing.
01:31 These things took an absolute beating.
01:33 So obviously, this is an ultimate class rig.
01:35 This is way ahead of anything that you'd see
01:37 from like a Razor 1000 or a Can-Am Maverick X3.
01:41 You've got 240 horsepower, you can carry speed
01:43 like you would not believe.
01:45 That Fox suspension smooths everything out.
01:47 So you don't even realize you're doing 80 miles an hour
01:49 most of the time.
01:50 All of that means you're gonna need a cage
01:53 that can stand up to a genuine beating.
01:55 Can-Am has provided that.
01:57 Let's take a good close look at this cage.
01:59 Look at these gussets.
02:00 Look at that sucker, massive.
02:02 Another double plate back here,
02:04 holding everything together.
02:06 Pretty impressive stuff.
02:08 Good and stout.
02:09 That's what we like to see.
02:10 While we're outside, let's take a look at these full doors.
02:12 Forever Can-Am has had half doors.
02:14 You run through the dust, run through the mud,
02:15 wind up getting it on you, no more.
02:17 And you get an exterior door handle.
02:20 Still get the same pull in here.
02:22 Big grip if you like that on the passenger side, super nice.
02:25 These seats are four-way adjustable, like they said.
02:28 However, some of those adjustments can only be done
02:31 with tools, which means you need to get everything set up
02:34 ahead of time.
02:34 Not super easy to hop in and out,
02:36 change things for multiple drivers.
02:38 You will have to excuse the mess in here.
02:40 It has been a dirty, dusty day all day long.
02:43 Check out these super cool buttons
02:46 for all the suspension adjustment.
02:48 You've got multiple ways to do that, right?
02:49 You can do it all down here.
02:51 You can do it by pushing these buttons on the steering wheel.
02:54 You can also go into the touchscreen
02:57 and pull up all of your controls in here.
03:00 So they come up over there.
03:01 That's pretty cool.
03:02 We like that.
03:03 Anything else we haven't seen up close and personal,
03:05 this huge rear snorkel that brings in cold air
03:08 for the engine.
03:09 Super cool, super big.
03:11 If you do wind up putting a windshield on your rig
03:14 and wind up blocking that sucker off,
03:16 Can-Am sells as part of the windshield kit,
03:18 a big roof mounted scoop that sits up there
03:20 and draws clean air in.
03:22 Of course, some of the biggest news is the engine.
03:24 Big 240 horsepower turbocharged 1000 CC inline triple.
03:29 It's super cool, sounds super great.
03:32 And it's got anti-lag in sport plus mode
03:36 that sharpens this rig up in a way I wish I could convey it.
03:39 You know, we've played with sport modes
03:41 on all sorts of rigs from Honda Talons to KRXs.
03:46 Nothing that we have had our hands on
03:49 changes the personality of the rig
03:51 quite like sport plus mode on this thing.
03:53 The acceleration is instantaneous
03:56 because they are basically shutting down a cylinder,
03:58 using that cylinder to pump consistently
04:00 when you're off the throttle to spin up the turbo
04:03 to make sure that there is zero lag.
04:05 It sounds like a freaking rally car
04:07 and it feels like one too.
04:09 Let's take a listen.
04:10 All right, so we're gonna start the rig up.
04:11 We're in sport mode now.
04:12 Sport mode dials at about 1700 to 1800 RPM.
04:22 Go over here to, boop, go down to normal.
04:26 Idle drops down, much more calm, shifts much lower.
04:31 Sport, back up to 1800.
04:35 And then you've got sport plus.
04:45 (engine revving)
04:47 All right, so that's some of the cool stuff,
04:53 but that's not what you came here for.
04:54 You came for five things we love, five things we hate.
04:56 So let's get at it.
04:58 First thing we love is that engine.
05:00 Power everywhere.
05:02 This is a turbocharged inline three cylinder,
05:04 which means it takes a little bit more to get going,
05:07 but once it is going, it is blisteringly fast.
05:10 And I do mean bananas fast.
05:12 Part of that is the 240 horsepower.
05:14 Part of it is the second thing we love,
05:17 which is the dual clutch transmission.
05:19 By this point, a dual clutch transmission
05:21 is nothing new in a side-by-side.
05:23 Honda's been doing it for years in the Talon.
05:25 This is completely different.
05:27 I don't really have the words to tell you
05:30 how much better this is than a Honda Talon.
