UTV Driver
  • 6 months ago
We break down the highs and lows of the 2024 Kawasaki Ridge Limited! This Polaris Ranger fighter is a fresh addition to the utility side-by-side market, and it packs plenty of capability and refinement.

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Transcript
00:00 This is the 2024 Kawasaki Ridge.
00:03 It is a brand new machine from Kawasaki for this year,
00:06 and it is a huge step up for the brand.
00:08 It is a full bore, luxury utility side-by-side
00:12 from the company that brought you the Mule,
00:14 which is about the most basic utility side-by-side you can get.
00:17 But in over 30 years in production,
00:19 the Mule has developed a reputation for being stout, reliable, and capable.
00:23 And Kawasaki is now taking that and translating it into a rig
00:27 with a few more creature comforts.
00:28 We're going to give you five things we love and five things we hate
00:31 about the 2024 Kawasaki Ridge,
00:33 and then we're going to tell you who this rig is for and if you should buy one.
00:36 A few basics on the Ridge.
00:38 It comes in a bunch of different trim packages.
00:40 This one is the Limited.
00:42 It retails for $33,499.
00:46 It's got a big stereo.
00:47 It's got a Garmin tread right in the dash.
00:49 It has electric windows and HVAC.
00:51 This thing is loaded down with every luxury
00:54 you can conceive in a side-by-side right now.
00:56 But the crown jewel of the package is the 999cc inline four-cylinder
01:02 that sits behind the front seats.
01:03 The engine is a revelation.
01:05 It's quiet, it's torquey, it makes a cool noise when you get on it,
01:08 and it makes 92 horsepower and 65 pound-feet of torque.
01:12 So it's got a little bit more horsepower than other 1,000cc utility rigs.
01:15 The Ridge is debuting in four trims, starting with the Ranch Edition,
01:19 which comes with hard doors, but no windows, no windshield,
01:22 a very basic bare-bones rig like a Polaris Ranger Premium.
01:26 If you want to take a step up from that,
01:27 there's the Kawasaki Ridge HVAC, which is exactly what it sounds like.
01:31 It's a little bit more luxurious, a little bit more expensive,
01:34 and it comes with HVAC.
01:35 If you want to hit trails in your Ridge,
01:37 there is the Kawasaki Ridge XR, which has bigger wheels and tires,
01:41 a bit more suspension travel, some more off-roady-looking bits,
01:45 and again, it's got HVAC and a stereo.
01:48 The top-of-the-line Ridge is the Ridge Limited, which is behind me.
01:51 If you want a Kawasaki Ridge, they start right at $23,999
01:55 for the Ridge Ranch Edition,
01:57 going all the way up to $33,500 for this one.
02:00 The nice thing about all of those trim packages is that they're equally capable.
02:03 All of them will carry 1,000 pounds in the bed,
02:06 and they're all rated to tow 2,500 pounds.
02:08 They all have a 2-inch hitch receiver,
02:10 and they're all ready to work right out of the box.
02:12 With all that out of the way, let's jump right in
02:14 with the first thing we love about the Kawasaki Ridge,
02:17 and that is that this is the machine that the Mule always deserved to be.
02:21 While the Mule is a great rig,
02:23 and it was a fantastic machine when it debuted,
02:25 the rest of the market has moved on,
02:27 and now everything is starting to look like the Polaris Ranger
02:30 and the Can-Am Defender,
02:31 just a little bit more upmarket and a little bit nicer and less Spartan.
02:35 The Ridge fixes all that.
02:37 It keeps the capability,
02:38 and it adds the creature comfort that the market now demands.
02:41 The second thing we love about the Ridge is these metal fender liners.
02:44 They are great.
02:45 You never hear the annoying pinging and banging of rocks off of these,
02:49 and they're just stout.
02:50 It feels more premium.
02:51 It feels like something that someone wanted to last.
02:54 Plastic here really doesn't inspire confidence,
02:56 and you can see there's really nice welds down here.
02:59 These aren't going anywhere if you catch a stray rock or log.
03:02 The third thing we love about the Kawasaki Ridge is this interior.
03:06 Kawi marketed this thing as peak premium performance
03:09 in the run-up to its launch,
03:10 and, well, it's a little bit premium,
03:12 but mostly it's a really nice place to spend time.
03:14 It's what we've been looking for from Kawasaki,
03:17 and it's comfortable, but it's not so nice
03:19 that you couldn't work in it all day
03:20 and then come in and hose it out.
03:22 You've got speakers up here.
03:23 You've got a Garmin tread in the dash.
