Hmm I ride with several brutes that have been beaten up a lot and no problems. One has even been drowned badly and rolled down a hill and still runs good. The only bad thing about it is not being EFI, which is why I bought an 08 that is. My friend sells can ams and sold himself an 08 800XT. It's nice for sure, but it doesn't do any better than my 08 750 kawasaki. I've gone every place he has, sometimes a little harder, sometimes easier. One thing I find interesting, the front locker in the can am is great, if you always go full throttle everywhere. But when we did low speed rock crawling stuff, he had the get on the throttle a ton to get it to lock, which isn't always a good idea. I can just hold my diff lock and crawl as slow as I need to. The can am actually hits things worse underneath because of where the winch is mounted and it's lower frame. I can nose up to a vertical face and climb it, where he slams his winch into it first. Things that just brush my skidplate he bangs the winch on, and sometimes the entire frame.
And yes I rode his before I bought the 750. It just wasn't $3000 better.
And yes I rode his before I bought the 750. It just wasn't $3000 better.