Home » I Have A Press-Loaner Polaris Ranger XD 1500: What The Hell Should I Do With It?

I Have A Press-Loaner Polaris Ranger XD 1500: What The Hell Should I Do With It?

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I’m very interested in the space of vehicles that aren’t exactly cars, but, at the same time, really are very much cars. Things like the Changli fit into this blurry gray space, and the whole class of side-by-side utility vehicles – sometimes called UTVs (Utility Task Vehicle, or something) – definitely fit in here, too. I was just loaned a very exciting Polaris Ranger XD 1500, which is one of these kinds of vehicles. So what the hell should I do with this thing?

I realize these are primarily intended to be off-road work vehicles, ideally in places like farms or ranches or cult compounds or dilithium mines or off-road trails or stuff like that, but I don’t really have anything like that handy. I have a house with a yard and two driveways, both of delicious, chunky gravel, but it’s hardly enough to justify something as capable as this Ranger.

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What I’m thinking is that for the time I have it, I’ll just try and use it like a normal car. Because, really, it seems as capable as one – it has a 1500cc inline-three engine making a shockingly good 110 horsepower, over twice what my normal daily driver Nissan Pao makes, with an engine about 500cc bigger.

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That engine is also located under the bed, ahead of the rear axle, making this one of the vanishingly few mid-engine ICE pickups you can get in America today.

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This thing is no joke; I took it for a test spin and found that it’s shockingly comfortable and smooth to drive. I went over these huge speed bumps my neighborhood has – called, goofily, “speed tables” – without braking at all and it just glided over like I was on a sheet of plywood with a bunch of cubic feet of marshmallow fluff sprayed underneath it.

I got it up to about 50 mph or so, and it did great. The cabin is comfortable and has power windows and a heater and, get this, three speedometers for some baffling reason.

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Oh oh oh get this – the bed tilts, like a dump truck!

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Now, these things are not cheap: I think this one goes for about $40 grand. This is real car money.

So what do you want to know about this thing? What do you want to see me do with it, given that I don’t feel like getting a trailer for it, and I’m in a college town, and I’m willing to take it on the roads.

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At first, I was just going to take it on the roads with my usual cavalier and idiotic lack of consideration of the law, but as it turns out, these seem to be street-legal in North Carolina!

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If the beautiful mountains and lovely beaches that birthed aviation and being the home of O.Henry, Edward R. Murrow, singer Libba Cotten, and ex-Globetrotter Curly Neal aren’t enough for you, then you have to admire North Carolina’s delightfully permissive automotive laws.

I have a tiny and oddly capable little truck. Tell me what you want to know about it!

 

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Ossipon
Ossipon
7 days ago

Do what Mr Beast did when he desecrated that Lambo. Oh Wait, you are just loaned the it to review. That would certainly test its mettle against duct tape.

Gene1969
Gene1969
7 days ago

Side by side comparison with the Pao. Which is more practical, and which is more fun?

Canopysaurus
Canopysaurus
7 days ago

You can legally drive on the beach around Kill Devil Hills from Oct 1 to Apr 30. You need a permit from the town, but it’s readily available on line. December 17 is the anniversary of the Wright Brothers seminal flight. If you’ve got the loaner that long, it’d be cool to commemorate that event with a dash along the sands they overflew. Make it an Autopian meet up and get Mercedes to fly in, too.

Grey alien in a beige sedan
Grey alien in a beige sedan
7 days ago

tow rope and trailer hitch… play tug of war with the Chang Li, and then with an F-150.

getstoney VII
getstoney VII
7 days ago

Hot Tub.

Sid Bridge
Sid Bridge
7 days ago

So many great things we could do here.

  1. How many pistachios does the bed hold?
  2. Can you drive it into the library, check out a book and leave?
  3. How good is that bed for mixing pudding?
  4. Would it look as sharp in red fingerpaint?
  5. ChangLi Tug-of-War!
  6. How great would it work delivering pizza to hungry deer hunters?
  7. Can you… you know… in it?
  8. Slap a few different badges on the front and see how people’s reactions change. (What? That’s a Honda? You should have told me RAM made these!)
  9. Measure the tensile strength of its various parts while blasting the funkiest music possible to see what kind of pure funk it can absolutely handle.
Maymar
Maymar
7 days ago
Reply to  Sid Bridge

Fill with shrimp, find out if you can entice enough sketchy bed shrimp to empty it before it turns (I mean, I might’ve ate sketchy bed shrimp as a broke college student)?

