UTV Driver Test 404 Page by UTV Driver - Dailymotion

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00:00If you've ever been at a local college campus, at a sports stadium, or just seen your local

00:04groundskeeper running around the neighborhood, you've probably seen this side-by-side. For the

00:07uninformed, this is the 2025 Kubota Sidekick. It's a no-nonsense, pure utility rig that anyone can

00:13make use of. And these rigs are everywhere, but why? For starters, it's almost impossible to find

00:18a utility side-by-side with the same specs as the Sidekick for the price. The model behind me came

00:23off the lot at just $18,099, but you can get one as low as $14,699, unless you want the absolute

00:29base model Ranger or Defender, you're not going to find that price anywhere else. But what do you get

00:34for that price, and is it worth it? We're going to run through everything about this rig and tell you

00:39why it's at almost every job site in America, and we're going to start with the engine. Now, the 2025

00:44Kubota Sidekick is powered by this 54-horsepower, two-cylinder gas engine. Now, while Kubotas are

00:50known for being underpowered, this engine actually makes more power than the base model Defender and

00:54the Ranger 570. That power gets routed through a traditional CVT. If you've ever driven a side-by-side

00:59like this, you might have thought that it was slow and unexciting. That's not the case with the

01:03Kubota Sidekick. Even with a top speed of only 40 miles per hour, it still feels quick and powerful.

01:08It's absolutely no slouch, and it's a great way to get around the farm. Now, we could keep going

01:13through the spec sheet and tell you everything about the suspension components and all that,

01:16but we think that's a bit boring. So let's look at some of the details that we love about this rig.

01:20Like we said earlier, this thing is no-nonsense. Every control in the cab is simple and intuitive.

01:25I mean, look at this diff control. It's literally just a pedal, and you lock it by holding this

01:30cable. And this shifter is big and heavy. You can actually feel confident when you change gears.

01:37The parking brake is an actual lever that you can feel work. And the diff control is this lever by

01:42my foot. Again, we love this because on every other side-by-side, it's a button that tells you

01:47you're in two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. But with this, you can actually feel the transfer case

01:51work. These buttons are nice and satisfying, and each one tells you exactly what it does. There's

01:56absolutely no guessing, and you've got a horn. Next up is this hydraulic dump bed.

02:06For almost every other utility side-by-side, the dump bed is hydraulic-assisted. That means that when

02:11it's fully loaded, you almost have to shoulder-press the bed to get it to tilt. And that's not the case

02:16with the sidekick, as it utilizes electric controls to tilt the hydraulic bed. All you have to do is

02:21press this button, and you can tilt up to a thousand pounds without a sweat. Speaking of the bed, this

02:26rig comes with a factory bed liner. It's also metal. Both of those things are a massive upgrade from most

02:32manufacturers who ship their side-by-sides with a plastic bed. While those beds are durable, and will

02:37usually last the lifetime of a rig, a metal bed with a bed liner is simply just more durable. As you can see,

02:43we've been using it to haul gravel, and it's still holding up. A bed liner expands the types of cargo

02:48you can haul, and is as tough as the day is long. Now, upon first glance of this rig, one thing stands

02:53out. Its size. It's tiny, and it feels tiny. Weighing in at 1,761 pounds, almost anything can tow it. All you

03:02have to do is throw it on a yard trailer, and you're good to go. And that's hard to find with other rigs,

03:07with some getting up to 2,500 pounds. That's approaching the weight of some passenger cars. But don't let

03:12small size fool you. The 2025 Kubota Sidekick can tow and haul almost as much as everything else.

03:17It's got a 2,000 pound towing capacity, and a 1,000 pound bed capacity. 600 in California, but we won't

03:23hold that against it. Now, the fancy Can-Am Defender Lone Star can tow 2,500 pounds. That's a $20,000

03:29difference, and you're only losing about 500 pounds of towing capacity. And remember the steel bed we

03:34talked about earlier? It can dump all 1,000 pounds of that capacity through the electric assist. Trust us,

03:39we've tested it. Other rigs might have that same capacity, but if you try to dump 1,000 pounds in

03:44an only hydraulic assisted bed, you're going to be shoulder pressing it. Good luck dumping a half ton

03:49in anything without an electric assist. If you can do it, send us a video. We actually want to see

03:54proof. Now, if you think a rig this cheap misses out on accessories, you'd be dead wrong. This gets

03:59this plastic roof and a poly windshield to keep bugs out of your face. Moving on to the front bumper,

04:03you'll notice this worn VRX45 winch. Pull out shrubs, get farm equipment out of sticky situations,

04:09or anything else you could use a winch for. A winch is endlessly useful, and getting one on this

04:14rig for the price is a very welcome feature. And the last feature, this light bar. Ask any Jeep

04:19person, you can never go wrong with a light bar. The best part is that you don't have to get this trim

04:24to get any of these features. You can start with the base model that starts at $14,699 and configure

04:30it however you need. Don't need this windshield? Toss it and grab another accessory. The Kubota

04:35website makes it extremely easy to configure the sidekick, and you can see how different

04:39accessories look in real time. Now, are there some things we don't like about it? Sure, it's painfully

04:43obvious that this thing does one thing and one thing only, and that is work. You'd be making a

04:48mistake taking this to any trail that isn't just a gravel road. Windrock or Moab are completely out of

04:54the question, unless you're there for trail maintenance. But does all that matter? We don't think so,

04:58because this rig does its one job extremely well. It's one of the hardest workers you'll find on the

05:03market, and it outworks anything else in its class. Plus, it's hard to find something this good for

05:08under $20,000. And all that is the thought behind the Kubota Sidekick. It's behind the scenes doing the

05:14work, making everything we do possible. Trail maintenance, trash pickup, groundskeepers, they're all

05:20in a Kubota. You won't see them on the trails as much or in the viral clips, but they're just about

05:24everywhere else. This makes millions of jobs in America just a little bit easier. So next time

05:29you go to buy a utility side-by-side, don't sleep on the Kubota Sidekick. Did you know about this

05:33little worker? Let us know in the comments. Then do us a favor, like and subscribe. When you're done

05:38doing that, head to our website at utvdriver.com, where we have news, reviews, and buyer's guides.

05:43We're also on all the social media. That's Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. We will see you there.

The most popular side-by-side you’ve NEVER heard of

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