05:33 Number one, the fuel mapping is superb.
05:36 It's super smooth, super easy.
05:38 I can't wait to get this thing out into the rocks
05:40 and see just how easy it is to control.
05:42 It feels like you have all the control of the CVT
05:46 with all of the immediacy of a gear driven transmission.
05:49 It is super, super nice.
05:52 And of course you get high and low on demand shift
05:55 on the fly.
05:56 No more having to come to a complete stop
05:58 to shift into low gear.
06:00 You can just bump the shifter back.
06:02 It'll drop into low gear.
06:03 Or if you're in low gear, bump the shifter back.
06:05 It'll go into high gear and away you go.
06:07 You get high and low in all seven gears.
06:10 It's pretty amazing how low first gear is in high.
06:14 Drop that down into low and it's an absolute creeper.
06:16 It's really solid.
06:18 While we're talking about the transmission,
06:19 let's talk about this shifter.
06:21 Super, super nice, super premium feeling.
06:24 Nicer than just about anything else
06:25 that we've had our hands on,
06:27 including the new Ranger XD 1500.
06:30 This is just super intuitive to use.
06:33 You know, you've got park down here,
06:34 you've got low, you've got neutral,
06:36 but you really don't have to look down here
06:38 to find lower high like I was saying.
06:39 You just bump this thing in
06:41 and you're either in low or high.
06:43 That easy.
06:44 Reverse, same thing, super nice.
06:47 The third thing we love,
06:49 and I cannot believe I am saying this,
06:50 this massive touchscreen.
06:53 This thing is super slick, super responsive.
06:56 It's nicer than just about anything else
06:58 that we've seen on a side-by-side by far.
07:01 You can configure it however you want.
07:02 You've got front and rear cameras over here.
07:05 You've got vehicle statistics over here.
07:08 You've got various controls.
07:09 It can be split screen, it can be single screen.
07:12 It's all really, really nice.
07:14 The only thing I would say, it's nice over here.
07:16 I wish it was over here,
07:17 sort of, you know, in front of the driver,
07:19 but hey, it's a first step.
07:21 It's one of the best screens
07:22 that we've seen on any rig anywhere.
07:24 It's great.
07:25 Now for the obvious question, the suspension.
07:27 Is it good?
07:28 Well, that is the fourth thing that I love about this rig.
07:31 Man, I cannot tell you how brutal
07:34 the terrain was out here today.
07:36 We're out running two different race courses today
07:38 that were just hammered from a recent race.
07:40 This thing did not give up an inch.
07:43 You know, the Pro-R was light years ahead of anything else
07:47 that we'd seen on a sport side-by-side.
07:49 This turns up the wick yet again.
07:51 This tall knuckle, as goofy as it looks,
07:53 it makes a difference.
07:55 This thing feels incredibly planted.
07:57 It is amazing to watch those arms articulate
08:01 as you're ripping through some really,
08:03 really gnarly terrain.
08:04 And it soaks everything up.
08:06 I mean, G-outs that would have sent our 2019
08:09 Maverick X3 XRS Turbo RR just into the scrap pile.
08:13 This thing soaked up like it did not care.
08:16 Look, this is gonna sound like hyperbole,
08:18 but I have never driven anything this good off-road.
08:22 It keeps all four wheels on the ground at all times,
08:25 unless you were doing some truly, truly gnarly stuff.
08:27 And I'm talking hit a jump at 90 miles an hour stuff.
08:30 You know, we were railing through some sand washes earlier
08:34 and you could feel the outside load up
08:36 so that you had more traction coming in.
08:38 You know, part of it is it's wide.
08:40 It's 77 inches wide.
08:41 It's the widest side-by-side we've ever had our hands on.
08:43 And it does not feel tippy in the way
08:46 that we are so accustomed to from so many side-by-sides.
08:49 This feels like a performance car.
08:51 This feels like a WRC racer.
08:54 You know, years and years ago,
08:55 I got to drive around in a true rally Subaru.
08:58 I think this thing handles better.
09:00 How about the fifth thing we love?
09:02 We're gonna go with tires, wheels and tires.
09:04 I cannot tell you how much of a difference
09:07 having 32 inch tires on this rig makes
09:10 when it comes to tackling obstacles.
09:12 We were running part of the Vegas Torino
09:14 and one part we were in just a truly gnarly river wash.
09:19 Big steps, big washouts from all the rain they had recently.
