The 181 horsepower Polaris RZR Pro S got a new face and a new name for 2025, but underneath it's still basically a RZR Turbo R. Here's five things we LOVE and five things we HATE about the 2025 Polaris RZR Pro S!
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SportsTranscript
00:00We are back at Windrock Park. We have been ripping around in the 2025 Polaris RZR Pro-S,
00:07and that means it's time for the moment you've all been waiting for to do. Five things we love
00:11about it, five things we hate about it, and then we're gonna tell you who this thing is for and
00:15whether you should buy one. Let's jump right in. Number one, the first thing we love about this rig
00:21is the styling. Polaris redesigned the rig in 2024 for the 2025 model year. The Pro-R, the Pro-XP,
00:29and the Pro-S all got a facelift, and we love it. For one thing, Polaris brought back their
00:33iconic fang lights. These things debuted in the mid-2000s on the RZR XP-1000. They went away when
00:40the RZR Pro lineup came out, but when it was time for a facelift, Polaris brought them back. We love
00:45them, and overall, the rig just looks great. The styling is much more striking than on the outgoing
00:51model, and it gives it just that Polaris vibe that you cannot mistake. Number two, Polaris
00:57added something this year that none of us asked for, but it turned out we all wanted, and that is
01:02these air vents in the nose here. The cool thing is this vent doesn't go to the brakes. It doesn't
01:07go to the transmission. It doesn't go to the engine. No, it comes inside, and it goes to the
01:12driver's and passenger's feet. It comes out right here in the cowl, and basically, it just keeps
01:18positive air pressure in the cabin at all times. Now, you don't get a windshield. You don't get
01:22full doors. You don't get windows. You don't get HVAC. You can close the vent or open it.
01:26The air coming in keeps things feeling nice and fresh in the cabin, and more importantly than that,
01:31it also keeps dust and sticks and rocks and whatever else might blow in here while you're
01:36ripping around. It keeps all that stuff at bay. The flowing air keeps that moving out of the cabin
01:40and makes it just a much more comfortable place to be. This is a win. We'd love to see it on other
01:44rigs. Number three, we love the interior in this thing. Now, we've complained about it before,
01:50but there are a few key things that came out with the update that really make things a lot nicer.
01:55The first is these seats. Now, they're generous. They're supportive sport seats, but they don't
02:00come from a sporting background. These came out of the Polaris Expedition overlanding rig,
02:06and they're just a little bit more generous than the outgoing seats, but they're still plenty
02:09bolstered. These things are all-day comfortable, and as soon as you sit down, you pretty much
02:14forget about them. That is excellent. You don't want to be thinking about whether you need more
02:18or less lumbar support as your day goes on. These will save your butt on the trail. They will keep
02:23you from getting too fatigued. They're fantastic. A couple other things. One, this rig comes with
02:27fixed harnesses in this ultimate trim package. This is really nice. Now, some people complain
02:32about fixed harnesses because they limit your mobility, but this is a fast side-by-side,
02:37and when you're ripping around out in the desert or doing some complicated rock crawling, you want
02:40to stay where you are. You don't need an inertia reel to reach forward and mess with the stereo.
02:44You should be paying attention to your driving, and you should be secure, and with this, you are.
02:48A few other things we love in here. There's plenty of storage. This is a lot of storage for
02:53a sport rig. There's plenty of places to put your phone, your drink, your wallet, your keys. There's
02:58cup holders. It's really nicely thought out, and this center stack is redesigned, and it's really
03:03nice. The last thing, these accented plastics. This is a nice touch. It just gives it a little
03:08bit more of a premium feel, and it shows that Polaris is thinking about the design. Yes,
03:12there are other rigs with nicer interiors, but Polaris really stepped it up a notch this year,
03:16and we love it. Number four is this engine. It is Polaris's ProStar 925cc turbocharged parallel
03:24twin. It makes 181 horsepower, and it's just lovely. It's very playful. It's very eager.
