By Lane Lindstrom
We've known about Kymco's fuel-injected UXV side-by-side for months-just as many of you have-but were somewhat impatiently waiting for a chance to test drive one. We finally got to take the Kymco UXV 500i IRS 4x4 for a spin and the wait was worth it.
After four days of riding and testing the carbureted UXV on the rocks, dirt and cliffs of Moab, UT, this past summer we gave Dirt Toys Magazine readers our impressions of those models in the Fall 2011 ("Kymco UXV Just Plain Works, Dirt Toys Magazine, Fall 2011, page 30) issue of the magazine. As summer turned to fall we were getting anxious to get some seat time on the fuel-injected model.
That happened this fall, thanks to Dustin Sweeten, owner of Powerhouse Motorsports, a Kymco dealer in Pleasant Grove, UT. Sweeten provided us a carbed UXV and fuel-injected UXV to compare side-by-side and test drive in American Fork Canyon, located just east of American Fork, UT.
The terrain, elevation gain and general trail conditions were a great place to test Kymco side-by-sides, carbureted and EFI. We've spent what we think is a fair amount of time on the UXV side-by-sides and know what they're capable of and how they handle. With that background and knowledge safely tucked away somewhere in the back of our minds, we could focus more on the differences between the carb UXV and the fuel-injected version.
The EFI doesn't change the horsepower rating-36-of the engine but it does do some other things for it. First, the vehicle is easier to start. That's pretty noticeable when you have the machines side-by-side but perhaps the most notable difference is the smoother power delivery of the EFI, which, granted, you would expect. It would have been a pretty big disappointment had this not been the case but the EFI is more smooth in all parts of the powerband, especially at lower speeds, which is where we spent a lot of time on the rock-filled trail up Mary Ellen Gulch. The on-and-off the throttle riding was smoother in the EFI-equipped UXV than it was the carbed UXV.
One more thing about the UXV 500i IRS 4x4 is how smooth the deceleration was as well. We don't want to say the carb engine is "choppy" because that's not terribly accurate, but when you let off the throttle on the EFI model, it's a smoother deceleration than the carbed model.
In a nutshell, the EFI does what a fuel-injected engine should do, which justifies the price difference between carbed UXV and EFI model.
You can still purchase the carbed UXV 500 IRS 4x4, which at $7,699, is Kymco's price-point offering. That's $1,100 less than its fuel-injected sibling, the UXV 500i IRS 4x4, which retails for $8,799.
After riding up American Fork Canyon and then up Mary Ellen Gulch to the old mines, we were once again reminded of why we like to drive the Kymco UXVs. They really shine in the kinds of conditions you find on those two trails: rocky, rutted and boulder strewn.
As a side note, in the pictures you'll see a stock UXV carb model (green) and a stock UXV EFI model (orange). The orange vehicle has some aftermarket accessories that Powerhouse Motorsports added, including a hard top ($299), street legal kit ($400), aluminum wheels ($300) and Sedona Rip Saw tires ($400).