09:23 This thing did not care.
09:26 We bottomed it out exactly once
09:28 and we were doing every bit of 60 miles an hour.
09:31 The thing just soaked it up, did not care.
09:33 And that's partly because it has the rolling diameter
09:36 to do that.
09:37 Before we go any farther,
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09:49 just like this.
09:49 All right, let's get back to it.
09:50 Now for five things we hate.
09:53 And we're gonna start off
09:54 with Can-Am's new navigation system.
09:57 It's a phone-based application.
10:00 Look, that's always tough to execute, right?
10:02 You've got different people with different phones.
10:04 You've got connectivity issues.
10:06 You know, we started our drive today
10:08 with a really, really long involved attempt
10:12 to get ours set up and working.
10:13 We eventually had to give up
10:14 and just follow the person in front of us.
10:16 The problem there is there are no maps
10:18 built into the system.
10:19 You have to have a phone attached to it.
10:21 And that's just not great.
10:23 It doesn't work for a lot of people.
10:25 If you find yours, there aren't even basic maps, right?
10:28 So if you find yourself out in the desert,
10:30 out in the woods, and you get turned around,
10:32 you can't even use it like you would a paper map to say,
10:34 ah, well, I just crossed this creek here.
10:36 And I remember crossing that mountain a little while back.
10:39 So we're probably in that area.
10:40 It's just not very useful.
10:43 And it's a bummer because you have this huge screen
10:46 that you could use for that.
10:47 So when you go over here to navigation,
10:48 you click on navigation, and it says,
10:50 well, you gotta have the app.
10:52 But even when we had the app going,
10:53 it just couldn't locate us.
10:55 We just had a map of the earth.
10:56 And it turns out that's not super helpful for navigating.
11:00 So that's thing number one.
11:02 We're gonna stay inside for thing number two.
11:04 Can-Am has made a lot of noise
11:06 about how much they have improved this interior.
11:08 And there are places where this thing feels nicer
11:10 than any other side-by-side on the market.
11:12 That screen feels excellent.
11:14 The shifter feels amazing.
11:16 The switches also feel amazing.
11:18 Unfortunately, there's a lot of old Can-Am in here too.
11:22 Fit and finish issues, left, right, and center,
11:25 big gaps, things that don't line up.
11:27 When you're ripping down a trail,
11:29 all of that stuff flies at your head.
11:31 You just don't care.
11:32 But when you're sitting here looking at it in your garage,
11:35 knowing that you plunked out
11:36 the better part of $40,000 for it,
11:38 and it looks like this, that's tough.
11:40 Let's take a look at what I mean.
11:41 So this is front and center in the cab here.
11:46 That's just how that comes.
11:50 Over here, we've got panels that don't quite line up.
11:55 That's not super skookum.
11:57 More importantly, you've got this gauge cluster here
12:02 that sort of rocks back and forth,
12:04 and your paddle shifters are attached to that.
12:06 It just feels loose.
12:08 The entire steering wheel sort of moves up and down.
12:11 That's not ideal.
12:12 Yeah, we're gonna stay inside for thing number three,
12:15 and that is storage,
12:16 or I should be more specific, lack thereof.
12:19 There just isn't a lot of storage on here.
12:22 Let me show you around.
12:23 You've got one cubby up here.
12:25 You know, with outlets, place to stick your phone, all that.
12:28 You've got one glove box.
12:30 Can't quite fit a bottle of water in there.
12:32 Definitely can't fit a Nalgene in there.
12:34 You've got two cup holders, and that's it.
12:38 You know, for a rig that can do every bit of 99 miles an hour
12:42 and has 13 gallons of fuel capacity,
12:45 you need more storage.
12:46 Yeah, they'll sell you accessories
12:47 for the link system in the back
12:49 to throw all sorts of cubbies and things on the back,
12:52 but you can't reach those things inside.
12:53 You gotta stop and get out.
12:54 I wanna see more watertight storage inside the cab.
12:58 The fourth thing we hate, rear visibility.
13:01 So this is the engine scoop.
13:03 This is what brings in fresh air to the engine.
13:05 It looks super cool.
13:06 Unfortunately, it makes that rear view mirror
13:09 nearly useless.
13:10 You know, Can-Ams have never been super easy to see out of.
13:13 This isn't anything new.
13:14 It does have a backup camera, which is great,
13:17 but you get it muddy, you get it dusty,
13:18 you can't see anything.
