THIS Could be BAD News for Polaris

UTV Driver

This week we heard about some nasty financial news for Polaris, but they aren't alone in facing money troubles this year. We also delve into patent drawings that show a RZR with HVAC and a 360-degree camera, and Sara Price is joining the Can-Am factory team for the 2025 Dakar Rally!  Looking to buy? Get prequalifed https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=A8PrQQB&a=298&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626  Favorite Gear:  Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5  UTV Driver Videos:  UTV Reviews: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4C9HK06Jw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgG-O6Dd1BWzponCVuvj3G92  5 Things We LOVE and HATE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYurJbSonDc&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgHOOiP1YKQb0LvejrQt8rea  Everything You Need to Know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdKKsxgk3Yw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgH0LQZEvxMVB6K_hnZjL69J  For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/   Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver

Transcript

00:00Is Polaris in trouble? The Razor gets HVAC, Sarah Price gets a factory Can-Am ride to

00:07Dakar, and we go for a night ride in Utah. This is the UTV Driver Podcast. I'm Editor-in-Chief

00:13Zach Bowman. I am joined today by Executive Editor Aaron Richardson. Aaron, how's it going?

00:19Dude, everything is great in Virginia. We're finally starting to get some fall weather.

00:24Leaves are coming off the trees. It's nice and crisp out. And I just got back from Utah,

00:28so I'm feeling great. I had a really good time. Everything's great.

00:34Riding season. Let's start with the biggest news of the week. It was a little bit of shock

00:39for just about everybody. Polaris released its new earnings report, and boy, is it not

00:46great.

00:47No.

00:48It turns out the company said earnings are down 82% over the previous year, and if it

00:54continues that way, the company's looking at losing about 20% worth of profits compared

01:00to 2023. What is going on?

01:03Yeah. As crazy as that is, it's not really a surprise. We've had high interest rates

01:09all year. They're starting to come down, but they're still way above where they were, like

01:12say during the pandemic. There's been uncertainty around the election, and a lot of people who

01:18wanted a side-by-side bought one in the last couple of years, at least since the pandemic.

01:24Now there's a bunch of inventory sitting at dealers. The supply chain issues are over,

01:29and so I think there's an overcompensation for all of the hardship there was getting

01:34stuff in the last couple of years. Now here we sit with demand is lower and supply is high.

01:41Here we are.

01:42Yeah, exactly.

01:43Yeah. Holy crap. I can't remember the last time I drove by a dealer and didn't see just a fleet

01:49of side-by-sides sitting outside. That's not just Polaris. That's just about everybody.

01:54I wonder if we're seeing a return to normal. It's weird to say that four years after the

02:03official pandemic that we're still seeing some sort of normalization, but I think that very much

02:09might be the case. Because like you said, if you were stuck at home and looking for ways to spend

02:15time with your family that wasn't Disney World, a side-by-side made a perfect solution for that,

02:19so you probably bought one. The machines have gotten so good at this point that you don't need

02:24to replace it every year or every four years, so there's a good chance that there's a certain

02:29amount of market saturation that's happening there.

02:32Yeah, and I also wonder if we're seeing a correction in what people are purchasing,

02:37not just whether they're buying a side-by-side or not. But anecdotally,

02:41I think I mentioned this in the last podcast, talking to my local power sports dealer that

02:45started selling Polaris this year. They're having no trouble moving Rangers. They said

02:49they sell like 15 Rangers a month or some insane thing. So utility rigs, at least for one small

02:56portion of the market here in Virginia, are moving. So I wonder if we put Polaris and whoever

03:03else built a bunch of sport rigs and people are less interested in those now than they were during

03:08the last couple of years. So I'm willing to look at this as kind of, like I said, a correction

03:14rather than, you know, if it happens again next year, then we'll really start to worry.

