ATV action: A 2006 buyers' guide

It's easy to be overwhelmed by the variety in the ATV market. Engine size varies from around 50 cc's to a whopping 800 cc's. These can be coupled to either manual or automatic transmissions. And there are two-wheel-drive, four-wheel-drive, and all-wheel-drive models. Beyond that, there are scores of options and accessories ranging from specialized racks to global positioning systems.

This buyers' guide deals primarily with the 400-cc models that are still the heart of the market, even though the 600-cc and bigger category is growing rapidly. On these pages you'll find enough information to narrow your search. But before you visit dealers, you might want to use the Go Links to check out company Web sites. Without exception, these sites have a wealth of information about these machines as well as bigger and smaller models.

When choosing an ATV, Glenn Hansen of Suzuki and a former editor of an ATV magazine says there are a few mistakes first-time buyers make.

"My educated guess is most buyers make a purchase without fully understanding what they can do or want to do with an ATV," he says. "They either buy too much machine for emotional reasons, or they buy too little machine for cost reasons. Buyers need to determine their actual use plans. Do they really need four-wheel drive? Do they want an automatic or manual transmission? Most importantly, how much engine will they really need?"

Arctic Cat's Kale Wainer says, "In the utility class (as opposed to sport models), we sell more continuously variable transmissions than manuals, but some utility owners simply like to shift gears. And some like the option of shifting into lower gears when towing or riding in mud or on steep hills."