Polaris 700 Sportsmen - anyone know?

[RussMan]

I am looking at buying a 2003 Polaris 700 Sportsman auto. Does anyone have one, and if so, have you been happy w/ it? I had heard from one guy Polaris has problems w/ trans but wasn't sure if that was really accurate?

 

[jcmseven]

I bought one for my dad to replace the 500 HO he had before. It is a fine machine. I like Polaris fine. My father lives near a really good dealer who takes care of him. The tranny shifts "clunkily" but has not given any problems, but my dad is in his 70's and likely is not that hard on it. I personally--no attack on Polaris--have never been impressed with the finish work on the machines. There always seem to be small cosmetic flaws and assembly issues which make me wonder if the machine was assembled well, yet we have never had a significant mechanical issue out of any we have owned--and we continue to buy them because of strong dealer support and good overall service. I suspect if your previous owner took reasonable care of the machine, it would be fine. I personally would see if a dealer could look it over before buying. My neighbor has one, and his has been abused to such a degree (including being run in a lake--twice) that I would never buy it.

John M

 

[TWO GUNS]

Have a friend who purchased a sportmans 700, he owns a wrecker service, his application was to use it to just run back and forth from the front to the back of his property. Not ever putting this thing in no more than a simple ride three hundred yards and back. That's it !!! Stayed in the shop more than under his butt !!!
He finally got the dealer to swap it out on a Ranger, and he kept it long enough to find a buyer for that . Ended up with a Yamaha Rhino, which he loves >>>> lost his tail feathers with the Polaris machines really bad ....

 

[claykin22]

Like TwoGuns said, they will depreciate quickly. We used to run two units to GPS map fields for crop insurance companies. We would trade both units in every two years with about 400 hrs on each. Literally, they would trade us out one new unit for our two used, and we would have to buy the other outright. So, expect 50% depreciation over two years....ouch.

I should clarify, these were the 500 HO's, not the 700's.

 

[mopar3500]

I had an 03 Sportsman 700 for two years until I sold it and bought an 05 800 efi. I did some pretty hard trail riding and never had a problems with the machine.