Jaret, it’s fantastic you’re a part of this site. And Im a second generation Yamaha rider. My father has been die hard since 72 and I’ve been on them since too. Had some cats in middle till I was ready for a 600 (guess that’s same thing now? Lol).
Anyway here is my reasons polaris is next on my list for a 25 maybe a 26 purchace. When Polaris and skidoo released their turbo sleds they were insanely priced. However since 2012 their chassis have been refined 3-4 times since. They have things like a 7 or 10” color touch screen gps with blue tooth, multiple track choices, tunnel spindle a panel colors and chassis are lightened 30-50lbs less than the procross. They have updated their motors several times too. Yamaha just raised their price to match, gave none of the nonsense that I don’t need from the other brands. But if paying for it….. I want it. I’ve backed blue for the past 3-4 years with some solid reasoning, but I’m out. I wanted an srx last season. My dealer was forced out 2 years ago so I need to find a new one. But yamaha allowed me 2 hours (we were riding that day so -5 hours) to place an order online without knowing price dealer was going to charge. Also not knowing if dealer was getting any or talking to any of these new dealers to know how into sleds they are. So I bought a new wrap for mine, “new sidewinder” and now they get uglier, and way over priced for tooling and products that are paid for design wise over and over 5-10-15 years now. If you’re charging the same as doo and poo you need to offer more than a similar performance front suspension a mediocre makes do but behind the times rear suspension, a gauge package from the 90’s, chassis balance from early 2000’s and a great motor that could be refined to be ton better with running changes, a chaincase that has had the same issues since 2014, a clutch that granades, cross shaft for center shock that oblongs holes in the rails when the bolt stretches slightly, a cross shaft that can’t take the beating and bends to beat odd the track, upper mounting cross shaft that bends and buckles the tunnel, a bearing that spins on the track shaft because the shaft tolerance window is to large or speced improperly. Shal I continue or do you get the point? This as a 18-19k sled was even pushing it but could understand when cutting edge was 22. Now it’s same price and the viper (16year old sled really) is 18k. I’m sickened.