2008 is a year that many remember for a lot of different reasons. Most of those memories are not good ones. The stock market crash, corporate bailouts, and housing market crash left many unemployed without homes and jobs. However, despite all the hardship, there were still many markets that didn’t suffer as bad, and some even prospered. One market in particular is the Side by Side market.
Enter Polaris, arguably the “king of powersports”. Polaris at the time was still just a normal player in the industry. There wasn’t a clear standard like today, (although their ranger models were very popular) but Polaris had always won people over with their utility models. Polaris was wanting to make the first trail capable side by side with the fastest speed and acceleration on the market. When 2008 rolled around, Polaris for some reason figured, “Hey you know what this country needs right now? A kick-butt side by side that does just that.”.
Polaris had introduced the RZR originally as a Ranger model in 2007. The one and done year of that experiment proved that Polaris could do exactly what they had hyped everyone up about. Under 50 inch width with a mean motor. 760cc four stroke fuel injected motor to be exact. The top speed was about 55 MPH, which at the time, was by far the fastest. Even faster than the Yamaha Rhino, which Polaris at the time said was their main focus for building a unit to pass the competition. A “play first, work second” vehicle Polaris described it as. The unit was met with overwhelming praise, citing its motor, handling, and most importantly, innovation, as reasons it was a clear winner.
It was such a winner that it only took one year for Polaris to give the RZR its very own lineup. The RZR 800 arrives in a variety of fashions for the 2010 lineup. The LE model features upgraded shocks, and the Robby Gordon EPS editions were introduced for the power loving enthusiast that also featured the companies first four seat model that provided “the ultimate off road experience”. All these models were met with rave reviews, and soon provided a clear distance between Polaris and the rest of the competition in sales.
The 2010 models also introduced The 800 S. This wasn’t a significant jump for Polaris, but it did give variety to their client base on what they were spending their hard earned cash on. The S models were more for the guy who maybe didn’t want to shell out massive amounts of cash for the Robbie Gordon Editions, but wanted something a little nicer than the base. The S Model featured improved steering, much smoother suspension, engine modification, and even was a little wider to help turning.
Polaris also at this time started to invest in upgrade kits. Studies showed that aftermarket sales were going through the roof on their RZR models, with the average person spending 1700 dollars to add kits, exhaust, or other cosmetic upgrades. Polaris was not about to miss this type of added revenue, so their kit options got a lot bigger after this.
2011 is when the RZR 900 first came along, and this was a significant improvement for Polaris. Improved motor and horsepower were at the front, going from 760cc to an impressive 875cc, and emphasizing improvement over the four-seat model. Polaris also released the EPS 900 model, which featured electronic power steering and on demand AWD. This was also the first year the RZR had a true “special edition” model. The “Jagged X edition was for the man who knows no limits, boasting a 94 HP engine that shoots through a SLP exhaust, it was easily the fastest on the market at the time. Throw in upgraded shocks, rims, tires, springs, trim, paint and overall drive train, and you have a model that will attract some pretty hefty attention. Not to mention, the model’s color scheme made it look like you were riding in a thunderstorm. Bad.To.The.Bone.
Polaris spent 2012-2013 making minor upgrades to their lineup and marketing their new racing models. (The Jagged X edition definitely impressed higher ups in the industry) In fact, the Polaris Jagged X model finished in first place in four of its first five races, picking up a ton of awards from UTV magazines, websites, and judges alike.
Polaris knew it wouldn’t be long before other companies followed suit. Luckily, Polaris was in a position to succeed. They had acquired Indian Motorcycles and reached two billion in sales in 2011, so business was booming, which gave them the resources to build the RZR 1000. Their most important side by side they would ever make.
Power, speed, agility. This is what Polaris wanted, and Polaris delivered. The 2014 RZR 1000 (Which we have an abundance of used RZR parts of)boasted a 107 HP Engine, 999cc motor was by far the craziest anyone had made at the time, and had upgrades in almost every area imaginable. The throttle was improved for acceleration, the three link suspension made gliding over rocks a breeze, it was truly a side by side that wasn’t afraid of anything and took flak from no one. There were such a significant amount of upgrades, I don’t even have time to name them all, but if you are an enthusiast like me, you can check them out here.
Life was good for Polaris at this point. Their 1000 models were met with overwhelmingly positive reviews, and they had the market by the horns. In fact, Polaris was outselling its competition three times over. Not only was the RZR appealing to the speed junkies, but Polaris had earned the respect of utility drivers as well, with the Ranger being (by far) the highest selling side by side on the market. However, this is where Polaris would run into issues that would soon haunt them. In 2014, a passenger suffered major burns when the Polaris RZR she was riding in caught on fire after tipping over. This could have been a minor defect, so there wasn’t too much press release, but it still didn’t help Polaris’ image any.
2016 comes along, with Polaris fully owning the market from front to back. The RZR XP Turbo is introduced with 144 horsepower. (I had a Chevy Aveo once that only had only 107hp, if that tells you anything) Dirtwheel Magazine claimed the unit “raised the bar in several areas”. The unit was a powerful beast, but also an expensive one. At 24,999 MSRP, the price tag was reaching “loaded car” price points. However the XP was still a giant success.
2016 also had Polaris signing a 2.5 million dollar contract with the Marine Corps to deliver 144 custom made ATV’s. The unit was designed to run on the military jet fuel and was used to scout and transport up to four troops at a time.
Let’s flash forward to 2018. As Polaris continues to rule the side by side market, the fires continued to keep happening. Multiple units caught on fire and resulted in many deaths and injuries. It all came to a climax when in April of 2018, Polaris was ordered to pay a record fine of 27.25 million dollars for failing to report to their customers of the potential fire risk. Polaris paid the fine and played damage control, but it was too late by then, the damage had been done.
This news overshadowed the release of the 2018 Pro Turbo XP S. Which took everything that made the XP great and amplified it up to 10. The wheels were bigger, the motor was beefier, and the whole ride got a new look from front to back. In their 2018 review UTV Driver said that “you can’t go wrong” with purchasing the XP Pro S, if you happen to have the $27,000 to shell out for it.
Today Polaris is still buzzing off the hype from their 2020 Pro XP model. Which the Diesel Brothers said “can do literally anything.” Polaris continues to innovate, and they continue to rule the market. However, they are still getting hit with lawsuits about safety concerns. Polaris has made great strides to improve and decrease risk, but in the end, these concerns are the only thing holding the RZR from being the best side by side ever created.