Rollin Hand
Rollin Hand
7 days ago
Reply to  Sid Bridge

10. Bed full of shrimp, cocktail sauce in the cupholders.

Last edited 7 days ago by Rollin Hand
TimoFett
TimoFett
7 days ago

Suggestions just for Jason:
See how the bed holds up to a chainsaw.
See how it holds up in a collision with venison.
Setup a ramp and jump it over the changli.
See if it is equipped with full self driving.
Use it to check your mailbox.
Invite David over to do some mud bogging in your backyard.

ESO
ESO
7 days ago

Take Otto to school every day in it!

Gene1969
Gene1969
7 days ago
Reply to  ESO

This!

Parsko
Parsko
7 days ago
Reply to  Gene1969

This!

One More Last Chance
One More Last Chance
7 days ago

Put it in the back of your F-150, take it up to the mountains and have a good time. There has to be some great trails/roads around you or maybe a dedicated off-road area. Strap Otto in the seat (with a helmet of course) and let it rip. You will not be able to wash the smile off your face for days. These things are super annoying unless you’re the one behind the wheel. Take full advantage.

D-dub
D-dub
7 days ago

I can not even imagine trading forty thousand dollars for something like this. People is dumb.

Rippstik
Rippstik
7 days ago
Reply to  D-dub

You are not the target market for this…ranchers are.

Matt Sexton
Matt Sexton
7 days ago
Reply to  Rippstik

Ranchers might be the target market for these, but I assure you there are TONS of people buying these because “ain’t it cool”. There’s at least three of these in my neighborhood that I can think of off the top of my head, and our lots are all about an acre. Every so often my neighbor gets his out and drives it to the back yard with logs or something, I think just to justify having it. And we don’t have road-legal UTV laws where I live.

These things are as much as a real car and I have no idea what people here “need” them for other than they apparently make too much money.

Red865
Red865
6 days ago
Reply to  Matt Sexton

My neighbor has two of these….one for him, one for wife…room for all their kids..idk how many.
They frequently go tearing around our neighborhood in these for fun, go to Sonic, Idk.
Did I mention we live in an older downtown urban area? Qtr. acre lots.
He does load them up on a big flatbed trailer pulled by his obnoxiously loud F350 and go riding somewhere, coming back with them covered in mud.
I’m sure they all have a blast!
He’s a mechanic at local Cadillac dealer.

Last edited 6 days ago by Red865
V10omous
V10omous
7 days ago
Reply to  D-dub

Polaris is a lot like Porsche, the options list is extremely long and extremely lucrative for them.

Here’s a brand new Ranger for $13,999.

https://www.windycitymc.com/New-Inventory-2024-Polaris-Utility-Vehicle-Ranger-1000-EPS-Polaris-Villa-Park-15316785?ref=list

Fix It Again Tony
Fix It Again Tony
7 days ago
Reply to  D-dub

How are the depreciation on these things?

Rippstik
Rippstik
7 days ago

Better than you’d expect. The move for SXS’s, imo, is to buy a 2008 Yamaha Rhino for 5K, have fun with it, and sell it for 5K.

Gene1969
Gene1969
7 days ago
Reply to  D-dub

Tax write off

Iotashan
Iotashan
7 days ago

See if you can convince your local DMV that it’s a Kei vehicle and get some plates

JurassicComanche25
JurassicComanche25
7 days ago

Will it baby?

This vs changli on errands

This vs changli on how many of ottos friends it can transport

Will it wheelie?

Can it date night?

MaximillianMeen
MaximillianMeen
7 days ago

How close are you to the Tail of the Dragon?

Gene1969
Gene1969
7 days ago

He’s on the other side of the state but that would be hilarious!

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
7 days ago

“That engine is also located under the bed, ahead of the front axle” ???
Oh, the trouble my younger self would get into with that!
Looks like a 4 kegger!

