Do you actually need a $50,000 side-by-side?

UTV Driver

Powerful rigs are in the news every day, and it feels like they just keep getting more expensive. So while looking at the 2026 Can-Am Maverick R Max sitting in our shop, we had the question, "Is all that power and capability actually worth it?" To find out, we took it and a 2026 Polaris General XP4 1000 Ultimate to Windrock Park. Will they both survive trail 22?  Become a Channel Partner: https://octanemedia.co/home/become-an-advertiser/ Looking to buy? Get prequalifed https://octane.co/vehicle-selection/?partner=A8PrQQB&a=298&flow=long-prequal&appTheme=3a49337c5724d18079602a4ca5a91626 Favorite Gear:  Packtalk Edge ORV: Code 'octane' for 10% off https://cardosystems.rfrl.co/z8qy5  For more stories, reviews, and first-looks check out https://www.utvdriver.com/   Want to see even more shenanigans from the UTV Driver team? Give us a like and follow:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UTVdriver/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utvdrivermagazine/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/utvdriver/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@utvdriver

Transcript

00:00Andres, side-by-sides are expensive aren't they? They sure are. So the two rigs sitting behind us

00:04have a grand total of $80,000 together and if you couldn't tell one of them is a little bit

00:10expensive than the other. So on my side we have the 2026 Can-Am Maverick R-Max XRS with smart

00:17shocks. So MSRP on this thing is $49,199 without the smart shocks. With smart shocks you're going

00:24to bump that up about two grand. Andres what does yours cost? Mine cost $31,999. That's the MSRP

00:32and fun note that has not changed in three years. So classic lines classic MSRP. That is quite a big

00:40difference and I guess like one of the bigger questions we're going to try to answer on this

00:43very cold actually very pretty day here at Windrock is is this $18,000 more fun than this classic

00:50general? I would say in terms of fun I don't think there's that big of a difference. In terms

00:55of capability I think there is and I think we're going to see that today. We're on trail 22 here

00:59at

00:59Windrock. It's one of our favorite trails. We call it the proving grounds because we take almost every

01:04side-by-side we test here. Now there's a few obstacles that we're going to see side-by-side

01:08which one performs better. There's a few lines that I want to take with this that you might not be

01:12able

01:12to take with that and about halfway through the trail we're going to swap rigs and see which one we

01:17like better and if you actually need a $50,000 side-by-side or if the general will do. I'm

01:22kind

01:23of a rec-ute guy. I love recreation. I love utility. I think you're going to get about 75 to

01:2780 percent

01:28of this thing's capabilities. I'm going to be using 100 percent of this thing's and you know what I'm

01:32going to even put on a bet here. If I get stuck anywhere I wash both rigs when we get

01:36back. Perfect.

01:37Sounds like a deal. I will shake on that. All right. Let's do it. All right. We'll see you on

01:40the trail.

01:41All righty. We're about to take off. Andres is going to lead in the general and then we're going to

01:46sit

01:46back and enjoy the trail because mine is a little bit better. Right, Unders?

01:52I see what you're doing there. Yeah. I wanted to like trick them into agreeing with me.

01:57The conventional wisdom is that that man right there has got the sporty side-by-side, the one

02:02that's all fun and everything. But he only gets to use about 80 percent of his. I get to use

02:06100 percent

02:07of mine. So.

02:13All right. So really one of the fun things is that this thing has got 30s, 30-inch tires.

02:19That is going to make our job today a lot easier and a lot more fun.

02:23Especially nice for people who like to get sideways. Not only because it likes to get sideways,

02:30but it is rather controllable when it's sideways. Thanks to the tall knuckle suspension, the 78-inch

02:37width. Like it's massive. Everybody knows the side-by-sides. If you go too fast around a corner,

02:42spin out or something, you're not going to spin out. You're going to end up on your side because

02:47side-by-sides are top-heavy. Not with this thing. I would be more worried about spinning out than I

02:52would flipping over. It's just because it's so wide. And by God, on these tighter trails,

02:58that width is felt. And we've got a really nice walker and shocks. And that's kind of keeping

03:03everything, you know, from bottoming out. I have still not hit a skid plate yet. Let's see if we

03:08can do something about that. Still haven't hit anything yet. I am in the three figures as far

03:13as horsepower goes. I've got 100 ponies underneath me. And honestly, I don't feel like I'm missing

03:18anything here. Ooh, first big test for Anders. Which lines you got to take?

