On paper, the difference between the Polaris Ranger XD 1500 and the Polaris Xpedition XP are tiny. The price, specs, performance, and power are all as close as makes no difference. So how do you decide where to park your $40k?
We went to Portsmouth Island, North Carolina to find the little secret Polaris doesn’t want to tell you!
Favorite Gear:
Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5
UTV Driver Videos:
UTV Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4C9HK06Jw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgG-O6Dd1BWzponCVuvj3G92
5 Things We LOVE and HATE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYurJbSonDc&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgHOOiP1YKQb0LvejrQt8rea
Everything You Need to Know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdKKsxgk3Yw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgH0LQZEvxMVB6K_hnZjL69J
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:
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We went to Portsmouth Island, North Carolina to find the little secret Polaris doesn’t want to tell you!
Favorite Gear:
Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5
UTV Driver Videos:
UTV Reviews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4C9HK06Jw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgG-O6Dd1BWzponCVuvj3G92
5 Things We LOVE and HATE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYurJbSonDc&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgHOOiP1YKQb0LvejrQt8rea
Everything You Need to Know:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdKKsxgk3Yw&list=PLIl7O9RDWjgH0LQZEvxMVB6K_hnZjL69J
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: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver
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SportsTranscript
00:00Zach we are still at Portsmouth Island. We're still having a great time. This place is incredible
00:04So we've come here to answer an important question
00:06But we've come out here to answer who each of these machines is for in behind me the Polaris expedition in the Polaris Ranger
00:13XD1500 you look at Polaris's website and these things are right on top of each other
00:17They're within 10 horsepower and a thousand dollars of each other in this spec. These are both North Star editions
00:22This is a two-seater. This is a three-seater. How do you know which one to pick?
00:26You know Polaris is gonna tell you the XD1500 is for the guy who needs to do a lot of work and be comfortable while
00:31He does it and they're gonna tell you the expedition is for the guy who wants to have a lot of fun get out there
00:35Take a bunch of camping gear with him. Is that true?
00:37I don't know and I mean I can see walking into the dealership and not really wanting to take Polaris's word for it
00:41Yeah, I mean, I love the XD1500 and I gotta say coming in if it was my nearly 40 grand
00:46That's the rig I would buy. I love that steel belt transmission. The three-cylinder is
00:52Excellent, it's good and comfortable if you're not doing really technical really high-speed riding the thing rides great
00:59My money goes to the expedition great thing about the expedition is last year
01:03It was a brand new platform from Polaris. And even though it looks a little bit like a utility rig
01:07It's more of an off-roader
01:09It stays composed when you're hauling across the desert and the bigger five-door versions can carry you your family all your stuff and still
01:16Be great in the rocks and roots. I mean I can see that right like it feels like a grown-up
01:20RMAX you get all the same fun suspension, but it's just nicer to live with you've got the sealed cab
01:25You've got power windows HVAC a banging stereo all that great stuff
01:29Yeah, and if you need it to do work, it'll do it. Yeah, and I can see why you love the Ranger, right?
01:34It doesn't my hat
01:36It's a full three-quarter ton though. Yeah, it's a serious work machine
01:40Like this is approaching small pickups for capability around the farm
01:43And again, there's enough room for coming out here and you can fit four days worth of camping gear in it. We've done it
01:48This is gonna be a tough test. Yeah, and you know, it doesn't break a sweat
01:50You know cooler fuel water all that stuff goes in the bed and you're not working the thing and it also turns fewer RPM than
01:57That one does to maintain speed so it is quieter than the expedition which after you've been in it for a while is a big big
02:03Deal. Yeah, so, you know, we're gonna be here for a couple days
02:06I really can't wait to see where we land on these things figure out exactly who these things are for
02:10Yeah, let's go land some fish. Yeah, that's good
02:11All right, we're moving back to the camp after doing a little fishing up at the point ran into these guys
02:16They got stuck in a big truck we're gonna try something you probably shouldn't do and see if the HD 1500 will pull this sucker out
02:34So, yeah, that worked like a treat man XT 1500 I think took care of that with no drama whatsoever
02:41Snatch strap obviously help that thing's got a proper tow rating and
02:45We've been here about a day and we've learned things have we not I think so
02:49I guess we should start with some just kind of basic amenities
02:51Yeah, you know, I mean the thing about camping out of one of these things is that you need room for gear
02:57Yeah, I think it's easy to underestimate just how much room a cooler takes up. Yeah, you got a cooler
03:02I mean if you've got an easy up like forget it
03:04So I guess the biggest thing we need to talk about is bed space and there's a drastic difference between these two
03:091500 players calls it a wait. Just let it just let it chill. Well, we're talking about bed space
03:13We're also wetting a line because what else do you do at the beach?
