00:00There are two major conversations happening in America right now in the year of our Lord,
00:042026. One is that new car prices are, on average, $50,000. Another conversation people have is that
00:10side-by-sides are getting really expensive. This rig right behind me starts at $50,999. Is it worth
00:17it? We're going to talk about five things we love and five things we hate about the Polaris Ranger
00:22XD1500 North Star Ultimate. Let's get into the number one thing that we love about the Polaris
00:26Ranger XD1500 North Star Ultimate, and that is the HVAC and the enclosed cab. Now, obviously,
00:32the reason that this thing hits the price point in the MSRP it does is because it's got windows and
00:37doors, and they're all sealed, and there is an AC unit in here to keep you cold or warm. We
00:43love
00:43the fact that you get a real glass windshield and real glass windows with power windows. Fancy,
00:47fancy, right? And you get these deluxe seats. These seats are fantastic, among the best we've
00:52ever tested. These things are going to hug your hiney no matter what you're doing, out on the trail
00:55or on the farm or out hunting or whatever it is that you plan on doing with your Ranger XD1500.
01:01Overall, the fit and finish of this interior is just fantastic. And if you're wondering,
01:05is a $50,000 rig worth it? Spend a couple hours in this cab, and it's a powerful argument for
01:09it.
01:09The number two thing that we love about the Polaris XD1500 North Star Ultimate is the cargo bed. Now,
01:15one of the first things is that this has a payload capacity of 650 pounds, but you also get 3
01:20,500
01:20pounds towing, which is also extremely impressive. Industry standard is generally around 600 to 1,000
01:26pounds, 600 in California. So 1,650 pounds is that extra sort of push, the kind of thing that you
01:31would
01:31expect with a $50,000 rig. And one of the other things that we love about this cargo bed are
01:36these
01:36tie-down points right here. Other systems, other proprietary systems like the Link system that
01:40Can-Am uses are great, smartly designed. But look at this. This is a giant, huge anchor point. You can
01:47put
01:47anything with a hook. You can have 50-year-old bungees. You can have tie-downs, anything. It's
01:52really nice that it's general, and it's simple. And also, as well, you get four bucket holders. Yes,
01:57these are sort of anchor points for five-gallon buckets. Extremely handy for whatever you're towing
02:03or hauling around the farm or on the trail. I don't know this for sure. However, this looks like a
02:08cup holder, and that's kind of boss. And this is not breaking news. This isn't anything radical or
02:12revolutionary, but the fact that it's got a measuring tape on the bed is kind of nice. And
02:17lastly, we have an electronically-assisted hydraulic dump bed. So when you have filled
02:21the back of your XD with 1,500 pounds of whatever it is that you're hauling, all you've got to
02:24do
02:25is press a button, and away it goes. The number three thing that we love about the Polaris Ranger
02:29XD-1500 North Star Ultimate is the engine and drivetrain. We've got a 1,498 cc dual overhead cam
02:36liquid-cooled triple-cylinder motor in there that puts out 110 ponies. And as befitting any kind
02:42of like RecU to this size, there is no turbo or anything else. There is just naturally aspirated
02:46power when you need it available at your right foot. And what's even better than that is that
02:50it's made it to a CVT with a steel belt. Now that steel belt makes a huge difference. It is
02:55probably good
02:56for the lifetime of this machine. It's one more reason that the Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate
03:01is about as bulletproof as you can get. Befitting something that costs $50,000, the throttle response is
03:07just fantastic. There's no lag, no delay. It's smooth. It's almost like being in a car. That
03:12triple combined with throttle by wire means that this is one of these smoothest rigs we've ever
03:16tested. And the number four thing we love about the Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate is
03:21the shifter. On some Polaris models, we complain endlessly about what content editor Jackson Cooper
03:26calls a bucket full of wrenches. Now we're going to turn this thing on. I'm going to show you how
03:30smooth
03:31this thing is. Oh, did you hear that? That's like a click. This thing is still super slick, super nice,
03:37and you can tell exactly where you are. This is a very nice slick sort of unit. And we do
03:43actually
03:43like the fact that once you turn it off, you can't move it around. How many times have we gotten
03:49into a
03:50rig? We've got it in high or low, and we just stop and park it. And obviously these things don't
03:54come
03:54with emergency brakes or whatever. This is a nice fail-safe feature. The number five thing that we love
03:59about the Polaris Ranger XD-1500 Ultimate are the specs and numbers. TLDR of this is that all of
04:06those numbers help justify the other number that we were talking about before. $50,000 is a lot for
04:11a rig. However, all of these specs, honestly, give you your money's worth if you've got $50,000. We
04:16already talked about the 650 pounds of payload in the back, which is beyond respectable, and you get
04:213,500 pounds of towing capacity, which is above and beyond what most four-door cab models get. Add to
04:26that, you get 15 inches of ground clearance, which is one more than the Defender Max. And in back in
04:31the bed, which we already talked about, you get really nice things like the lock and ride system,
04:35which means that you can customize the bed to do all the things that you want to do with Polaris
04:40products, of course. And last but not least, it gets a 6,000-pound winch. Yes, you heard that
04:45correctly. I had to actually look that up and make sure that it wasn't a typo. They give you this
04:49really awesome key fob to use with the winch so that you can stand outside remotely and operate it,
04:53or you can use the classic switch here on the dash. However, I have to say,
04:57it's a lot cooler using the little fob here. All right, it's intermission time, kids. Like what
05:01you've seen so far? Like and subscribe. Crush that button down below. Oh, hold on. Shut up for a
05:06second, Anders. Do you want to win this side-by-side? Good news, you can, and it's completely free to
05:11enter. Our sponsor, DirtHammer.com, is giving away this 2023 Polaris Razor XP-1000. But it doesn't stop
05:18there because the guys at DirtHammer are going to be putting some killer mods on this thing. We're
05:23talking a new roll cage. We're talking bigger tires, suspension parts, the whole nine yards.