03:26See, one thing about the Mav-R, I don't really have to worry about my line. I can just go

03:31wherever I want to go. Honestly, the steering is great. Throttle response, I'll bet you anything,

03:37this thing is throttle by cable. I'm sorry. There's kind of a little bit of a lag.

03:46Whoa, all right. Now we're kind of getting a little bit of sideways here. I feel that little

03:51lean angle there. One, one. All right. One thing I will say about driving it out here on the East

03:59Coast where there's a lot of mud puddles. To say it doesn't really have fenders, you are going to get

04:05blasted with mud. 225 horsepower, which is what I believe gauge has got in the Mav-R. That's all

04:13really great, but it's going through a triple and it's going through a turbocharger. And although

04:18it winds up real quick, honestly, right here, all you really need and want is a big grunty twin.

04:25I have everything like under control. I'm having a great time. See, this is where, this is where

04:30wind rock gets really fun. There we go. Put it in four by four. Get over these. Yeah, it rocks.

04:49A lot of water. And on a cold day like today, it's not super great. It's all right. It'll dry

04:55off.

04:56It's wearing Carhartt for a reason, you know? Honestly, like hitting the brake pedal is like

05:00sending a fax. It just takes forever. It's mushy. You don't really get any kind of real

05:06feedback. Now, I know that like obviously side-by-sides don't really need brakes in the same way.

05:13Other vehicles, yada, yada, yada. Even by UTV standards, these brakes are really just kind of

05:19mushy and so-and-so. It's like a marshmallow party. Oh, there we go.

05:26Oh, wow. You're right.

05:30The engine is really planted. I'm going to leave Gabe in the dust here. I am putting time

05:35between me and him, and I'll bet you that I am having a hundred percent as much fun as

05:41he's having going basically only 78 or so, I would say.

05:47So a few things about the map are, obviously debuted in 2024. It was the most powerful side-by-side

05:54in the world at that time. It dethroned Polaris' 225 horsepower out of the Pro-R with its 240

06:00horsepower. Now, that was out of a 999cc turbocharged triple. Two years later, it was dethroned by the

06:08Kawasaki Terex H2. Take that with a grain of salt. I'm not saying it has no horsepower or it's been

06:16dethroned, or you should just go buy an H2. 240 is a lot of horsepower. And Anders is cruising along.

06:23Now, it's really funny. Everybody talks about the General being so old. You know, 2016, so it is kind

06:30of old, but it's not that old. And the four-seater that we're in right now actually dates back to

06:352017.

06:35So that's really only like nine years. It's sort of like kind of like a bank, you know? Banks have

06:41like pillars and they're supposed to be kind of old-timey, you know, to sort of convey a level

06:45of trust. So this is definitely kind of got that sort of like utilitarian, utility, rec-ute sort of

06:52like look. It doesn't look like an angry transformer like the MAMR does, obviously.

06:56In a lot of rigs, 240 horsepower would be absolutely unusable. People upgrade their rigs all the time,

07:04turbocharge them, get more horsepower out of them. But anyone who's ever upgraded a car knows that

07:09horsepower isn't everything. So we're getting just basically just throttling it and just sort

07:13of pointing it at danger and hitting the gas. I do have to kind of like thread my way through

07:18some

07:18of this stuff. I can't just go sort of full, full, full send. Honestly, with these 30s, I'm having a

07:25great time. Great success. We haven't tipped anything yet. So I've got a 64-inch width.

07:32Well, I am feeling all of this a little bit more than Gage probably is because he's got,

07:36I want to say, 78 inches from wheel to wheel. Well, he's kind of like a spider kind of just

07:43crawling over all this stuff. I'm sort of like a big bumbling sort of cockroach just kind

07:48of like making my way through all this stuff. This seat is really, really comfortable.

07:54Maybe that's the secret behind the suspension. You know, I've been in high this entire time

07:58and I feel like it's just perfectly fine. So what do you think? Dude, you were killing

08:04it. That was, that was pretty impressive. There was a few bits there where I was like,

08:08that's a little spicy. The general handled that just fine. I will say, love that thing

08:14to death. Man, it rocks you around. I never get car sick, but there was a little bit there where

08:20I

08:21was like, I might need to stop for a second. Oh, this thing is filthy. Hate to be the person

08:26who has to clean this. Spoiler alert. It's me. Andres, that was fun, but that was a lot of fun.

