false statement.... here is why
in late 2005 suzuki and kawasaki called it quits. while they were never the same company, they did in fact share the same R&D team. this is what made their bikes/quads use alot of the same parts. in late 2005 the sport bike tensions between the companies are what pulled them apart. suzuki was getting all the glory for winning everything while kawasaki was getting left in second place. kawasaki decided to go on their own venture and find their own design team.
now, as an owner of a 400ex and a blaster. i wouldn't trade my EX for anything. they are easily modified to keep up with todays all aluminum 450's and have the luxury of being the easiest to maintain ATV i have ever worked on. if you change the oil and clean the air filter you will never have a problem with the motor at all. another good thing about the 400ex is that since honda has kept the exact same design/parts from 1994-2007 the availablility of spare parts if always accessible on ebay.
with that being said. if the 400ex was out of the question, the next ATV i would choose is the Suzuki 400 and here's why. now that kawasaki is out of the parts bin when it comes to interchangeable parts the suzuki and Arctic Cat 400 are still an identical ATV and share a TON of common parts. this alone tells me that repairs will be somewhat cheaper in the long run. the suzuki is also water cooled. that is a very important thing for those like me who live in southern arizona where it can get up to 130 during the day. my air cooled honda and blaster have a really hard time with summer time riding here.