03:25 There's HVAC.
03:26 Everything in the interior is right where you want it.
03:28 There's some really satisfying buttons to push.
03:31 You don't have to do everything via touchscreen.
03:33 It's just nice, and it really shows that Kawasaki is rising to meet the market.
03:37 Number four, the fit and finish and details on this machine are excellent.
03:42 The paint is beautiful.
03:43 There's a sprayer for the windshield washer.
03:45 The windshield is glass.
03:46 There are little Easter eggs, like right down here,
03:49 there's a Ridge motif.
03:50 You come inside, the steering wheel is really nice.
03:53 It just shows that somebody took the time to think about
03:56 what they would want in a side-by-side and execute it.
03:58 The fifth thing we love about the Kawasaki Ridge is the price.
04:01 At $33,499, it certainly isn't inexpensive,
04:05 but when you compare it to the likes of the Polaris Ranger
04:08 and the Can-Am Defender, which you can really ratchet up
04:10 if you get into the option catalog,
04:12 the Kawasaki represents a bargain.
04:14 Those are the five things we love about it.
04:15 Now for the five things we hate about it.
04:18 Number one, while the interior is a huge step up for Kawasaki,
04:21 there's still a lot of chintzy plastic and bad details in here
04:25 for a machine that costs 33 and a half grand.
04:27 Compared to some competitors in the market,
04:29 this interior still falls behind.
04:31 Again, I don't want to ding it too hard,
04:33 but really, just feeling some of this stuff
04:35 does not fill me with confidence.
04:37 Now, I don't want to make too big of a deal about this,
04:39 but really, when you spend this much money,
04:41 there's just a lot of plastic that bends and has sharp edges,
04:44 and it just doesn't fit what you want when you think premium.
04:47 The second thing we hate is this brush guard.
04:50 I mean, come on.
04:51 The second you hit something,
04:52 that's going right into your pretty body work,
04:54 thus negating why you have a brush guard in the first place.
04:57 And while we're on that point,
04:58 this rear bumper falls into the same category.
05:01 There's literally a sticker on it that says,
05:02 "Don't step on this, it might break."
05:04 It's a bumper, you're supposed to be able to step on it.
05:07 Number three, staying at the back, the bed.
05:09 This bed is supposed to be able to carry 1,000 pounds,
05:12 and it's a dump bed,
05:13 but the gas assist shocks on this thing are too weak.
05:17 We had a couple hundred pounds of logs in here,
05:19 and I had a tough time getting this bed to dump.
05:21 Staying on the bed, some of these details are just lacking.
05:24 These look like stake pockets,
05:26 but the holes go all the way down into the fender,
05:28 so you're gonna get mulch and mud and whatever
05:31 jammed down between the bed and the fender.
05:33 Not ideal.
05:34 The other detail that misses is the tailgate.
05:37 On other machines, there's a little diverter here
05:39 to keep mulch and stuff out of these cables.
05:42 On the Kawasaki, there's no such thing,
05:44 so logs and whatever are back here
05:46 can just hit your tailgate cables,
05:47 and eventually they're gonna break.
05:48 Number four, this transmission.
05:51 The shifter feel is okay,
05:52 but for as nice as the engine is,
05:54 it really deserves to be bolted to a good transmission,
05:57 and this one really just kinda transmits.
06:00 It lets the power train down, and that's a shame.
06:02 Number five, the way these power window switches are mounted
06:05 down is up, and up is down.
06:08 If they were just mounted horizontally,
06:10 that wouldn't be a problem,
06:12 but it's really confusing, and just,
06:14 it's a nitpick, but come on.
06:16 So those are the five things we love,
06:17 and the five things we hate about the Kawasaki Ridge.
06:20 Now it's time to talk about who this machine is for.
06:23 This machine is for someone who's always thought
06:25 they wanted a Can-Am Defender or a Polaris Ranger,
06:27 but they want Kawasaki reliability.
06:30 This machine comes with a three-year warranty,
06:33 which is the longest in the business.
06:35 Polaris just dropped the 2025 Ranger,
06:37 and we're super proud of its two-year warranty.
06:39 And if you're spending $30,000, you wanna get nice stuff.
06:43 You wanna feel like your money is going somewhere.
06:46 You want air conditioning, you want a stereo,
06:48 you want the bells and whistles.
06:50 The Ridge does that in a way that the Mule does not.
06:52 That's been five things we love,
06:53 and five things we hate about the 2024 Kawasaki Ridge.
06:57 Thanks for watching.
06:58 If you need more information, hit us up at utvdriver.com,
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