03:16So you're gonna have to bear with us here
03:17Polaris positions this thing as a three-quarter ton side-by-side like a three-quarter ton pickup truck and that's kind of what it feels like
03:24Yeah
03:25The beds a good size fit all sorts of nonsense in there the stuff that you need if you're gonna spend three days out here
03:31In the sticks, right?
03:32You wouldn't really be hurting for space if you had this if you needed to get a cooler a tent another cooler all that stuff
03:38You could fit it right in the XD 1500
03:40I want to say it's a little bit of an unfair comparison when you look at the bed on the expedition
03:43But the expedition is targeted towards overlanders and we said it earlier in the video
03:47You know the ADV model seems to have a little bit more space in it and we're finding that in spades with the XP
03:52It's not a bad machine
03:53It's just a little bit outclassed right now by the 1500 and I know this isn't a comparison
03:57But one of them is shining the biggest problem with the expedition is the XD 1500
04:02Yeah, Polaris released them in the same year and there are a lot of things about this that strike me as old Polaris
04:07You know, yeah where that feels very much like new Polaris. Yes
04:09It feels like they've redesigned something this feels special where this feels like, you know
04:13They put a bunch of old parts together to make a different hole
04:15Well, and that comes down to all sorts of details right the transmission. This has the old-style clunky Polaris shifter
04:21Yep, this is the new beautiful steel belt transmission that works really really well interior fit and finish
04:27This feels like old Polaris. You got clunky buttons in sort of weird places in here
04:31Everything's really nicely laid out as you're using it. You can sort of run into that
04:35I mean earlier we were sort of trying to figure out, you know
04:37Which one of these things is faster down a line you tried to take off in two-wheel drive in part because when you put this
04:43Thing in part you bump the thing out of four-wheel drive in the two-wheel drive every time
04:47You can also hit the wrong throttle mode the same way shifting. This has three selections on the gear stick
04:53They're all the selections you need everything else is handled by drive modes. That is a really nice way of doing things
04:57It's very simple. It's not clunky
04:59You know
04:59It's got an automotive style button every truck now you turn a knob to do different stuff
05:04This one does that the other thing is they both have similar amenities, right? HVAC, HVAC, JBL stereo, JBL stereo, electric windows, electric windows
05:12But somehow this one feels much more premium, even though ostensibly they have the same amenities and I don't know
05:18That's just how is that true? I don't know. The one thing that the Expedition really has going for it. I love these seats
05:23They're super comfortable. They're really supportive and you know earlier we found out that the suspension on this thing. It's more playful
05:30It is better in sort of choppy stuff. Is it
05:33Substantially better than the XT 1500
05:36Yes, and no, I think we also need to talk about the engine
05:39This one is so much quieter and the torque is a revelation when you're out here
05:43Yeah, this thing we're going 25 30 miles an hour down the beach. This thing's turning four and a half thousand RPM
05:48It's been starting 7600 which is bananas. Yeah, 7600 rpm out of a twin
05:53That's a lot and it translates into a lot of noise and again for a vehicle that you're thinking about using as an
06:00Expedition or an overland vehicle where you're gonna be spending three or four hours a day to get out to where you want to be
06:05That stuff just sort of grinds you down. Yeah, it's exhaustive back in Knoxville. We tested exactly how loud the Expedition is inside
06:13It's a hundred and fifteen decibels. That's louder than a rock concert
06:16Yeah makes me sound like my grandfather, but you know louder than a rock concert
06:20But if you were at a show you would need earplugs to maintain your hearing and you would never think to put earplugs in
06:25When you got in your side-by-side, all right, so what surprised you here really how far apart these two machines are
06:30They're really I expected them to be kind of in the same sort of class because they're from the same manufacturer
06:35They're the same price point, you know, there's power same power, but they're just so drastically different
06:40This feels like an r-max fighter. This feels like maybe the best utility rig that's out there
06:44Yeah, I mean when you say r-max fighter, I mean, it's not even a contest really
06:47I know you'd buy that and yeah, like the price point here is considerably higher
06:51But this is a way more usable machine HVAC alone. You're warm in the winter. You're cool in the summer
06:56That means a lot more comfortable riding when we had this thing back in Tennessee
07:00I had this sucker up to the fenders in water and I was stone-cold dry inside
07:05it's kind of unfair to compare the
07:07Expedition to the Ranger just as it's unfair to compare the XD 1500 to the Expedition because they're really meant to do different things
07:13And I think that's hard to tell on paper when you get them out here. They really shine in different ways
07:18What surprised me the most was how?
