The 2024 Can-Am Maverick X3 DS Turbo is the CHEAPEST X3 you can buy, but is it any good? Here are five things we love and five we hate about this budget rig. We’ll also tell you who this thing is for, and whether you should park one in your garage.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 [engine revving]
00:10 There are five things we love and five things we hate about the 2024 Can-Am X3 DS Turbo.
00:15 While the Maverick R has stolen the show with insane horsepower and crazy suspension,
00:19 there is still plenty to love on the entry-level end of the Maverick tree.
00:23 The X3 DS Turbo is the cheapest X3 you can buy, but it still comes with plenty of power and a lot of surprising capability.
00:29 It's also a great platform to build out the rig that you want without having to buy it from the dealer.
00:33 Let's get started. The very first thing we love about the Maverick X3 DS Turbo is just that, the price.
00:39 This rig starts at $21,999, which is a steal for a sport rig.
00:44 And you get a lot for that price tag.
00:46 We're talking 30-inch tires, we're talking 20 inches of suspension travel, and a turbocharged triple engine.
00:51 All that's everything a growing boy needs to have a bunch of fun out on the trail.
00:54 The second thing we love about this machine is the size.
00:58 It is tiny!
00:59 Sport rigs have become massive over the past few years.
01:02 We did a post when the Pro R came out that showed it was bigger than a Jeep Wrangler.
01:06 The X3 DS is right-sized by comparison.
01:09 It weighs in at just 1,546 pounds dry, according to Can-Am, which means you can tow it with pretty much anything.
01:15 You don't need a big truck, you don't need a heavy trailer, you can tow this thing with your mom's minivan.
01:19 And at just 64 inches wide, it's more than a foot narrower than a Mav-R, which means it's perfect for these tight East Coast trails.
01:26 The third thing we love about the Mav-Ric X3 DS Turbo is this engine.
01:30 It's a 900cc Rotax turbocharged triple, which puts out 135 horsepower.
01:35 That's more than competitors like the Honda Talon or the Kawasaki KRX.
01:38 Combine that with a low curb weight, this thing feels pretty quick.
01:41 And look, if you're new to sports side-by-sides, this thing is going to feel like an absolute rocket ship.
01:56 You're going to have plenty of fun in this rig.
01:57 And because it's a turbo triple, it has plenty of character.
02:00 It sounds pretty good for a side-by-side.
02:02 The fourth thing we love about this rig is just how much fun it is.
02:07 Regardless of your experience level, you're going to have a good time in this machine.
02:13 No, it's not the most powerful.
02:15 No, it does not have all the suspension travel in the world.
02:18 No, none of that matters.
02:19 We've said over and over again, it is more fun to wheel a less capable rig than it is to wheel a more capable rig.
02:26 And that is very true with this machine.
02:28 It requires you to have some skill to navigate the same trail as somebody who's driving, say, a Pro-R or a Maverick-R.
02:34 All of that will make you a better driver.
02:36 And if you're teaching somebody who's new to the sport how to wheel, you're way better off putting them in something like this,
02:41 so they learn their lines, they learn what's safe, and they learn how to have a good time.
02:44 Finally, the fifth thing we love about the Can-Am Maverick X3 DS Turbo is it's a blank canvas.
02:50 You can build this rig to be whatever you want.
02:53 You want to build a sand buggy?
02:54 Slap some paddles on this thing, throw a roof on it, have a good time.
02:57 You want to build a rock crawler?
02:58 Throw some beadlocks on it, some sliders, you're gonna have a blast.
03:00 If you live that built-not-bought life, this is your rig.
03:03 So that leads us to the five things we hate about this machine.
03:06 And we're gonna start with the obvious.
03:07 This machine's showing its age.
03:09 The X3 lineup really hasn't had an update in a good minute.
03:12 And that's starting to rear its head in things like material quality and fit and finish in a really big way.