03:20Yeah. I mean, I certainly don't blame people, right? I mean, I certainly feel like I have less

03:26dumb money sitting around than I did maybe three years ago, two years ago. Some of that's inflation,

03:31right? Everything just seems to cost more and at the end of the day, you've got less in the

03:35piggy bank for toys, you know? And I don't think I'm alone in that experience. So yeah, you know,

03:41if you're looking at the difference between, well, I need to put a little bit of cash aside,

03:45or man, it sure would be nice to have a new Mavar or a new Razor, you know, that's the way you're

03:50going to go. You know, what's interesting is Polaris isn't the only company running into this,

03:56right? Every major power sports manufacturer is hitting this. I saw a rash of Harley Davidson

04:01closings. CanAm's earnings report was also not great this last quarter. You know, we're certainly

04:09seeing a correction back from the sort of ooey gooey glory days of 2020. So I don't know, it

04:17certainly sucks for Polaris. They haven't said anything about layoffs so far. They still seem

04:22committed to cranking out a bunch of good new products, which I guess brings us along to our

04:29next story. We went rooting around in the patent office and it looks like Polaris is getting ready

04:36to really revamp the Razor in a big way. What are they up to? So it looks like that they have

04:43an enclosed Razor on the way. Everything that the patent drawings show is windows, doors, front and

04:50rear windshields, HVAC, and a 360 degree camera. So you can get, you know, a full panorama of what's

04:57going on around you. And it looks really cool. And I have to say, I feel like it's about time,

05:03right? Polaris has, not to say that they've been resting on their laurels, but Polaris has a bunch

05:09of machines with really excellent HVAC. You know, they're starting to bring the quality of their

05:15interiors up. We've seen it with the Expedition. We've seen it with the Ranger 1500 or XD 1500.

05:21And so now it's kind of like, well, the next step is Razor, right? And, you know, it kind of goes

05:28hand in hand with, we've always said that, you know, Polaris is, they're really accessible

05:33machines. They're easy to drive. They're easy to get along with. Even the Monster Pro-R is super

05:38easy to get along with for anybody. And so adding this extra degree of comfort and luxury, you know,

05:43it makes sense. And we don't see a ton of sports side-by-sides with enclosed cabs. It's certainly

05:50not from the factory. You know, you can do it if you want to spend a lot of money in the

05:53aftermarket, but I don't think Can-Am sells one, you know, so it's tough to get ahold of and,

05:59you know, it goes back to correcting the losses from this year. And also, you know, you've got

06:07growing brands from across the sea, from, you know, CFMoto and stuff like that. So Polaris

06:13is definitely seeing a need to change what it's doing or update the machines it's already making.

06:19Yeah, I think what you said there is really worth pointing out, right? This isn't,

06:23at least according to these patent drawings, this isn't an accessory package. This is like a fully

06:29sealed factory rig. And, you know, obviously Polaris has taken what it's learned from machines

06:35like the Expedition and attempting to apply it here, which is exciting. You know, I think,

06:42especially if you're trying to lure in people who aren't dyed-in-the-wool riders, who aren't,

06:48you know, power sports people and maybe haven't been for the majority of their life,

06:52they're going to want those creature comforts. You know, if you're coming from a four-door Wrangler

06:57and you get into a four-door RZR and it's hot and you're dusty or you're muddy or you're wet or

07:03whatever, that's not everybody's cup of tea, you know, and it's a lot easier to sell to the family

07:07when you're like, yeah, just jump in and you'll be fine and comfy and all the rest of that. I think

07:11it's a really smart play. And honestly, when you start to look at the sort of MSRPs, the new

07:19sport rigs are commanding, yeah, why wouldn't it have HVAC? If I can go down to the Toyota dealer

07:26and buy a two-door, you know, base Tacoma for 36 grand that has heat and HVAC and windows and

07:32wipers and all the rest of that stuff, why doesn't my $50,000 RZR have that stuff, you know?

