John Deere

[JohnMickish]

What have you guys heard about these? I see they have Rotax engines so that should be a plus. Anybody own one?

[Braley]

I might be mistaken, but aren't they made by Bombardier?

[Dave]

Braley, you're correct. JD ATV's are Bombardier with JD colors.

[Greg T]

The Bomb/JD atv's are quite heavy duty. They had some starter problems a few years ago, not sure if that's straightened out yet. I have rode a couple, both the fully auto Quest and the thumb shift Traxter. They have quite a bit of grunt, and seem to be decent workhorses, but I don't think I would get one for recreational riding.

[Neiko]

I heard Bomb is not going to make them for JD anymore. Anyone else hear anymore on this.

[Greg T]

I think I heard/read that somewhere too. I think Bomb is giving up on making Traxters and Quests to concentrate on the Outlander series and DS650. But I may be wrong too.

[Dave]

No, you guys heard correctly.

From Business News

Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP) recently revealed its 2006 model year ATV product, which includes two Outlander models, the 800 H.O. EFI and 400 H.O.; two Outlander MAX two-rider models, the 800 H.O. EFI and 400 H.O.; the DS650 X; Rally 200; and three youth ATVs, the DS 90, DS 90 four-stroke and DS 50.

BRP will no longer offer the Traxter utility-oriented models. However, BRP and Deere and Company have agreed to maintain, through model year 2006, their agreement for the supply by BRP of the Buck and Trail Buck ATVs, which are based on the Traxter platform.

"With the new Bombardier ATV, we want to be the 'ATVer's ATV,'" said Pierre Arsenault, BRP Vice President and General Manager Snowmobiles, Watercraft, ATV and Sport Boats. "By focusing our efforts on just rec-ute, sport and youth vehicles, we can use the performance heritage of our other enthusiast products and sporty character of our current Outlander, DS and Youth models to push innovation even farther.”

BRP says the model that best represents its new plan is the 2006 Outlander 800 H.O. EFI model. There are four new 800 H.O. EFI models for 2006: the Outlander 800 H.O. EFI; Outlander 800 H.O. EFI with XT added-value package; Outlander MAX 800 H.O. EFI; and Outlander MAX 800 H.O. EFI with XT added-value package.

[Mark Christianson]

I saw an ad in the local paper last night that had the 650 JD for $4999. Seems like a heck of a deal.

Although, I dont know squat about JD or Bomberdiararor.

[silveroddo]

I've got an '03 quest and its a pretty decent machine. I havn't had any major problems with it, it rides nice and the storage is awsome, I havn't paid much attention to the newer ones so I dont know how much they have changed them since '03. The only thing that kinda sucks is getting basic parts like oil and filters. Rotax recomends their synthetic oil for oil changes(4 quarts I think and about 11 bucks a quart)and you have to get the filters through bombardier, and alot of the dealers for these seem to be smaller and have to order everything, around here anyway. All in all mines been a good machine but I'll always be a little partial to Honda due to the ease of getting parts and the strong resale values.

[Dave]

silverrodo,

Everyone recommends their own oil. Shouldn't be any problem going to another brand synthetic oil for about $3 a quart. Also, google for a WIX oil filter that could be a replacement. I know NAPA carries them, maybe more places do as well. Still about $10 for one but probably more readily available.

[tripper]

How wide spread dealerships are is one thing people that do a lot of traveling look at. They don't want to get causght some place with a machine they cant get parts for.

[silveroddo]

I basically ran their sythetic for warantee reasons, I guess I'll complain about it but I still just plan to use their oil and filters, I only put a few hundred miles on a year so I'll cough up the few extra bucks for the bombardier stuff once a year. I tried to get the filters at napa in the beggining and thats when I found out that all it says under Bomabardier in their books is n/a. I got a heck of a deal on the machine which is why I bought it in the first place, (the 2 year old Bombardier with 800 miles cost me less than a 10 year old Fourtrax) so I can put up with little things like paying to much for my oil and filters, but if a person was looking at them from buying them new stand point they should be aware.

Has anyone here ridden the new ones? I know my quest and the older ones automatic transmission can seem "sticky" at times, like a little hard to shift. It just seems to be the way they are, a friend of mine has the identical machine and its the same way. Was just wondering if they had gotten past that quirk? Drove me nuts when I bought it till I realized it was normal.