03:31There's not a ton of turbo lag, and yes, while it has a little bit less horsepower than some
03:36of its competitors and a lot less than its big brother, the ProR, especially in somewhere like
03:41Windrock where there's not a ton of open space, you really don't want for more power. This is a
03:45gem of an engine. We really like it. The ProStar line in general is good, but turbocharging kicks
03:50it up a notch. It is fantastic, and while I'm standing back here, let's go right into number
03:56five, this suspension. Now, the shocks are Fox 3.0 live valve X2 internal bypass. That's really cool
04:04in itself, but they are controlled by Polaris's excellent in-house electronic suspension,
04:09Dynamics DV. Dynamics DV gives you four suspension modes. You get comfort, rock, track,
04:16and baja, and basically what that does is a computer tells the suspension what compression
04:21and rebound settings it wants, so you've got baja, which is basically full stiff for ripping across
04:26rocky deserts. You've got track, which is for smoother courses that are a little bit tighter
04:30where you still need the rig to be pretty firm in its stance and handle well. Rock, which gets you
04:34through rock gardens and comfort, I shouldn't need to explain. The other cool thing is you get a read
04:39out on the dash and the ride command that tells you what the suspension is doing, and you can
04:43change all those settings on the fly with a button on the dash. The last thing is Dynamics DV has
04:49always had a red button on the steering wheel, which we have referred to before as the panic
04:53button. If you come up to a big G out or a rock garden and you need the suspension to go full
04:58stiff, you just punch that button. Now, in the past, you punched the button, you got 10 seconds
05:02of full stiff suspension, and then it went back to whatever setting you were in, but this year,
05:06Polaris updated it. And now if you double tap the button, it goes full stiff until you double
05:11tap it again. We love that feature. It's really cool. It gives the driver just that much more
05:15control. And if you come into a rock garden that's longer than you thought it was, or a whoop section
05:20you weren't expecting, double tap that button and you are good to go until you want to go back into
05:25your base setting. And now for an honorable mention, we have to talk about the much lauded,
05:30much loved Polaris Ride Command. This is the ultimate model. It also comes on the slightly
05:35lower trim, the premium model. And as with all versions of Ride Command, there are more than a
05:40million miles of mapped trails built into this thing. It will also do communication for group
05:45rides. It also controls the 1400 watt stereo. It will tell you where you are, where you've been,
05:51where you're going, and how to get back to the trailhead. It is excellent. We've said it a
05:56million times. We wish more manufacturers could come up with a system that's as good as this is.
06:00So those are the five things we love about the 2025 Polaris Razor Pro S, and now it's time for
06:06the negatives. The five things we hate about it. Number one, with a bullet, is the price. This
06:12thing is $36,999 before destination taxes or dealer's fees. That's a lot of money in anybody's
06:21book. It's especially a lot of money for a side-by-side. And well, I'm just not sure there are
06:25enough features here to justify the price. This is the Pro S Ultimate. It is the most expensive
06:30one we could have gotten our hands on. But hear me out here. I think the lower trim, the premium,
06:35is the go. Stepping down to the premium will save you 6,000 bucks. The two-door version of that rig
06:41is $30,999 out the door. You get Ride Command, you get the seats, you get nice harnesses, you get a
06:48bunch of great features, and you save yourself some money. That lets you get into the accessories
06:53catalog or the aftermarket and really make the rig your own. So with those kind of savings
06:58available in Polaris' lineup, we just have a hard time justifying the sticker for this thing. And
07:03keep in mind, there may be variations in price depending on what incentives your local power
07:08sports dealer has going on. But if there aren't, you're going to be close on $40,000 by the time
07:13you're out the door, and that's just a ton of money. We mentioned the aftermarket a second ago,
07:18and that leads us nicely into the second thing we hate about it. You're going to have to budget
07:22for a new set of tires. These things are okay if you live in Arizona or California or somewhere
07:27where it's rocky and dry most of the time. Out here in East Tennessee, it ain't. And these things
07:32can get slick as snot when the trail gets a little mucky. The tires are an okay size. We really like
07:37the wheels. We love this five lug bolt pattern. And we know that tires are the first thing anybody
07:42changes on a rig. But when you're spending as much as you spend on this thing, it's kind of tough to
07:47budget another $1,500 or so for a set of new meets. Number three, the third thing we hate is the size.
07:54Now, on paper, this thing is pretty short and tight. It's just over 10 feet long with an eight
07:59foot wheelbase. But in person, it feels way bigger than that. Part of that is because it's wide. It
08:05is 74 inches wide, which is just as wide as its big brother, the Pro R. But more than that, it's
08:11tall. This thing is 74 inches tall. I'm about 5'10", and it dwarfs me. It feels even bigger when you
08:18look at this ROPS. Now, yes, it's nice and chunky. It feels super secure, but it looks big, it looks
08:23heavy, and it adds to the overall sense of mass that this thing has. And speaking of mass, that
08:29translates to the spec sheet. This thing is 2,142 pounds dry, according to Polaris. Now, if you need
08:36a reminder, that means without fuel, not ready to rip. That's what it weighs in the crate. When you
08:41start putting in fuel and oil and coolant, you're probably up closer to 2,300 by the time you're
08:46ready to hit the trail. That is huge. Side-by-sides in general are getting bigger, but we would love
08:52it if this thing felt as compact as it actually is. The fourth thing we hate about this rig is the bed.
