Thinking of buying for my wife, but not at all familiar with these sleds/engines. Any input?

Buy it for her for starters and keep upgrading her,I told my girlfriend she has to ride my 93 xlt before i get her something with long travel.
If they don't feel some of the bumps they can go too fast for their skill level,seen it happen alot around here and not just women.I let her take my ZRT for a rip once and i had lot's of heartattacks,she was all over the place doing about 80mph on the xlt she does 40mph.

on second thought though you might want to look for a early 90's model instead.

I am guessing you mean 88 Eltigre 530, there is no 98.

If it is 88 those engines ran a long time not like my wildcats that I bought after 87. kept blowing those up. I put 4500 miles on my brand new 87 with one small warranty claim (front shock). My wildcats were in the shop weekly.

My dad has a 87 eltigre 530 it sucks gas so bad :nervous: it gets like 8 miles or less to a gallon :( ... its spos to go 120mph stock tho

Excellent sled and it rides like a Caddy-really. For the year, I think the suspention rides really nice. I used to have one-wish I never sold it-my buddy has one and I ride it every time we go riding together. It's a wonderful first sled, providing everything is ok to start. It will go 90-95 mph all day long. It doesn't get too bad of gas mileage like some people claim-the gas tank is only like 7 or 8 gallons so an over 100 mile trip between fillups is out of the question. You can make 100 miles between a fillup though. You can keep up with basicly any sled out there on the trails, maybe not beat them, but you definately wont get left behind. For what it is, it handles great.

I would buy it, you wont be sorry. :)

I agree with everything everyone has said. i have the 91 ext530, and for its age, its a great sled. it can beat my friends vmax600 on the strip, and is a blast in deep snow. I really cant say much bad about it other than the coupler link for the front shock on the rear skid seems to break often. I have somewere around 10,000 miles on it right now, original enigine, i just replaced the rings and top end gaskets at 9000miles to be on the safe side.

out of the box that machine isnt doing 120 but you will prob touch near 100... the 530 is comparable to the 550.... pretty good engines.... you might want to consider a more common engine/sled.... but whichever i am a firm beleiver that you cant go wrong with cat.... except for an 88 pantera.... me and her didnt get along so well hahaha

I've been running a 91 EXT 530 for many years now...the thing has been a dream. 90-95 no problems and with almost 10,000 miles all orig....I have NOTHING bad to say! Can't go wrong!!!

I have a Supertrax mag Buyers guide for 1990 and in it they said that the 89 Eltigre 530 was stone reliable and did 89mph on radar

The 89 Eltigre EXT 530 had smaller carbs then the 90-91 Eltigre EXT 530

They even ran Coors Light for coolant after they blew a hose,and had no place to get coolant one night :p

lol, thats funny $hit, coors for colant. but ya, i've seen the needle to 100mph on it before( though that was on an empty tank and when i was younger and lighter

Thanks for all the good info. I posted the question after seeing an ad for a 98 eltigre, even talked to the guy and man the price was right! After seeing your responses I called him back before driving 45 minutes to see the thing. Whoops! typo in the ad, should have read 89 eltigre. You know what they say, sounds to good to be true, it probably is!I may consider an ext after reading some of your responses. Thanks for saving me a wasted trip.

Dude, if the price is right, you wont go wrong buying that sled. You wont be sorry.