08:32I don't know if you can see, but there is quite a big difference between myself and you. It looks

08:36really good on you, by the way. I want to say that's because I was driving at 10 tenths and

08:41Andres

08:41was driving at four tenths. That, that math doesn't work. I don't think. But that's not the case.

08:45The case is that Andres had fenders and I didn't. That was really all that was. And I was going

08:50a

08:50little bit faster for a bit there. So I hit a lot more puddles, but yeah, you're a little bit

08:54cleaner.

08:55So how did the, how did the general do? This thing is great. I had a great time. I felt

08:59like there was

08:59nothing I couldn't take on. I mean, I was like, obviously, you know, the notes, like what I was talking

09:03when I was driving. You know, honestly, there was nothing on trail 22 that we hit that I was like,

09:07oh shoot,

09:08I shouldn't hit that. Or like, oh, like no pucker moments really at all. There was a few times while

09:13I was following you where I was like, man, that is spicy. See, I knew it. I was trying to

09:17impress

09:17you and it worked. Yeah. I was worried for a second, but I mean, it doesn't have the suspension

09:22travel, but like, it'll still keep you on the trail. Yeah. It bounced around a lot, but I feel

09:28like the center of gravity on that thing is so low that like, for the most part, when you're going

09:31over

09:32that stuff, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't get nearly enough credit. Now I don't like have a spec sheet

09:36in front of me. I'm going to guess 12 to 13 inches. I want to say, yeah, 12 to 14

09:41is what I remember.

09:42Honestly, if you told me it was 18, I'd believe you. I mean, the main thing is that this is

09:4564 inches

09:46versus 78 inches. You're like a spider crawling over like anything. And this thing is, you got to pick

09:52your lines. One thing I noticed was that that was a lot more maneuverable than this. Yeah. Where I could

09:58see you actually going through your mind and like going through your processes about which line to pick.

10:03Yeah. Where I just kind of had to point that thing at the trail and hope for the best. The

10:06best I

10:07certainly hoped for, it didn't really turn out too well because I ended up with a flat tire. See,

10:12but that means this works. That's what we're supposed to do. You send a 10 out of 10 and look

10:17at that.

10:17We are finding the engineering limits. Yeah. And I think the big reason for the flat tire was just

10:22because I couldn't pick a line. I was going through the trail. First of all, how long this thing is.

10:27Second of all, how wide it is. And I couldn't really go around the trail how I wanted to. And

10:33because of that, my back end ended up catching stuff that I didn't want it to catch, which is

10:37the main advantage of a 64 inch rig. I think you got a flat tire because you were trying too

10:41hard.

10:42You were trying to impress me. I get it. Listen. I wanted to make it look good for the camera.

10:46What

10:46can I say? Okay. So should you actually buy a $50,000 rig? Uh, to me, I think it depends.

10:52I don't think so. I think $18,000 buys a lot of adult refreshments and stake. Honestly,

10:57I don't feel like I had $18,000 less fun. Is that the right math? Anyway, I think that this

11:04thing was

11:04perfectly fine. Listen, like we're not, you know, like this isn't King of the Hammers, yada, yada,

11:08yada, yada. I think that this thing is perfect. Yeah. That's Otter's opinion on it. My opinion on it

11:13is that it depends. I think this thing is great, especially out here on trail 22 at Winterrock. I would

11:18rather have something else than the Maverick car. I'm going to be completely honest with you.

11:22I don't know. It's more fun to do more with less. It's more fun to drive a slow car fast

11:28than a fast

11:28car slow. That's what they say. General, it's really more of a generalist, which is kind of a boring

11:33term, but it kind of really sort of does everything sort of well. Yeah. I mean, it's a rec-ute.

11:36That's

11:36what rec-utes do. They're very great at doing just about anything you want them to do. Maybe it just

11:41comes down to, it's not the ride. It's the driver. You know, you're a sport man. I'm more of a

11:46rec-ute man.

11:47Yeah. That was one of our favorite trails at Windrock, but I got to get you back when we're out

11:50west and see which one we'd prefer then. You know, it's little apples and oranges, but this

11:54is America. We can enjoy both. Thank you so much for watching. If you liked this video,

11:58go down below, hit like, comment. Comment away. We love comments. Comments actually make the world

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12:07create more content like this. And when you're done doing that, hit subscribe, go to utvdriver.com,

12:12where we have news, reviews, and buyer's guides five days a week. And on all of our socials,

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12:20We will see you out on the trail. You're welcome, America.

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