Like everyone else said..
You get what you pay for.
From what you're stating you have warrior written all over you.
These motors have been around for ages and have all of the bugs worked out.
I'm sure you can find one less than 2,000.
thats the direction I would lean towards..

 

Stock03,
There are a couple "off brand" 4 wheelers in the Albq Journal for sale right now. May be able to pick up a used one pretty cheap.
In general, I think Albq stinks to buy about anything. Too expensive and not a whole lot of selection. Conversely, I got $3000 for a snowmobile/trlr I sold this winter that probably wouldn't have been worth more than $1800 in the Midwest. So maybe there's an advantage to selling stuff here???
Don't limit your search to this area. May take a drive, but Phoenix has 100x more 4 wheelers for sale than here. Prolly find a good deal there.
Oh, and call me if you want to sell your Firebird............................could really help you get that nice 4wheeler!!!!!!!!!

 

I would also check eBay and traderonline.com for used four wheelers, I've bought several dirtbikes off eBay. Since most people don't want to ship them, you can occasionaly get a good deal - just be aware of what the values are and look for highly rated sellers.

I too would stick with the proven name brand products, and would rather have a mid 90s model Honda or similar than a new Chinese knockoff. I've heard numerous stories from friends about the knockoff products having reliability problems.

While Costco has great prices, where are you going to get it serviced? And just out of curiosity, does PepBoys provide parts and service for the motorcycles and ATVs they sell? I would also be curious to know if you could take a Chinese knockoff into a service/repair shop that handles the Japanese bikes for servicing. That would be something you might want to look into. I almost bought a small Italian dirtbike for my kids until I found out that while I could get it serviced locally, I would have had to wait up to a month for parts to come in to fix it.

Just my two cents.

 

Might be a dumb question...but what's a "warrior"? Is that a brand or model within a brand?

 

Yup, the stuff out here "holds" its value. I haven't seen many good deals on most stuff in the paper. I never really thought about Phoenix. I have a brother who lives there. Perfect excuse to visit him more often too.

As far as the Firebird...I plan on someday fixing it up. It's in need of lots of work...I'll PM you.

 

Great ideas... Before I really considered the Baja brand, I checked with the service company who does warranty work on them (Pep Boys referred me to them. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing). The shop employee I spoke with said Baja ATV's were good as long as I wasn't extreme with it. He said they don't have any more issues with Baja compared to the name brands. But I took his information with a "grain of salt". I'm not sure if he's contracted through Pep Boys or not.

Of course I didn't price the basic maintenance stuff EX: oil filters, air filters, brakes, etc. Who knows what those items cost.

 

Warrior is a 4 stroke quad made by Yamaha
example http://phoenix.craigslist.org/rvs/339526551.html
that one is here in phoenix but just look around on craigs list. there is stuff all over in your price range