My Wife and I went to Patton PA on Saterday to drive the long antisapated Commander. I drove two different Models, an XT and then the X. The X was by far the better handleing machine in my opinion. Good shocks make all the difference on offroad. The XT was more Utility like were as the X was as expected more on the Sport side. The fit and trim on both machines was very well done with attension to detail. The cockpit was very confortable and the ergonmics was also good. The power was way better than I expected from a UTV. I took a very close look at how it was designed and built. The welding on the machine was top notch with goods penatration. I was impressed with how it was done with the exception of a few things. Number one it needs power steering for where I ride. The front "A" arms and tie rods were on the light duty side as I expected at least 1" DOM on the arms and 5/8" OD on the tie rods for the weight and size of the Commander. The rear arms were built much better. Although the braking was Impressive a fourth caliper on the left rear wheel is needed to take the load off of the CVs and drive train to reduce ware. Overall it appears to be an easy machine to work on as everything seems to be accessable. Now on to the dirve. The cource was a very tight and twisty up and down hill thru the Woods. I felt its was the perfect test run area. I tried the X in all modes and found that the best setup was 2 wheel drive in sport mode with gearbox in High. I was able to slide it at will and did not feel it was top heavy (one of my concerns). The steering was harder (more so in 4 wheel drive) than I expected. It wood be fine for desert and dunes however for tight high speed woods driving you could easyly get into trouble. The power is very good and consistant with a typical CVT setup. Overall I feel this would be a machine I would buy. I currently own a full sized Woods buggy that is a completly different animal than a SxS and are not in the same catagory. At this point I am not convinced I would give up the Buggy for a SxS however the Jurys still out on that. Odds are when there is enough Empircal data to pull from and it meets the low maintence and breakdown minimum I will be buying one next year. Of cource I have to finish the Pilot first!