07:37Yeah, I think that's true. And I was just about to say, I think it'll be interesting to see

07:41which RZRs they put this on, right? Because, you know, a Pro-R with an enclosed cab and HVAC is

07:49going to cost a pretty penny. But, you know, I think fewer families are interested in the 225

07:55horsepower whoops eater than they are in like a RZR XP or a RZR Pro XP. The patent drawing appeared

08:02to show a RZR Pro platform, but I think this would really make sense on like the 100 horsepower RZR XP

08:08for put HVAC and a cab on that and then, you know, your kids aren't going to get muddy and

08:15wet and cold. You know, if you put two 10-year-olds in the back, you're going to have way less to

08:18complain about. So, yeah, I think it makes a huge amount of sense. It just kind of all that's left

08:23now is to wait and see when we see it, you know? I hope that their earnings report doesn't, you

08:29know, adjust fire. Yeah, right. Yeah, I mean, I'll be interested to see whether it's going to be more

08:35in, you know, because Polaris, great, right? Like we've seen basically two different flavors

08:42of enclosed cab. You get the XD 1500, which is quiet and comfortable. And, you know, it's awesome.

08:48And then you get the Expedition, which is sealed, but it sounds like you're riding along in a 55

08:54gallon drum, right? It's just it is so loud in there. And part of that's just because the noise

09:00from the engine and transmission doesn't have anywhere to go. So it just bounces around inside

09:03the cab. And, you know, you probably should be wearing ear protection when you're riding in that

09:08rig, which is not a thing that we typically say with side-by-sides. Yeah. If it's more along the

09:13XD 1500 lines where they've sort of figured out how to get the noise out and away from the rig

09:18and the occupants, rock and roll. I am 100% all for it. If it's more along the Expedition line,

09:25oh man, that's going to be tough. That's going to be tough. I think I agree with you, but I think

09:30that it might be a little bit different in the case of the Razor, because if you look at any of

09:33the Razors, they have that little tiny bed, but where the engine sits is well back and below

09:39where people sit, even in the four-seaters. One of the issues with the Expedition is that,

09:44especially in the ADV model, sort of SUV form factor, your back passengers are sitting pretty

09:49much on top of the engine. Yeah. It's like where the engine sits in the rig. And because everything's

09:54very upright and truck shaped, if you're going to put an engine in the middle, like Tacomas would

09:58be loud and obnoxious if they were mid-engined, right? There's just very little, like you run out

10:03of real estate pretty quickly. So yeah, I imagine... That's a good point. I imagine it'll be

10:11worse than the XD 1500 because I would imagine noise is less of a concern, but also I would be

10:20shocked if it's as kickoff-ness as the Exped is. That's not to throw any shade. Well, no,

10:26it is to throw shade at the Exped, but it's still a good rig. We still love you, but...

10:30Yes, but also tone it down a little bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put some dynamat in there.

10:35Yeah, no, that's entirely valid. And look, man, I know there are people out there rolling their

10:40eyes saying, why do you need an enclosed Razor? Look, I can't stress enough how much

10:48less worn out you are at the end of the day riding in an enclosed rig. You're just... The

10:53wind's not beating you to death. You're not sweating or shivering or all the rest of that.

10:59That may make me soft. Look, I'm happy to adopt that mantle, but man, is it nice. It's super nice.

11:06You know, I think it's... You're absolutely right. And I think one of the things that you have to...

11:10If you're asking, why do you need an enclosed side-by-side, an enclosed sport side-by-side,

11:15it's not too far down the road from the question, why do you need a side-by-side at all,

11:18right? The answer is, for a sport rig especially, you don't. So if you're considering a sport rig,

11:24you've already jumped the shark over, like, do I need one of these and gone to... I want one

11:29badly enough to spend the money. And at that point, it's like, well, it might as well be as

11:33comfortable as you can make it. Yeah. And it's worth pointing out that for the vast majority

11:37of the country, a closed cab makes a lot of sense. If you're just riding in the Southwest,

11:43yeah, I get it. Oh, you dust off some sand at the end of the day and you're fine, right?

11:47But out here, I mean, right now, it's 70 degrees outside, so, like, perfect riding weather, but it

11:53is pouring rain, which means that you and your rig, whatever clothes you're wearing, you're going

11:58to burn at the end of the day. Yeah. It's full stop. Set them on fire. So, you know, you either

12:05accept that reality or you're in a place where, oh, my rig is sealed and I can get out there and

12:09have a good time and I've got windshield wipers and I can see and all the rest of that stuff. So,

12:13yeah, to me, it really makes sense for a 48-state rig. It makes sense for, really, a four-season rig

12:21in a lot of places. Yeah. I mean, we'll get to this later, but believe me, in the Southwest,

12:26after about mid-October, it can get really cold outside. Did you find out about that? Yeah. Like

12:32I said, more on that later, but yeah, a windshield and doors at the very least, and certainly HVAC

12:40is going to make it, you know, you can go riding on Christmas in Utah, you know. What sounds more

12:45fun than that? Yeah, let's go get a Christmas tree, throw it on top of the Razor, you know.

