Let me make things a little more difficult for you. I can provide testiment to how great a machine Honda makes. I ride ATV's for my job- so I'd say I spend roughly 40 hours a week riding ATV's for half of the year. Half of these days I put 60+ miles on my machine. The other three guys at work put on just as many or more miles. Three of us ride Honda Foreman 450's- two with the ESP option, the other a foot shift. The fourth guy rides a Kawasaki Prairie 650. For the first part of the summer, we spend much of the day climbing in and out of washes in the desert and bouncing over sagebrush. Temperatures much of the time reach 100 degrees. The Kawasaki Prairie 650 is an awesome machine, but such hard riding will cause it to over-heat from time to time. None of the Hondas have any issues at all.

The second part of the summer is even harder on the machines. We strap 25 gallon spray tanks onto the back racks and spray weeds on the side of the mountain and in the foothills all day. Temperatures are over 100 degrees, and the terrain is very rough. We crawl over boulders and logs, we jump small ditches, we ford creeks, we climb hills so steep that they cannot be driven up without the added weight of the spray, and we drive through the middle of the brush. Almost none of our time is spent on trails; we make our own. At least half our time spraying is spent with 3 wheels on the ground. After subjecting all four machines to such abuse for the entire summer, we took them in to get serviced. All three Hondas passed with near-clean bills of health, as they have since the business has owned them. They just needed their brakes tightened. The Kawi, on the other hand, is in need of some suspension repairs, and we cannot get the belt to stop whining because all of the hard work is too much for the automatic transmission. Only the manual transmissions of the Hondas are cut out for that much abuse. If it weren't for the lack of a title, the Kawasaki would have been traded in for a new Honda months ago.

Just for reference, the Hondas are all different ages. One is a 99, one is a 2000, and one is a 2004. The 99 and 2000 have several thousand miles on them and look like they've been through a war zone. Both have been wrecked multiple times. The 2004 has only been rolled once into a ravine, so it still looks presentable. My personal machine that I ride when not working is a 2003 Kawasaki Prairie 650, and it opperates flawlesly because I only use it for ice fishing and trail riding.

The moral of the story: While they may not be as plush a ride as the Yamahas, Kawasakis, and other machines, they are much more cut out for work and will last a lot longer. The automatic transmissions of the competitors just don't cut it, even if they are great machines. And ground clearance is not that important so long as you have a good set of skid plates and you know how to ride.

No doubt others will disagree, but these have been my experiences and observations. I'm not a professional ATV tester by any means. Just someone who spends a lot of time riding.