Unless your hauling or doing heavy rancher/farmer work anything over 500cc's is not required in ATV. It adds weight and expense for the lack of real usage. Weight may not seem like a big issue but trust me bury her stick and berries deep in a mud bog and you'll be glad you have less to worry about. I also reccomend a 2000lbs winch for that very reason, make sure it free wheels so you can pull it out to hook up not have to run it out. Tires can be the big equalizer if your in wet terrain scrap the factory nubs for a set of good lugs and you'll find your smaller cc engine will do better than the bigboys. If you do require a big ccer put a 3000-3500lbs winch on it, as you must take in account the weight of being stuck, atv and rider..with lots of cable..hehe.

I own a polaris 400 sportsman it hasn't let me down. However in all honesty if I had to buy new it would be: Honda and Yamie in that order. I have owned Hondas (still have a 400 foreman) and they have been excellent. I know many who own yamie's as well and no real problems. For me a 4x4 atv is a must and wouldn't even consider a 2x4. I used bigreds, while they ran n' ran with only a oil change and gas they sure caused some headaches.
All ATV's will cost you money to own and operate so be prepared to dish out 15 bucks for a little air filter & so on[:@] but if you take care of them and do PM work they will take care of you.

I agree this is usually a heated debate[]