12:49Well, that sounds awesome. I mean, I'm excited to see Polaris doing things that aren't just

12:54special editions. You know, we've seen a couple of new special edition Razors roll out. There was

12:59the ProArt Race replica, which was super cool, and they worked with, what was it,

13:08ProArmor, I think they worked with for the armored edition, which, you know, stickers and colors,

13:13that's all fun, but it's the same sort of thing that we see once a model starts getting long

13:17in the tooth. They throw out these new special editions to keep people interested, and it's

13:22good to see them working on something that's a little bit beyond that stuff. Yeah, and the facelift

13:26was nice, you know, but again, it was kind of like, all right, it's a mid-cycle refresh, so yeah, I think

13:33you do need substantive changes, and reality is the market is moving quickly. You know, we jumped

13:39from nothing over 150 horsepower to 180 horsepower to 225 to 240 in the space of, what, four years,

13:47less than four years, so we've taken this huge quantum leap in, like, what a side-by-side can do,

13:56and, you know, I wonder if that's got something to do with everybody's profits turning down a

14:01little bit. It's like, you know, suddenly you've got a rig that, in car terms, is brand new, but is

14:07four years old, and, you know, suddenly it starts to look outdated pretty quickly, so, you know, it's

14:12just hard to keep up. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've seen that happen with the automotive

14:17space, left, right, and center, right? You know, there aren't a whole lot of products in the world

14:24where every two years it gets a ground-up refresh, but that's kind of what we see in the car space.

14:30If a platform is five years old, it's ancient, right? And side-by-sides, like it or not, are

14:36slowly moving in that direction where constant change and improvement is the sort of note of

14:41the day, and, you know, I think Polaris realizes that, you know, once you get out of, you know,

14:48happy fun time play money, which is like the $10,000 to $15,000 range, people want something

14:54that's not the same thing from last year with different stickers on it. It becomes a value

14:57proposition. Yeah, absolutely. Anyway, so. Anyway, speaking of interesting news, how cool

15:05is this? Dude, Sarah Price got a factory Can-Am ride to Dakar. I am so excited. Reference, you

15:15know, shameless plug, we made a video about this last year. I went to Saudi Arabia, I hung out with

15:19Sarah Price in the bivouac while she was getting ready for the 2024 race, and, like, I can't tell

15:27you how impressive she was then. She came to, sorry, I almost said Dakar. She came to Saudi

15:33Arabia for the Dakar rally on her own dime. She paid South Racing for a customer ride, which is,

15:42there are houses that are not as expensive as that is, right? Yeah, I think, like,

15:45both of our first houses were combined for less than $1,000. Right, and she paid out of pocket.

15:52I mean, she had some sponsorship, but, like, pretty much she just pulled the money out of

15:55her wallet and said, I'm going to go. And then she was not a Can-Am factory driver. She won a

16:01stage. She became the first American woman to win a stage at Dakar. And, you know, this was-

16:06This is after having, like, all sorts of, like, teething troubles getting the car ready, like-

16:10Yeah, yeah. She had to do a second shakedown day. I watched them take her car all the way apart,

16:16chasing, like, some sensor wiring gremlin. You know, her shocks were being rebuilt in the pits,

16:21like, the night before the prologue stage. Like, I mean, like, it was sketchy. And she

16:26missed the podium by, like, this much because of Sarah, I'm sorry, a rookie error in navigating,

16:35you know. But it was just this incredibly impressive effort. And until, like, the second

16:41to last stage, it looked like, damn, she might win it, let alone get on the podium. And so then she

16:46came back, and it just got quiet for a while. Yeah. And we're kind of going- You're gonna do

16:52the thing? Right. And so finally, last week, the Mav-R comes out. South Racing gets a hold of a

