Don’t buy a utility side-by-side before watching this video! We run down some of our favorite workhorses, from the John Deere Gator to the all-new 2024 Polaris Ranger XD 1500. Which one is your favorite?
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Check out full story at https://www.utvdriver.com/utv-videos/favorite-utility-side-by-sides/
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: /utvdriver
Instagram: /utvdrivermagazine
Twitter: /utvdriver
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SportsTranscript
00:00 I'm Aaron, that's Zach, this is UTV Driver, and this is our list of the top utility rigs on sale today.
00:06 This is a huge market segment, it's arguably bigger than Recute and Sport put together.
00:12 We're gonna go down our list of our favorite ones, starting with the Polaris Ranger XD1500,
00:18 brand new rig for this year. Zach, why do we like it so much?
00:21 For the first time we have a true three-quarter ton utility side by side.
00:25 You can put three-quarter ton worth of whatever in the bed. It has an electric dump bed,
00:30 it has a powerful three-cylinder engine, and it has a CVT that uses a steel belt instead of a
00:38 rubber belt, which means you effectively will never have to change the belt in that machine.
00:42 That's right, Polaris even goes so far as to say that it is a maintenance-free
00:46 life-of-the-vehicle item. That is huge. How many times have you burned up a rubber belt?
00:50 Like today?
00:51 Yeah, you've all done it. You've all been hauling a heavy load, pulling a log,
00:55 whatever you're doing, and belt temp got too high and now it's slipping. With this rig,
00:59 that is not a concern. And as Zach mentioned, it's got an inline three in it, which is a gasoline
01:05 powered engine, but it really kind of chugs like a diesel. It's got a lot of down low grunt.
01:09 Yeah, you and I both have driven this machine pretty extensively, and fit and finish,
01:14 execution, how it drives, it is just a cut above everything else on the market. Of course,
01:20 it's also more expensive.
01:21 Zach, what's the pricing on it?
01:22 So the XD 1500 starts at just under $30,000 and you can ratchet it up to about $45,000,
01:27 but that's before you start throwing on accessories. Keep in mind, this is a much
01:32 bigger machine. It's almost like a Ranger 1.5X. It's bigger in every direction. It's taller,
01:37 it's wider, there's more cabin room, there's more adjustment inside. So you have a tilt
01:41 telescoping steering wheel, the seat slides forward and aft. So it's really a machine
01:46 that can fit just about anybody. Before, the Ranger has pretty much just been a one size
01:50 fit all rig.
01:51 Right, and inside, with that 1.5, you also get a much nicer interior. There's a proper
01:57 center stack with gauges on it. You get either body color trim if you option it up or just
02:01 some really classy looking piano black stuff. It really is starting to look more like the
02:05 interior of a truck, which is honestly the way that the industry is moving, is much more
02:10 towards really dialed in fit and finish and comfort. Because let's be honest, if you are
02:14 working as hard as these things can work, you're going to spend all day in it. At the
02:18 end of the day, if you're exhausted and you're sweaty and you just feel like your rig's been
02:21 beating you up, you're not going to be as productive as you would be if you were comfortable.
02:24 And that's where the Ranger XD1500 comes in.
02:27 Coming in at number two, right on its heels is the 2024 Can-Am Defender Limited. Now,
02:32 there's the Defender Limited and the Defender Limited Max. We're lumping them together here.
02:36 They're both excellent rigs. We're talking about an 82 horsepower Rotax V-Twin. Really,
02:42 you know, it's not as powerful as the XD1500 Ranger, but that's still a ton of horsepower
02:47 for a utility side by side. You get a thousand pounds of bed capacity if you're not in California.
02:51 You get around about a ton of towing capacity and a dump bed. And again, you can buy an HD10
02:57 that's not the Limited model that comes, you know, without doors or with net doors and no
03:02 windshield and all that stuff if you want the down spec model. The Defender Limited
03:06 comes in right at $29,899 for a two-door version. So you're already getting the HVAC,
03:11 the doors, the windows, all that stuff that comes on the up spec Ranger XD1500 right at that $30,000
03:17 mark. And if you've got more people to haul around, that jumps you up to $32,999, which isn't a huge
03:23 jump and they're all day comfortable. There's a huge amount of room in the back, especially when
03:27 you consider that it's a utility side by side. So we're stoked on it. We've got an HD8 with 12,000
03:32 miles on it, and that's just the same engine destroked a little bit or de-bored a little bit.
03:36 - Yeah, some of those miles have been upside down.
03:37 - Yes.
03:38 - You know.
03:38 - Yep.
03:38 - Number three is the Polaris Ranger Kinetic. This is the electric Ranger, and I can tell
03:45 with the look on your face, you do not believe me here, but it is worth keeping in mind,
03:49 this machine makes more power than the XD1500.
03:52 - Say that again?
03:53 - Yeah, it makes 110 horsepower and 140 pound feet of torque. So it matches the XD1500 in horsepower
03:59 and bests it by 35 pound feet of torque. This thing is an absolute workhorse. It is crazy fast.
04:07 - One, two, three, go.
04:08 (engine revving)
04:14 - It's fun to flick around because, hey, you know, we're going to be having some fun with
04:18 these machines too. And it is plenty capable. Okay, the larger 29.8 kilowatt hour battery
04:23 gives you about 80 miles of range, which is pretty good.
04:26 - Before we get down to number four, I need you to do us a favor, like this video,
04:30 comment on it, and subscribe to our channel. It really helps us out. So hit that like button
04:34 and subscribe.