Last edited 7 days ago by Hoonicus
Who Knows
Who Knows
7 days ago

Find some construction sites to offroad around, get it airborne. Use it as an uber for drunk college kids, put them in the bed, and literally dump them out at their destination.

Nic Periton
Nic Periton
7 days ago

Up here in the missing bit of the world my 28 tear old neighbour, who is a real proper hill farmer made one of the UK versions of this upside down in less than a minute. Now you have a target to aim for!

IanGTCS
IanGTCS
7 days ago
Reply to  Nic Periton

The president of my company is a full send type of person. He has had his upside down many times, although not quite that quickly.

He has also come back from an ATV trip with one wheel in the bed and others with it hanging on for dear life.

Nic Periton
Nic Periton
7 days ago
Reply to  IanGTCS

There is always one, Keith rides about on old ATV things all day,always open and with a sheepdog on the back. I think the shock of a farm tool that costs more than his house did was the trigger. That and his delicious bride to be giving some encouragement.

JaredTheGeek
JaredTheGeek
7 days ago

Changli Comparison, handling, drag race, features.

Arrest-me Red
Arrest-me Red
7 days ago
Reply to  JaredTheGeek

I was thinking drag race with the fleet.

Dr Buford
Dr Buford
7 days ago

They’re legal all over WV and MI. You can’t take them on the freeway or any large divided highways, but they’re the go-to choice in the rural areas I haunt.

You’ll need a license plate and insurance and I’m guessing you’re fucked if you get into a time/space continuum disagreement w an F-150.

Jdoubledub
Jdoubledub
7 days ago
Reply to  Dr Buford

Turns out F-150 matter can exist at the same time and place as the matter of the Polaris.

D-dub
D-dub
7 days ago
Reply to  Jdoubledub

Talk about entangled particles though!

Hoonicus
Hoonicus
7 days ago
Reply to  D-dub

You keep your spooky action at a distance!

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
7 days ago
Reply to  Jdoubledub

I didn’t realize they were bosons.

Arch Duke Maxyenko
Arch Duke Maxyenko
7 days ago

Body swap it with the Chang-li and see if they notice?

I_drive_a_truck
I_drive_a_truck
7 days ago

Beat me to it. Nice

Drive By Commenter
Drive By Commenter
7 days ago

“It’ll go places you can’t even walk!”

Lockleaf
Lockleaf
7 days ago

People actually do this with VW Beetle bodies over UTVs to make street legal UTVs.

Chronometric
Chronometric
7 days ago

It’s faster, safer, and costlier than half my cars! Are there any ATV trails nearby? Take Otto and let him drive it.

NC Miata NA
NC Miata NA
7 days ago
Reply to  Chronometric

The closest legal trails would be about 90 minutes from JT although the entire trip there and back on a route limited to roads 55 mph or less would probably be just as interesting.

BeemerBob
BeemerBob
7 days ago
Reply to  NC Miata NA

Yeah, but he and Otto could spend the whole day out there (Uwharrie National Forest) riding their 20 miles of trails. That would be awesome!

T-wrecks
T-wrecks
7 days ago

Does it have traction control? Can you turn it off? Can it do a burnout? How long are the tire tracks it leaves? These are immature questions to ask, but crucially, they are very stupid too.

Fuzzyweis
Fuzzyweis
7 days ago

Swap out the Pao’s motor for it and act befuddled when they question what happened?

Clear_prop
Clear_prop
7 days ago

Wheelbarrow full of shrimp II: The UTV Takeover.

V10omous
V10omous
7 days ago

It’s probably not street legal without side mirrors and turn signals at a minimum.

SxS usually require some modifications to be streetable, even where they are “legal”.

Cloud Shouter
Cloud Shouter
7 days ago

Drive it to California.

ESO
ESO
7 days ago
Reply to  Cloud Shouter

For David’s wedding!

Greg
Greg
7 days ago
Reply to  Cloud Shouter

Ha this was going to be my answer too. Cross-country road trip, David’s new wedding car!

ESO
ESO
7 days ago
Reply to  Greg

One that actually runs and isn’t literally dissolving into rust particles right before his eyes 🙂

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