Yamaha grizzly 700 EFI

I have never owned an ATV for long enough to worry about reliability or maintenance costs. Looking to buy something to ride and haul gear ice fishing, and probably my 4×8 trailer with my lawn clippings/ tree debris to the city spot down the block from in the small town I live in. I have priced some new ones, looked at some newish used ones (couple years old) and now have a friend of a friend that has offered his 2008 700 EFI Grizzly that looks great cosmetically and shows no issues, but has 12000 miles. It was a rental for guided trail rides in the black hills for its first 3 years of life and was the “lunch buggy” during planting and harvest time for the 2nd owner, mainly driven by the wife of the farmer that owns it now. Been sitting for 5 years with very little use since. The price is VERY ATTRACTIVE at $2500, but not if the machine is going to cost me another $2500 in the shop. I went to look and it started pretty easily with a jump pack, and seemed to run fine. It is pretty much a take or leave it deal (as it should be). I feel confident that a good bath and a new battery, and some cargo management accessories, it would be all I need for the intended purpose. I just have no idea if the Yamaha are reliable, or have some known issue that can be a spendy fix. There is not a Yamaha dealer close to me and most people I know have Polaris, Honda, and Can Am, or Kawasaki as there are dealers within a half hour or in town here.

The saying is drive it like a rental, for the sole purpose of most rentals and beat on all there life. 12k miles on a atv is a boat load. I wouldn’t consider 2500 on a 08 with 12k miles. Wouldn’t even consider it. That machine shouldn’t even be half that price. If it were take it or leave it, I’d leave it in a heart beat. As for reliable, Yamaha has always built reliable machines. But again 12k miles on a machine that was a rental, nope.
As for a mechanic, find your self a trusting small engines guy and skip the dealer unless you don’t mind paying 125 plus a hour at the dealer.
General life span of a atv is 10 to 12k. I personally wouldn’t buy a machine at the end of its life.

I have a couple machines ran to very high milage/hours and as stated above, 12K in miles is a lot. If it has minimal idle time, and averages 8-12 mph on the trail, the engine has about 1200-1500 hours on it. That definitely comes into question the maintenance, oil type/weight and so on. Not saying you won’t get 2500 hours out of that engine, but it is at that point where how it was maintained will begin to show. Much like a lawn tractor with 1000 hours on it.

given the age, I would expect to replace all the suspension shocks/bushing part and axels as I have in my articats (2008 & 2010). Can easily spend $900-1500 in parts

I did a quick google search and came up with asking prices of $3-4K for that machine. at an average of $3,500. I would look at it as a $2,000 machine to buy if I was to buy it and do the parts myself. If all the suspension parts have been recently upgraded, the 2500 price tag is fair

Bearcat89 wrote:

The saying is drive it like a rental, for the sole purpose of most rentals and beat on all there life.

A lot of ATV and snowmobile “rentals” are guided tours where the clients are never turned loose to beat on the machines or left alone. A lot of Yellowstone snowmobile rental units were used like this, they get 100+ miles every day of the week, but it’s all in an orderly line following the guide at relatively low speed. I strongly suspect that that was the case with this Yamaha because it would have never lasted 12k if it had been beaten for every mile.

Every ATV purchase is a gamble. At $2500, IMO what I think about is that it lasted this long and is still functional. Why would it pack it in tomorrow? Again, I’d strongly suspect that 12k miles involves a LOT of easy gravel trail miles and very little balls-to-the-wall beating because if that’s how it had been ridden, it wouldn’t have lasted 5k much less 12.

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
The saying is drive it like a rental, for the sole purpose of most rentals and beat on all there life.

A lot of ATV and snowmobile “rentals” are guided tours where the clients are never turned loose to beat on the machines or left alone. A lot of Yellowstone snowmobile rental units were used like this, they get 100+ miles every day of the week, but it’s all in an orderly line following the guide at relatively low speed. I strongly suspect that that was the case with this Yamaha because it would have never lasted 12k if it had been beaten for every mile.