04:35 - And number four, this is one of Aaron has spent a lot of time with, the Honda Pioneer 1000-6.
04:40 So this is the new model for 23.
04:42 - It was a new model for 2023. They're keeping it for 2024. It takes all the capability that you get,
04:47 that you know and love from the Honda Pioneer and adds two rows of three across seating. It is huge.
04:54 A dude who is more than six feet tall can sit in the back, stretches legs out. You don't get that
04:58 in many other utilities side-by-sides. And with that, you also get a full-size bed. You get a
05:03 thousand pounds of bed capacity, unless you're in California where it's limited to 600. It's almost
05:08 a wreck-ute rig, but I think we'll leave it in the utility category. Yeah, it's fantastic. It has
05:13 Honda's DCT transmission. It's got a thousand CC parallel twin with around about 85 horsepower. So
05:19 it's got all the capability you want and Honda build quality. The other thing to think about is
05:23 the Honda 1000-6 is a bargain. They start at 21,899, which is like $8,000 below the Can-Am
05:30 Defender that we just talked about. You can buy a lot of gas and a lot of accessories for $8,000.
05:35 Honda, welcome to number four. All right, number five on this list is the Kubota Sidekick RTV 900.
05:41 This is a thing that has a special place in our hearts because it is just a little workhorse. It
05:46 is a deeply charming rig. It is nowhere near the luxury or the fit and finish of the others on the
05:52 list, which is why it is so far down. But if you're looking for a pure work side-by-side, if you have
05:57 a small ranch or horses to work or whatever, Kubota has got you. The thing turns on a dime. It
06:03 has true lockers front and rear, so it's incredibly capable off-road and you can just throw abuse at
06:09 it. The bed is metal and it's bed lined. Most of the rigs that we've talked about up to this point
06:13 have plastic beds, which work great and are fine and they're durable, but the Kubota has steel and
06:18 it just feels that little bit more, I don't know, yeah, substantial. Thank you. And it's just,
06:23 it's a great rig. We love it. Yeah, it's perfect if you like, don't like your kids.
06:27 In there or like your employees, you know, no, I'm kidding. We really enjoyed having,
06:31 having the Kubota around. It's just, it's a no frills machine and it's, you know, we live in a
06:36 time when so many of these utility rigs have become almost cowboy Cadillacs. Yeah, right. You
06:42 can get all sorts of fancy leather interior and heated seats and all the rest of that and all of
06:46 that makes work nice, but sometimes what you need is an inexpensive rig that will do what you need
06:52 it to do. Yeah. And there is a reason that you see these everywhere in major metropolitan areas on
06:56 construction sites or just going around doing like municipal street maintenance and stuff like that.
07:01 They're rugged, they're dependable and they're no frills. They're inexpensive. Number six. This is
07:06 one that just got a little bit of an update. The Kawasaki Mule FXR 1000. Right. I got to spend a
07:11 better part of a day down in Texas bopping around in this rig. It focuses more towards the utility
07:17 side than any sort of creature comforts. You can buy a nicer one, but this really is a budget
07:21 machine. So if you find yourself in a position where you need a side by side, you don't have
07:26 the ability to fork out 30 grand. The Mule really is an excellent, excellent rig. It's plenty easy
07:32 to get one under that $20,000 mark, which is huge because we talk about rigs that are north of $20,000
07:38 as if they're affordable. And let's be honest to you, me, and most other people in the United States,
07:42 that's a huge amount of money. That is a big bank loan. And if you're a farmer out in Nebraska and
07:47 you just need something that can fit on your ag loan and do work for you, the Mule is it. One of
07:52 the reasons that the Mule is a little bit lower on our list is that it is dated. It feels old,
07:56 even though they just updated it. It's a very agrarian feeling rig. The fit and finish is not
08:02 up to the standard of the others, but they've been making them literally since the late 1980s
08:06 and they haven't changed much because they haven't needed to change much. The thing just works.
08:11 Kawasaki's known for reliability, for building rugged stuff. They build train cars and
08:16 container ships. They've got durability figured out. They back it up with a three-year warranty,
08:21 which is longer than just about any other machine that I know of. In fact, it's about three years
08:25 longer than most of the machines on this list. It is literally three times as much warranty as you
08:30 get with the other machines. That was number six on our list, but we've got an honorable mention.
08:35 The venerable John Deere Gator XUV835R Premium. We had a 2023 last year. That was just...
08:42 It was a mean green machine. Let me tell you about that.
08:45 This, when you think about grandpa spec or cowboy Cadillac, John Deere took that to heart and went
08:52 after this thing. It's got sat-nav. I think it had an option for like XM radio. It had Bluetooth
08:57 stereo. It had HVAC, electric windows, a headliner, way over-assisted power steering,
09:04 and like styled alloy wheels. Like it really looked like the King Ranch edition side by side.
09:10 Capability-wise, it was fair to Midland. It wasn't the most capable utility rig we've ever used,
09:14 but again, it's got John Deere written down the side. It is bright green and it is as plush as
09:20 they come. If you're really looking to spend some money and get something that granddad can bounce
09:24 down to the mailbox in, you could do much worse. Thanks for checking out this list of our favorite
09:29 utility rigs. You like what you saw? We've got buyer's guides on every last rig on this list,
09:34 including some other competitors that didn't quite make the list. Check it out over at
09:36 UTVdriver.com. We're also out on all your social media channels. We want to see you there. We want
09:41 to hear what you think about this list. Hit us up in the comments. We'll see you there. Yeah,
09:44 we'll catch you next time. I'm having a stroke. This is my brain. It doesn't work very well.