16:58Mav-R to build their Dakar rigs for this year. And last week, or earlier this week, we got the

17:04news that Sarah is going. She's going to be a Can-Am factory driver. And she's partnering with

17:09Sean Berryman as her co-driver. So she's changing co-drivers. But it's worth noting that Berryman

17:14was co-driver for Casey Curry when Curry won in 2020. So this guy's been around the block a couple

17:20times. He's got a ton of experience. Yeah. Yeah. So she's going to be in what used to be T4. I

17:26guess it's called SSV now. So it's a stock wheelbase, stock width, pretty much a stock

17:31machine with a few tweaks here and there. It's got an FIA chassis that South Racing builds. But

17:37yeah, full factory effort. So she's got all that behind her. So I can't wait. It's going to be

17:42really impressive to see what she does. And you don't want to put the jinx on anybody,

17:48but I think it's going to be a pretty good year. Yeah, it's going to be a good show. I can tell

17:52you that much. I mean, look, whether or not you like racing or like watching racing,

17:57Dakar is something else. It's something else entirely. These machines are just going

18:02absolutely balls to the wall across the desert that you couldn't walk. And you literally never

18:09know what can happen because it's how long is the race? It's a full week of racing. Yeah. And

18:14it's like, no, it's 14 days. Oh, yeah. It's two weeks. It's 12 weeks of racing. 12 stages over 14

18:19days. And like how many Bajas is that back to back? 12. Oh, 12 Bajas. Yeah. Yeah. No, each

18:27stage is something like the average is a little below 1000 kilometers. For those of you who only

18:33speak American, 1000 kilometers is 620 miles. So we're talking about a long damn way is I think

18:41how it's technically phrased. And I mean, yeah, you're not. So they go through a part of Saudi

18:47Arabia called the Empty Quarter, which is called the Empty Quarter because you know the part in

18:51there, you know the part in Aladdin with the sand monster? It's that. It's just dunes. And there's

18:57no waypoints. There's no landmarks. There's no nothing. So you're navigating your way across

19:03just dune after dune after dune, like Star Wars, Dune C. And so but you're at full chat the whole

19:10time. And then wide open, you know, Saudi Arabia's got like Southwest style, just like rocks and

19:16looks like King of the Hammers. And you got to you know, so it's just and so it's just abuse on

19:23the machines. And then the start of the stage is generally a few hundred kilometers from where

19:29you're camped at night. So you're getting up at like three o'clock in the morning, driving

19:34for like down the highway, just until you get to the stage, then going foot to the floor

19:42and then driving back. And it's worth noting that in order to keep basically keep the side

19:47by sides from running directly next to those monstrous Dakar trucks, they're limited in

19:52horsepower. So the Mavar is not going to have 240 horsepower. It has like one hundred and sixty,

19:56one hundred and seventy, something like that. And they're limited to like T4s, I think, are limited

20:01to just under 80 miles an hour. Oh, man. So on those highway sections, you're like dog tired,

20:08welded to the floor, trying not to imagine having to run a 600 mile race. But first you have to

20:14get up in Knoxville and drive to Nashville. Yeah. Do the race and then drive back. Yeah. And then

20:20do that for 13 more days. No, I couldn't do it. I mean, I could. There are stories about

20:28Canyon Factory racer Rokas Pachuska, who on his first Dakar, they were driving on a transfer stage

20:36and he parked and got out and his co-driver's like, what are you doing? And he's like,

20:40you drive. And he he put his co-driver in the driver's seat for the for the transfer stage

20:46and just fell asleep. He's like, I'm not doing this anymore. Like, it's your turn. It's Saturday

20:52walk. Yeah, right. I don't know what to tell you. But like I said, so two pieces of follow up to

21:00this one, we interviewed Sarah Price before, during and after the Dakar. Well, during before

21:06and during her time in the Bivouac, before the race and after the race. Last year, we made a

21:10YouTube video about it. We investigated the deadliest side by side race in the Middle East.

