600cc world beaters

Amenities
Power and ride are a matter of choice. So are amenities. Yamaha added the separate heat controls for hand and thumb this season. They are infinitely variable. But, they are located a little out of the way and you will fumble trying to find them in the dark. A little light behind the controls would be nice.

Cat and Polaris have dual settings that are within a thumb length's reach for adjustment. We'd give the edge to Polaris for functionality, but Cat's are almost as nice. Ski-Doo has dual settings for its heat controls as well, but the location isn't as nearly perfect as the Minnesota sleds.

We found the styling visually appealing on all of these deluxe models. We were amazed at how far Cat has come in its fit and finish with the Smart Ride Cat. While not quite up to Yamaha and Ski-Doo, Cat shows that it understands what up market buyers are demanding. Polaris does a good job, but it is more Chevy-like than Lexus-like in this group.

All of these sleds work very well. And they are certainly far ahead of where such niche sleds were a few years ago.

If we had to choose, we'd take the Rotax RER, the Polaris VES twin, Yamaha drive smoothness and build quality, Ski-Doo styling and Cat's excellent EFI and blend it into the Cat frame, AWS front end and Yamaha ProAction rear. That's our favorite.