Every ATV purchase is a gamble. At $2500, IMO what I think about is that it lasted this long and is still functional. Why would it pack it in tomorrow? Again, I’d strongly suspect that 12k miles involves a LOT of easy gravel trail miles and very little balls-to-the-wall beating because if that’s how it had been ridden, it wouldn’t have lasted 5k much less 12.

Oh I’ve rented alot of sxs, and sleds in the mountains and such and just murdered them, beat them to their limit. But you are probably right if it’s super clean. I couldn’t ever justify 2500 for a machine that’s at the very end of its life. Especially if he said he doesn’t want to put money in to it. But that’s just me. It’s like buying a chevy pickup with 275 on the odometer for 15k. Might go another 20k might blow next week.

First thing I’d do is make sure compression tests are done and and leak down is within check. Lot of decent machines with less then half that millage are popping up lately for 3k ball park. And I think it’s only getting better for a buyer as time goes on.

In this case I would agree with BC for sure. If seller isn’t open to offers I’d walk too. 12k is a lot even for a yamaha.

For some more context related to miles on an ATV, I beat my Kawasaki into oblivion like once a year on a long riding weekend with my friends. My machine has just 1200 miles on it, but they’re very hard miles. It’s been submerged, fully, multiple times. It goes in the mud. Occasionally it pulls more than it should on the rear hitch. I’d never advertise it as “only” having 1200 miles because I know it’s been beat on. Keep an eye on that stuff while you’re searching, sometimes low mileage ATV’s have been run to hell and back, just like high mileage units may be in really nice condition.

Not a chance…for many of the reasons already stated.

There’s a decent supply of slightly used atvs on the market right now. I just picked up a used ’06 Kodiak late this Fall that had 1080 miles on it for $2300. Granted it is a 450 with fewer features, but either way I’d be looking at something else in your situation.

I bought a single owner Honda with 2200 miles, every upgrade and attachment, rear storage seat, heated grips and throttle 2 sets of wheels and tires for what this grizzly is going for. I searched for a long time but I ended up finding a guy who wasn’t trying to over price his machine, and he was a old guy who only used it for grouse hunting trails. Lots of better options if you look around.

I wouldn’t worry about the miles personally if you were able to know how it was maintained but I’ve seen first hand how far these things can go. If you think 12000 miles is end of life for an ATV, my dad says hold my beer. His had 67000 miles on it when he got rid of it and still ran great.

CaptainMusky wrote:

I wouldn’t worry about the miles personally if you were able to know how it was maintained but I’ve seen first hand how far these things can go. If you think 12000 miles is end of life for an ATV, my dad says hold my beer. His had 67000 miles on it when he got rid of it and still ran great.

12k is the end of the life for many many machines. But obviously different scenarios equal different results. Not all machines are created equal.
67 thousand on a wheeler ? What did he never stop riding it since the 80s. What machine and what did he do to rack on so many miles? Did he not have a vehicle and rode the wheeler every where lol that’s a pile of miles.

Ha 80s!? No it was a 2007 he bought new. Rode every day and plowed driveways and used it to pull around his tractor to mow yards. I have the same machine year and everything and I have 1300. He was putting on around 15000 miles per year at one point. This was an arctic cat not a Yamaha.

Must have made good money mowing yards. 67000 miles would be 13000 gallons of gas.

JEREMY wrote:

Must have made good money mowing yards. 67000 miles would be 13000 gallons of gas.

He had 18 yards he mowed, and 23 driveways he plowed. He was bored since he was retired. I went on one of his trail rides with him one time and it was aggravating. Too dang slow for me. Took all day to do 200 miles (well not really, but far too long LOL). I finally got him some street like motorcycle tires for it because stock tires didnt last long.

I would pass at $2,500 with that many miles, thats a ton of hours even with it being a proven Yamaha engine. Makes we want to buy a new 700 though.