05:28And they're going to document the entire thing on their YouTube channel so that you can keep up with
05:33the build. All you have to do to enter is to make an account on their website. It's just an
05:37email,
05:37name, and general location. Want a better chance at winning? You get extra entries for spending money
05:42on their merch shop, making bids on live auctions, submitting listings, and even winning auctions.
05:47So head over to DirtHammer to get bidding. You could be the winner of a sparkly new Razor.
05:52Thank you so much to DirtHammer for sponsoring this video. Now, take it away, Anders.
05:55So that was five things we love. Now, we're going to talk about everybody's favorite,
05:58the five things we hate about the Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate. So the number one thing
06:04that we don't like, that we hate even, are the seatbelts. Now, these are inertia wheel seatbelts,
06:09which is very common in rec utes and so forth. But they don't seem to catch when you're out on
06:15the
06:15trails. Now, for farming and other sort of like work-related stuff, tasks and other stuff like
06:20that, it's probably not a big deal. But this is a $50,000 rig, and it is a lot of
06:25fun out on the
06:26trails and mud holes. And we noticed that when we were out at Windrock, that it wasn't kind of
06:30catching us in certain situations. Like, we even tried a couple of brake checks, and we couldn't get
06:34the seatbelts to really catch. Kind of not really confidence-inspiring. I'm sure that if we had some
06:39sort of incident or anything else, they might have worked just fine. However, it's one thing that we
06:44did kind of notice. That said, I don't spend a lot of time in the back seats of side-by
06:48-sides,
06:49and I have to say, this is really plush. There's even lumbar support. Okay, anyway, now back to the
06:53hate. And the number two thing that we hate about the Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate
06:58is the lack of a 10.4-inch TFT. When we were spending time in the Pro-R, we loved
07:04the big,
07:05giant, huge vertical screen. It allowed us to see whatever we were playing, calls we were getting,
07:10texts, alongside the Polaris Ride Command navigation system. Having a big, giant TFT would give us that
07:15split-screen capability, and it would just be that little extra thing that just kind of puts it
07:18a little bit over the hump, you know? Now, the number three thing that we hate about the Polaris
07:23Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate is the size. This thing sits at 164 inches, and that is 13.6
07:32feet.
07:32That is a lot of rig. One of the problems that we're having with it is that it doesn't fit
07:36on
07:36either of our 12-foot ramp techs. Our longest trailer is a 22-footer, and it's fine. However,
07:41we cannot fit this and then a small two-seater at the same time. The sheer size of this thing
07:47is a
07:48consideration for a buyer. How easily can you tow it around? You might have to upgrade your trailer
07:52game. And to be fair, this is the four-door, six-seater model, which is obviously an upgrade
07:58and is much bigger. The two-seater, no problem transporting anywhere. But the sheer size of this
08:03thing should give prospective buyers pause to think, how are they going to tow it around, and how are
08:07they going to get it to where they want to go? Now, the number four thing that we hate about
08:11the
08:11Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate is, wait for it, you knew this was coming, it's the price.
08:17Now, it starts at $49,999 for the six-seater, and if you upgrade to the camo, the Pursuit camo,
08:25you are sitting at $50,999. Given all the post-COVID inflation and so forth, and all these kind of
08:32things that we can't control, it's understandable that prices are nudging upwards. And you do get a
08:37lot for this rig. There are a lot of features. And personally, we, UTV driver, think that this thing
08:43is worth exactly what the MSRP is. I'm not an expert, I'm not a psychologist, but the difference
08:48between $49 and $50 is kind of a big one. It's going to give buyers pause. It's going to make
08:54people think twice when they step in the showroom and look at their wallet and think, can I really
08:59afford this? Do I really need it? Drum roll, please. And now the fifth thing that we hate about the
09:05Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate is, we're really trying hard to find things we hate about this
09:12thing. Now there's all sorts of like little nitpicky things, but none of those things really
09:16rose to the level of hating it. And we hate that we have to give it back. Polaris, can we
09:20keep it
09:20just a little bit longer, please, please, please, please? That's the five things we love about the
09:25Polaris Ranger XD-1500 North Star Ultimate, and the five things we hate about the Polaris Ranger XD-1500
09:31North Star Ultimate. Anyway, if you like what you have seen almost as much as we love this rig,
09:36you will hit like and subscribe. I believe the term is crush those buttons. After you're done with
09:41that, hit the comments section. We love comments, good or bad. It lets us know if we're doing all
09:46the things right. And when you're done with that, go to utvdriver.com. We have news, reviews,
09:51buyer's guides, weirdo, oddball news, five days a week. And when you're done with that, hit us up
09:55on the socials. We are on Instagram. We are on Facebook. We are on TikTok. And of course, YouTube.
10:01Thank you so much for watching. We will see you out on the trails. You're welcome, America.
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