21:14It's on our YouTube channel. You have to go watch that. If that doesn't make you pull for Sarah

21:18Price, nothing will. And the other thing is, I got to drive the Can-Am X3 version that she drove

21:26last year at Dakar. And I got to say, horsepower limited or not, this ain't your granddad's side

21:33by side. Like these things are cool. Anyway, that is on our YouTube channel. It's one of the craziest

21:41things I've ever done. Please go check that out too. It'll give you a sense and appreciation of

21:45what Dakar is and why it's so cool that she's doing this. Yeah, I wish more people in the states

21:55watch Dakar more thoroughly. Well, we'll be pulling for Sarah. She's awesome. We've had a

22:02couple of chances to chat with her and, you know, just an absolute force of nature behind the wheel.

22:07So I'm stoked to see her compete. When's the race? It starts January the 7th and runs to the 17th.

22:14Okay, so close. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you get there on like New Year's Day and then it's just

22:20hammer and tongs the whole time. Okay, well, you know, you have some experience running around in

22:25the desert. You were just out in Utah, right? Same thing. Yeah, no, yeah, exactly. No, I definitely

22:29just did the... I did a little Dakar prologue myself. No, so Kawasaki has put a new special

22:37edition out of their KRX 1000 this year. It's called the Blackout Edition and it's called that

22:44because it's literally blacked out. Blacked out. Yeah, the color, there are like three or four

22:49splashes of color on the whole thing. There are gold KRX logos embroidered into the seat backs.

22:55There are the red buttons on your seat belt. There's the orange warning sticker on the dash.

23:01And then like, there are these cool graphics down the side, which are like iridescent.

23:05You don't see them until light hits them, but then they kind of do the chameleon paint thing.

23:10So they look like ghost flame graphic, not flames, but like ghost KRX graphics during the daytime.

23:15But then if you run headlights over them, they like... Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And so that wasn't

23:20the only thing they did. It's got an 80 amp alternator, so you can run and... All the lights

23:27in the world. Yeah. Yeah. It's got an 80 amp alternator. It's got a roof with like this cool

23:31like moonroof panel. It's not removable, but it's like translucent. So you can look at the stars

23:37while you're ripping, which I don't recommend, but you can if you want to. And then it's got

23:43a VX45 Warned winch on the front. It's got Kawasaki's accessory off-road bumpers, front and

23:50rear, Fox QS3s, and then light bars all over. It's got like a 12 inch light bar right on the front

23:57bumper. It's got a 36 inch light bar on the roof, which is like, Lord, 60 billion lumens or something.

24:03I don't even know what it is. And then two like trail lights on the back so that you can

24:10cut them on so you don't have to just look for the glow of like two tail lights. And the coolest

24:15thing is, if you're ripping in the desert behind somebody and you've got your brightest lights on,

24:22and it's dusty, you're going to white out, right? So your option is not see anything because your

24:26lights are off or not see anything because you're whited out. Cowie thought of that,

24:30and you can actually turn all of the LEDs from bright white to green. And so if it gets dusty,

24:39like you cut the green lights on, and that shortens your field of vision considerably,

24:43but you can still see the trail. And it just knocks down all the glare of the dust.

24:48Luckily, when we were there, yeah. So because of the blackout...

24:52Where'd you guys go? You were in Utah somewhere?

24:53Yeah. So we were in Utah in Coral Pink Sand Dunes.

24:57Yeah. It was this cool 40 mile loop. The trailhead parking area is called Elephant Cove. So it's

25:04between Kanab and Mount Carmel Junction. You park at Elephant Cove and there are two trails

25:10like right next to each other, just coming out of the parking lot. And if you take the left-hand

25:13one, it takes you through Coral Pink and you go... It's like a 40 mile loop. And then you end right

25:18where you started, basically. So we started at like 4.45 PM. So it got dark while we were riding,

25:25which was super cool. So we got to see the sun go down over these incredible Utah hills,

25:30just the multicolored rocks and everything's red and pink. And the trails out there are incredible.

