To be blunt and honest because I hear Honda lurks on the forum, the poor marketing release is going to kill or cool peoples desire to buy, I'm a Honda fanboy and it severely chilled mine. Not everyone reads this forum, even if they should, not everyone goes looking for videos on youtube and listening to every second dissecting them to obtain barely referenced information. It needs to be on Honda's website or links to the youtube videos on Hondas website. With no marketing comparisons between the RZR and the X3 and no showy proof that its a good way to measure the size of your junk (speaking of the masses) it can't be sold for more if it can't beat the competition on paper or video, it doesn't matter how it performs in the woods until much later when word of mouth has grown and even then its has to be a mythical difference like a Bo Jackson story.
Polaris does the XP1k videos.
CanAM has good advertising.
Honda has a minivan...I mean surfer dude, sorry they pushed the Talon aside so quickly I only remembered the "well maintained State Park road" Minivan. They could have at least given the Talon to the MX guy and let him drive it and make a few jumps or taken it to MOAB or something.
Its not a turbo and it shouldn't be priced with them even if it has the i-4wd, even so I added $1000 for i-4wd to each to what I'd pay over what the RZR is going for.
With 6 less HP advertised than a RZR or X3 Honda can't sell a Talon for as much, only limited accessories are available, so reliability only carries so far (again masses), especially with the clutch update and recall debacles. I haven't tried to use my extended warranty yet but I hear its not worth the paper its printed on so Honda is at a Polaris level of customer service even if the machine is light years ahead in reliability. I wanted it to be like my experience with Acura, they would give Chick-fil-a a run for their money as the Golden Standard for Customer Service.
I genuinely hope its really as good as the whispers say but if its priced more than the RZR or priced with the 120HP CanAm, I personally will wait for the first year models to go on reduced pricing to move them off showrooms and out of warehouses, like I did my Pioneer and not pay full price anyway. Thats IF the Talon actually works like it is whispered to, theres no marketing from Honda showing it doing anything but piss poor driving by that old surfer dude with the pornstatche. If its priced with the CanAm and isn't as stable or doesn't perform like the whispers, I'll buy a Can-Am X3 to add to my stable before the end of the year. Forget the Popo its not a consideration for me, even if its the gold standard for the masses according to sales.
Talon-X? 14K you see the RZR1000 which seems to be what Honda is targeting at 18k MSRP but they usually sell for around 13-14k here, and since Honda doesn't allow reducing the price at the dealer it needs to be reduced at MSRP. The travel is less than the RZR1000( I know theres no considerable cost difference between the X and R parts but that is perception by the masses)
Talon-R? 15k for same reasons, but travel is equal to the RZR 1000
Yes that puts the Pioneer LE 3 seat at a $5k price disadvantage.
For comparison the MSRP of the non-LE Pioneer is about 25% less than a General but they SELL for about the same around here.
