We bought it from Full Throttle. Normally their prices are higher off the bat, and this was similar.

When buying a machine, I think it is best to decide what you want long before you start talking to a dealer in person. Once you walk into the show room you lose all negotiating power. Also, cash seems like the best way to go. Hard to have any power if you aren’t paying in cash.

If possible, I also recommend emailing them. That way you get a sales manager or person who has at least been there long enough to be allowed to use email. Those people can give you a real price for cash. If you walk into the store, you might get the new guy who doesn’t know much and can’t talk prices.

I called around to a few places in the state and not surprisingly Nelson’s, had a lower price off the bat than FT. But FT matched their price, which was nice since Nelson’s is another hour or so of driving one way. Doug at FT was fine and everything went well.

Per usual, they ask for a deposit (cc over phone) to secure that price in cash. That covers their prep/unboxing risk. Then we picked it up the next day. Paperwork and everything went fine. This amounted to one trip to the dealer to pay for and pick the machine up.

I am pretty paranoid about having to talk to dealers. So I record all my calls with them and I go over everything a couple times and have them say it back to me. I have never had to use this, but if ever comes up, it could be useful. But if you ever got to the point where you needed to pull out a recorded call, you’d probably have walked out already. I also record all my calls with car dealers, cable company, the NSA, and Little Caesars.

If we were within a 6 hour driving radius, we probably would have gone to Abernathy’s Cycle in TN. We are about 10 hours away here in Michigan and still considered going down. They did not have the model we wanted in stock, though. But they put their prices right on the website. Which is great. I called and talked to Nate. Their prices do not include about $25 in local/fees or your respective state’s sales tax. But still pretty cheap. Just depends on how much you want to spend driving and on gas. They appear to be the highest volume seller of Polaris ATVs in the USA and probably the world.

This machine was for my uncle. My dad has a 2012 850XP, and I have an 09 550XP. The 850 has TONS of power. You feel spoiled driving the 850s. The twin cylinders have no hesitation and are so smooth it is awesome. Also with the 850s you can be doing 35 and still be thrown back if you touch the accelerator. Mine tops out around 60mph. I have never topped out my dad’s but I have hit about 75mph with stock tires. The 2015s are supposed to have even more hp.

What we have noticed though, is that the 850s drink gas compared to the single cylinder engines. This makes sense. But it is something to be aware of. My dad’s 850 will use about 20% more gas for the same trail riding than my 550 or a 500(with the smaller gas tank.) The gas usage doesn’t seem too high, it is just a fair amount more when compared to the smaller and single cylinder engines.

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