13:20 That's a bummer.
13:21 And yeah, we're gonna stay inside
13:22 for the fifth and last thing that we hate inside,
13:24 and that is the actual gauge cluster itself.
13:28 Not the big touchscreen.
13:29 Big touchscreen is beautiful,
13:31 but right next door, you've got something
13:33 that looks like it was ripped right out of a base Maverick.
13:36 Let's take a look.
13:37 Here's the base screen in all her glory.
13:39 I think that's it.
13:40 Lights up orange, just like you're used to.
13:42 Old LCD looking screen, you know.
13:45 Meanwhile, you look over here
13:46 and you've got this beautiful TFT touchscreen display
13:49 right next to this.
13:51 Mm, it just feels off in a machine
13:54 that is this nice and this sorted everywhere else.
13:57 Now, I know what you're thinking,
13:58 "Zach, what about the price?
14:00 That thing is crazy expensive.
14:02 Shouldn't that be on the list of things you hate
14:05 about the Maverick R?"
14:06 And the answer is no, and I'll tell you why.
14:09 There is only one other rig on the planet
14:12 that can keep pace with this thing
14:14 on the trails that we were running this week.
14:16 That's the Pro-R.
14:18 You can forget about your Raptor,
14:19 you can forget about your TRX,
14:21 you can forget about your Ariel Atom Nomad.
14:23 None of those will keep pace with this thing.
14:26 All of those will easily ratchet up
14:29 over the $70,000 price that this thing
14:33 can be optioned up to.
14:34 So, is it worth the money?
14:36 Yeah.
14:37 Look, before I got into playing with these things
14:39 for a living, I spent a lot of time
14:40 working for Road & Trek,
14:41 and I drove some really crazy machines.
14:45 I'm talking McLaren F1s, I'm talking Porsche 911 Turbos,
14:48 Lamborghini Aventador Rs, you name it.
14:51 I don't think any of those machines
14:53 can hold a candle to this one
14:55 in terms of performance per dollar.
14:57 We spent two days cruising
15:00 at between 75 and 99 miles an hour
15:03 on some truly technical, truly gnarly terrain.
15:06 This thing ate it up, didn't blink the entire time.
15:09 For a rig that starts around 36 grand
15:12 by the time you get it home, what more do you want?
15:15 Yeah, it's expensive for a side-by-side.
15:17 It's not expensive for what you can do with it.
15:19 Which brings us to who should buy this rig?
15:22 If you live out here in the wilds of the West
15:26 and don't think you need one of these things,
15:28 I got news for you.
15:29 You might wanna update your Christmas list
15:30 'cause this thing rocks.
15:32 It makes seeing your public lands deeply fun.
15:35 You need three or four of your buddies to get one,
15:37 go play around in the sticks in the weekend.
15:39 Or if you're an amateur racer
15:40 or ever thought about getting into amateur racing,
15:43 this is a great platform to do it with
15:45 because it is tough as nails.
15:48 Finally, that brings us to,
15:50 is this the Pro-R killer that Can-Am promised?
15:54 That's a tough question, it really is.
15:55 I think that if you already own a Pro-R,
15:58 you're probably not gonna sell it to go grab a Maverick-R.
16:01 The Pro-R is an incredibly potent machine.
16:04 It is tough as nails.
16:06 It will do anything and everything the Mav-R will do.
16:09 That said, if you're looking at both of them,
16:12 do I buy a Pro-R, do I buy a Maverick-R?
16:14 It would be hard for me to steer away from the Maverick-R,
16:16 and that comes down to one simple thing, no CVT.
16:21 I know everybody loves a CVT,
16:24 but this thing provides power immediately.
16:26 The fact that you can manually shift it
16:28 to your heart's desire is excellent.
16:30 All of those traits put this thing
16:32 slightly ahead of the Pro-R.
16:35 Yeah, the Pro-R has ride command.
16:36 It's a way better navigation system,
16:38 especially if you're out on a group ride.
16:40 Yeah, the Pro-R's interior may be slightly nicer.
16:43 I'll tell you what you're not thinking about
16:44 when you're ripping across the desert at 90 miles an hour,
16:46 any of that.
16:47 Anyway, I hope you liked this closer look at the Mav-R.
16:49 Be sure to check us out at UTV Driver.
16:50 We've got fresh news, reviews, videos five days a week.
16:55 We'll see you there.
16:56 (upbeat music)