08:57It's nice and long, and it's fairly deep, but that's where its attributes stop. It is too narrow,
09:04the drainage is inadequate, and the tie-down points are woeful. We have a big bag in here today,
09:10and it's tied down okay, but we really had to improvise to get it to fit. We had to feed some
09:15strap through what Polaris says is a tie-down point, but it is too narrow to get the hook of
09:20a ratchet strap around it. That means you're going to have to figure out securing your load yourself.
09:24This thing will hold about 300 pounds, but we're not sure what weighs 300 pounds that you could
09:30fit back here. We'd like to see the bed be a little bit better thought out. Now, we know that
09:34this thing is not a rec-ute rig, it's not a utility rig, it's a sport side-by-side. Cargo
09:39capacity should be a tertiary concern, but we'd really like to see them think this out a little
09:44bit better. And to round it out, the fifth thing we hate about this machine is that there really
09:49aren't any tie-down points, especially up front. You get this little nubby bumper, but otherwise
09:55you have to improvise where you're going to put your straps when you put this thing on the trailer.
10:00Polaris figured this out with the 2024 RZR XP. That thing has little tow hooks all over it. It
10:06is a breeze to cinch down on your trailer. And when you've got an investment as big as this is,
10:11you want to make sure that it's secure when you're rolling down the road. And after a long day on the
10:15trail, you're tired, it would be such a huge benefit to just be able to wang a hook on here,
10:20strap it down, and hit the road. And you can't with this rig. You have to think it through a
10:24little bit more clearly. It feels like an easy fix, and we would love to see Polaris update it.
10:28And now for our honorable mention. We had an honorable mention in the love category,
10:33so we got to have one for the hates. It's this key. It is way too easy to leave this key in the
10:39accessory position when you turn it off. So we turn it to run. I'm not going to actually turn
10:43the rig on, but you turn it to run. That shuts the ignition off, but it doesn't shut down the
10:47ride command or the lights. That makes it super easy to walk away from your rig and go have a
10:52bite to eat while the accessories are still on. When you come back, the battery's dead.
10:56There's a hard detent that you have to click through to get the thing to turn all the way off.
11:02We know that this is a small issue, and that's why we made it the honorable mention,
11:06but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention it. And here's why. I went to start this thing in our shop
11:11the other day, and the key had been left just a little bit on, and the battery was dead,
11:16and I had to charge it. This thing has like, I don't know, 200 miles on it. It would just be
11:19nice if it could just be easily shut off, and there's not that hard detent, and there's nothing
11:24to think about. Every time I park this rig, I gotta double check. It's just one more step.
11:28So that's everything we love and hate about the 2025 Polaris RZR Pro S Ultimate. Time to talk
11:33about who this machine is for. And actually, Polaris gave us a cheat sheet when they released
11:38this. See, when they clarified the naming convention for the RZR Pro lineup, they also
11:43delineated what each machine in the lineup is for. The RZR Pro are, obviously, for those people who
11:49want to go out and go desert racing, or if you live in Phoenix, and there's millions of miles of
11:54BLM land around you with wide open two tracks, and you can just put your foot to the floor and let
11:59those 225 ponies eat, the Polaris RZR Pro R is for you. The Pro S is for someone like us, who lives
12:06in a place where the trails are tighter, and you don't have as much access to being wide open,
12:10but you still want horsepower, you still want great suspension, and you like a little bit wider
12:15track width. It allows you to go play on a two track, to go blast through some whoops, but it
12:19doesn't fall apart quite as much when you hit a rock garden, or when you want to go rock crawling.
12:24So, the Polaris RZR Pro S is for the person who, this is maybe your second or third side-by-side.
12:30You've got your sea legs under you, you know how they handle, and you want speed, but you don't
12:34need the all-out weaponry that the Pro R provides. The Pro S is your huckleberry. It comes in enough
12:40flavors through the trim packages that you can go mild to wild, you can buy a stripped-down model
12:45and build it yourself, or you can buy the cowboy Cadillac behind me and get all the creature
12:50comforts and luxuries that Polaris offers. If you're that person, you should head out and check
12:54out a Pro S at your local power sports dealer. So, that's it for this video, folks. Thank you
12:59so much for watching. Why don't you go down in the comments below, let us know, are we on base,
13:04or are we being unfair to the Pro S? Then head over to UTVDriver.com five days a week, where
13:09we've got news, reviews, and buyer's guides on all the machines you can think of, including this one.
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