07:21Usable and enjoyable this was it really is like I'm used to getting in a utility rig and there's a certain amount of okay
07:28All right, I guess this is what we're doing. It's a buck board. It's slow
07:31It's kind of noisy all those things don't really make you want to spend time in it. Have a good time
07:37That's not that Larris and other manufacturers have been saying automotive grade for a really long time
07:41This is the first one that feels even remotely close to that and that's especially important to point out because it literally is farm equipment
07:47and so when you get in a utility rig you expect farm equipment and you don't get that feeling with this even though it will
07:53Work just as hard as anything else out there and harder the best machines just get out of your way and let you do
07:57Yes, it really hits a Goldilocks place. That's really difficult to find for a lot of manufacturers
08:02It lets you focus on being on this beach in this place. That's what we want out of them
08:06All right
08:06Who are these things for this thing has a lot more razor DNA in it than anything else and that makes sense
08:12It shares a drivetrain. That means it's a lot more Jeep Wrangler than it is Land Cruiser
08:16It's a little rougher around the edges, but it's a lot more playful than something else like the XD 1500
08:22That puts it squarely in the camp for someone who needs to do a little bit of rock crawling wants to do a little bit
08:26Of camping but isn't really interested in moving hay bales around whereas this thing you can come out here
08:31You can do camping you can get out into nature
08:33You can take a buddy with you
08:34But when you get home and you need to actually do honest work where you want something that's quiet and comfortable and you don't want
08:39To bring a Tacoma XD 1500 all day long
08:41And I think what's especially cool about these machines is it shows that Polaris has really figured out specialization
08:46They've aimed this at a certain set of the population who doesn't want this vice versa with this
08:51They've aimed this at a certain set of the population that doesn't want that
08:54They're very similar in a lot of ways, but they really are two different flavors of ice cream
08:58All right. Well, we've got another 24 hours to go. We've got fish to catch. We'll see you in a bit Aaron
09:02That's it for our time at Portsmouth Island
09:04Did I convince you that the XD 1500 is the machine if you're picking between these two boy?
09:09I think in this specific case you did but it's important to note that you have not spent any time in the
09:15Expedition ADV model that is the enclosed Polaris Expedition. It's like an SUV form-factor
09:20I spent three days in one last year in Arizona had the time of my life and there were a couple of important details that
09:26This one doesn't have it has enclosed lockable storage
09:29You can sleep in it
09:30If you need to it seats five and there's all kinds of room in the interior for coolers and whatever with tie-down points
09:36The XD 1500 does not have any of that stuff
09:38Yeah, that's very true. And I gotta say out here where we've been dealing with horseflies as your hand
09:43Yeah, a mob of mosquitoes insane wind all of that would be pretty nice
09:47And if you want it fits a rooftop tent, that seems like the solution. Okay. Yeah, but to be fair
09:52I pulled out a full-size Chevrolet Silverado today. Yes, you did
09:57I got nothing for that. I'm sure an expedition could do it, but this did it easily
10:02Well, I can't wait to spend some time in that ADV model until then it's time to make some dinner hit that ferry in
10:07The morning be sure to check us out over at UTV driver comm we have all sorts of information on these two machines buyers guys
10:12Extra videos galleries everything you need to know if you're thinking about buying one of these machines. We're on YouTube. We're on tick-tock run Instagram
10:19We're on Facebook. We want to see you there