25:36It's basically a two-track, but it's like a slalom course or a downhill mountain bike course. It's

25:43really smooth except for a couple of spots. So we were ripping. So yeah. I mean, some of the

25:49coolest riding I've done, the KRX. The best thing about it is how it's just an easy, accessible rig

25:57to drive. It handles really well. It's super comfortable. It's very bare bones, but it's also

26:03pretty inexpensive. I mean, you're looking at mid twenties for the nicest one you can get with four

26:07seats. Which is insane, right? Like you were talking about how machines are evolving. The

26:13KRX is not a young machine at this point, right? It's about four or five years old at this point,

26:18and hasn't changed substantially. You got a four-seat unit. You got the electronic suspension

26:26stuff. But really, you're still looking at about 110-ish horsepower, which by today's standards,

26:34that's mid-pack stuff for Can-Am and Polaris. The rig's still awesome. It's still one of my

26:40absolute favorite machines. It rides great. And in most cases, you don't really want for

26:47more power. I mean, we all want for more power, but it does the job. It absolutely does the job.

26:54Good room inside. They're tough as absolute nails. Yeah, I love them.

27:00My takeaway was the chassis is magnificent, and that's everything from the actual shocks to just

27:05the way it is designed. I hadn't spent a lot of time in a two-seat KRX before this drive,

27:12and I was just super flickable and stable at the same time. And the four-door is great because

27:20it's just so stable. I mean, you can do dumb stuff with it, and it pretty much has you.

27:26I remember when the KRX came out, and everybody was like, this thing is huge.

27:30Polaris and Can-Am were like, oh yeah, hold our beer. We'll show you big rig, boys.

27:37This thing's as long as a Maverick R2 door with four doors. But yeah, the takeaway was

27:44the trails we were on were super fun, but they're also very tight. For being like Flowy's

27:51two-track, they're tight Flowy. And so if I had been in a Maverick R, you'd have been

27:57not using anywhere close to half of it. Whereas in the KRX, it's like, just weld the pedal down

28:04and have a good time. A little two-foot braking, and it goes just great.

28:09Did you get a chance to play with the engine braking on that machine?

28:13Not really. There was one sand hill where I cut it on, and it kept me planted going down.

28:21That's one of the most impressive things on that machine. Obviously,

28:25engine braking is not as exciting as horsepower or fancy shocks or whatever. But the last time

28:31we had a four-door KRX out here, we took it down 116, and we took it down the back reverse,

28:36which the entry is insanely steep. And I threw the engine braking on, and I didn't have to use

28:43the actual brake pedal. I've just crawled along. I don't know. The thing's a deeply impressive

28:50machine, and it does the thing that Kawasaki almost always does, which is the details are

28:55engineered to the hilt, which is what's appealing about it.

29:00Keep in mind, this is the company that makes the Mule, and they imbue everything they make with

29:04the same ethos as the Mule, which is it's not necessarily the fanciest one you can get.

29:09It has everything you want, and they're dead reliable. I think my takeaway for the actual

29:15machine part of the review was if you think you want a KRX, you should buy one. Do you know what

29:20I mean? If you're like, hmm, Honda Talon, Kawasaki KRX, all day, every day of the week. And again,

29:31this one has the big alternator. It comes with the light bars, but that big alternator gives you

29:36space to put extra stuff on it. Oh, it came with a hyphonic stereo. So you've already got the stereo

29:42mounted, so you can put more speakers or an audio roof or whatever you want on it. Just a very

29:50dialed machine. Again, Kawasaki hasn't changed a thing in a long time, but this is proof that

29:55they don't need to and what they're doing with it is working. So yeah, very impressed.

30:03Well, heck yeah. I'm jealous. It sounded like a good time.

30:06Yeah, it was awesome.

30:07All right. Well, that is a wrap for this week. As always, have fun and ride safe. If you enjoyed

30:13this podcast, be sure to like and subscribe. You can also check us out over at utvdriver.com,

30:19where we have news, reviews, buyer's guides, galleries, five days a week. Finally, hit us

30:23up on social media. We want to see what you're riding, where you're riding. We're on all the

30:28usual channels and yeah, we want to hear from you. We want to see you over there.

30:31UTV Driver is proudly owned by Octane Lending. When it comes time for you to buy your next

30:36side-by-side ATV or motorcycle, finance your purchase with Octane Lending. We will see you

30:41next time. Later.

Category

Transcript

Recommended