03:17 Part of that is the market has changed rapidly over the past year.
03:20 All sorts of rigs are coming out with much, much nicer interiors and it's left the X3 behind.
03:24 This feels like an older rig, 'cause it is an older rig.
03:26 Fortunately, it's got the price tag to match.
03:28 At this price, you can forgive all that stuff.
03:31 The second thing that we hate about this machine is a complaint that we've had with other X3s.
03:36 It's the brakes.
03:37 They're perfectly adequate for trail duty.
03:38 They will always stop you, but the faster you go, the less confident they feel.
03:42 Part of that is because it has a long, soft pedal.
03:45 You know, all these machines, they run soft lines from start to finish.
03:48 There are no hard brake lines on the rig.
03:50 And I think that's part of it.
03:51 You've got a lot of expansion in the lines.
03:53 We'd like to have a little bit firmer pedal, something a little bit more confidence-inspiring.
03:57 The third thing we hate is gauge cluster.
03:59 I know, we've harped on this before, and this one ties back to the fact that the X3 is an older machine.
04:03 But these orange, backlit LCD gauges aren't easy to read, and they make the machine feel older than it is.
04:09 Blarus gets around this by using a couple of physical gauges for the tachometer and the speedometer.
04:13 Sort of distracts from the clunky-looking digital gauges.
04:16 Maybe something like that would help with the CAN-AM.
04:18 The fourth thing we hate about the Maverick X3 DS Turbo,
04:23 these door handles, or lack of door handles.
04:25 Yeah, we give Polaris a bunch of grief about this.
04:27 CAN-AM is arguably worse because you have a pole.
04:31 Imagine trying to explain that to somebody who's never seen a side-by-side before.
04:34 Look, door handles are like jokes.
04:36 You gotta explain it, doesn't work.
04:37 The good news is the Mav-R has fixed that.
04:39 You've got a physical door handle on the outside in addition to the interior pole.
04:43 We really want to see something similar on the rest of the X3 lineup,
04:47 including the full doors.
04:48 The Mav-R gets a full door, these still have these giant things.
04:51 I don't even know what this is for, really, other than to keep your purse from flying out.
04:55 And finally, the fifth thing we hate about the X3 DS Turbo is the fuel filler.
05:00 Again, not unique to this specific model.
05:02 All X3s are this way.
05:04 The fuel filler is hidden behind this floppy panel.
05:07 It's nice because, in theory, it keeps the mud away from the gas camp.
05:10 Or, at least it's supposed to. It doesn't, in this case.
05:13 But it also means this thing's hidden.
05:15 If you've got somebody who's trying to fill this thing up,
05:18 it's gonna be a Google search before they find where the fuel filler is.
05:21 Other manufacturers get around this by just putting the fuel filler behind the passenger door,
05:25 which makes a lot of sense.
05:26 And like the door handles, it just, it shouldn't take that much effort to figure out how to use it.
05:30 It's just a bad user experience.
05:31 And lastly, on our private X3, the one that we own, we've lost like five of these things.
05:35 They just go off into the ether and you wind up having to buy new ones.
05:42 Okay, so with all of that said, who is the X3DS for?
05:46 Well, number one, it's for East Coasters.
05:47 It's also a perfect rig for people who just want to knock out slow, low-key trail rides.
05:51 And it's for budget-minded buyers who want to use it as a base platform to build up the rig of their dreams.
05:57 Maybe you can't afford a Mav-R, but you want something that you can have a buttload of fun with your friends,
06:01 right out of the box, that you can then add on to as the years go on.
06:04 That's this.
06:05 And at less than $22,000, it's a really smart buy.
06:09 We'd stick one in our garage without a second thought.
06:11 That wraps it up for the X3DS Turbo.
06:13 If you like what you saw, be sure to check us out at UTVDriver.com.
06:16 We've got news, reviews, and buyer's guides every day of the week.
06:19 I'll see you there.
06:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]