A ten-year-old sled, if you can find a really good one, represents good value and can provide comfort and reliability at a fraction of the price of a new sled. If you’re looking for used iron, here’s a few suggestions in no particular order:
2009 was the first year for Ski-Doo 4-TEC MX-Zs and Rennies but the designers seemed to have gotten it pretty close to right from the beginning.
The big EFI (single throttle body) 1170cc triple was housed in a widened version of the XP chassis called the XR. Although this was a dimensionally large powerplant and not a lightweight, its huge displacement delivered immense torque and that’s what Ski-Doo owners wanted. These sleds could pull up past the 100-mph mark and sit there all day long.
Riding Ski-Doos with 4-TECs was a challenge sometimes because of throttle lag issues that caused the sled to lurch forward in slow to off-idle situations if you weren’t feather-light on the throttle.
Ski-Doo owners crow about the reliability of the 4-TEC and the only complaint we hear is primary clutch sliders needing to be replaced every 3,000 miles and track failures around 10K. These sleds were good on gas, dead reliable, reasonably light for 4-strokes and there are more than a few owners who went back and bought a second or third one.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s a 120-inch MX-Z XR or a 137-inch XR Renegade, we highly recommend this as a used sled purchase.
Most used ones will have high mileage, however, because owners tended to keep them a long time and ride them a lot.
Check maintenance records and, if it’s been looked after, probably has a lot more miles left in it. This is a sled you can buy with 10K on it and still have something worth keeping.
Our rating: 4.5 out of 5.
