2023 Can-Am Commander XT Review: A Fun Side-By-Side, With a Side of Usability

This side-by-side is ready to blast through all sorts of wilderness, but it’s also good for working duty.

Published September 8, 2023

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Updated September 11, 2023

For many of us, side-by-sides (and their ATV ilk, to some degree) can seem like little more than giant-sized toys. Motorcycles and cars make far more sense. They’re street-legal, first and foremost; seeing as how most of civilization is connected by, well, streets, that tends to make them advantageous for all sorts of everyday tasks and chores. In the case of cars, they’re also crash-tested, packed with sound insulation and slathered with comfortable fabric and leather inside.

But for plenty of folks, side-by-side adventure machines are about utility. Rangers use them to shuttle about hostile terrain; farmers use them to haul everything from avocados to zucchini. And even for those people who do just use them for fun … well, what’s so bad about that? After all, there are plenty of us who buy snowmobiles, boats, even airplanes for nothing other than fooling around, and any of those are far less of a multi-role machine than a side-by-side that, in a pinch, could at least play at being a car.

So to see what all the fuss is about and see just how handy (or not) one of these off-road four-wheeled machines really is, I spent a few days tooling around in the one of the newer ones: the Can-Am Commander XT. Admittedly, while I’ve spent more hours than I can count behind the wheel in my life, basically none of it has been in a side-by-side, so I was curious to see what the fuss was about — and whether this machine felt worth the money. Here’s what I discovered.

2023 Can-Am Commander XT: What We Think

The Commander takes a jack-of-all-trades approach to the side-by-side market, offering both reasonable cargo-carrying capability and plenty of fun behind the wheel. The Commander XT 700 model I tested, which packs a small engine and few luxuries, is not the quickest side-by-side, the most playful or the most capable — but its well-rounded nature makes it feel as though it would be a solid fit for many a buyer looking for a single side-by-side to handle as much as possible. But I’d highly recommend opting for the more powerful 1000 model.

The Commander XT isn’t quick, but it is a hoot to drive

Full disclosure: I have plenty of lead in my foot. I’ve learned to retrain it as best as I can over the years, but my brain and my right leg still have a habit of going full Maverick-and-Goose whenever the conditions allow. Exacerbating the issue has been the ever-increasing power levels and accelerative capabilities of modern automobiles; when family sedans can vault from 0-60 mph in under three seconds, it’s easy to get your fix of speed.

So by the standards of my on-board accelerometer — which is my polite term for my butt — the Commander XT 700 feels, shall we say, pokey.

can am commander 2023 — The Commander XT’s compact proportions and ample suspension travel make it an asset on tight trails.

The Commander XT offers a pair of engines; the 700 model uses a 652-cc single-cylinder making 52 horsepower and 42 lb-ft of torque, while the 1000 model makes a full 100 ponies from a pair of cylinders (torque goes unlisted). My tester was the former … and suffice it to say, a single-cylinder engine suited for a dirt bike does not serve up what I’d personally describe as ample oomph.

Find a long straightaway and hold the right pedal down long enough, and the Commander XT 700 tops out around 55 miles an hour — but finding the last 5–10 mph takes a while. While racing through the forests of northern Michigan in a convoy with my partner’s relatives — all of whom own and love their side-by-sides — I found myself falling behind the pack, even though their machines had twice as many people aboard.

And accelerating isn’t just a rather tepid process; it also sounds a little coarse, thanks to the continuously variable transmission that’s constantly causing revs to rise and fall irrespective of speed. Luckily, the droning tends to get washed out by the wind noise, in particular for Commanders lacking the optional windshield as mine was.

The Commander XT’s limited amount of power means the limits are so low, you’re driving at 10/10ths half the time — foot to the floor, often trying to crush the gas pedal into the firewall with every ounce of never-skip-leg-day might, occasionally lifting for a second only to mash it again even harder in hopes of finding a little extra power. (I call this the Cruis’n World technique.) If that sounds exhausting, well … it actually isn’t. In this world where modern cars are so powerful that it’s rare to be able to go full throttle for more than a couple seconds, being able to drive at wide-open throttle is strangely freeing.

And with the engine slung down low in front of the rear axle, the Commander boasts the sort of mid-engined handling balance car buyers are oh-so proud of. With the center of gravity only a foot or so behind your butt, turns are instantaneous, the vehicle delightfully balanced as it arcs through its chosen path.

Once you manage to break the rear end loose — admittedly a difficult task on all but the slipperiest surfaces, thanks to the limited power and massive grip the tires have in the soft stuff — rotating it as desired becomes a snap, with easy, fluid and controllable reponses. The Commander exemplifies the old maxim that it’s better to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow. Remember how I said I kept falling behind everyone on the straights? Every time we hit the corners … I caught back up.

It’s more utilitarian than you might give it credit for

The Commander XT is considered a crossover by side-by-side standards, which is quite different from what it means in the car world; here, it means it’s a cross between a sporty model and a utilitarian / agricultural one. In this case, that means that it boasts a bed — a fairly small one, sure, but a bed nonetheless.

It boasts a tow hitch, too, and a towing capacity of 2,000 pounds that means you could haul a broken-down compatriot back to port, or lug a small pop-up off-road camping trailer out into the woods. Granted, I’d imagine top speed with one ton of whatever in tow would be glacial, but you could still do it if you want to.

Don’t compare it to a car — a side-by-side is its own thing

As someone who spends the majority of their time with motorized vehicles behind the wheel of a car, I fully admit to being aghast at the Commander XT’s price when compared to its features. At nearly $18,000, it’s as pricey as many a decent used off-road-ready SUV or pickup truck, even in this inflationary day and age. (If you doubt me, feel free to browse this list of used Jeep Wranglers currently available.)

And even a 20-year-old Wrangler’s interior might seem luxurious compared to this Can-Am’s insides … that is, if you can even call it “insides,” seeing as how the cabin is unprotected by windshield or windows, unless you pay extra for them.

But the appeal of the side-by-side, as I learned, isn’t in using it as a replacement for a four-wheel-drive truck or sport-ute; it’s in going the places they can’t (or at least, shouldn’t). At 62 inches wide and 130 inches long — almost exactly the dimensions of the original World War II jeep, for what it’s worth — it’s capable of squeezing through spots and dashing along trails that would stymie modern pickups and SUVs. Weighing in at under 2,000 pounds even with 200-plus pounds of driver aboard, it floats over sand where heavier rigs would sink. With 13 inches of ground clearance, a suspension with 15 inches of travel, and 28-inch off-road tires on 14-inch wheels, it has the capability to claw up, over and through obstacles that would make many a true off-road SUV shake in its Goodyears. While the Commander XT serves up both 4-Hi and 4-Low four-wheel-drive options and a rear differential lock, I only needed to shift out of rear-wheel-drive once, in order to climb a steep, sandy hill.

The lack of refinement is a secret delight

No windows, no windshield, no radio … no problem? Well, as it turns out, yeah.

Hauling along through the woods in the driving rain at 45 miles per hour with no windshield, the water tingling off your face and hands, left me feeling more thrilled than the last few dozen cars I’ve driven. And leaving you exposed to the elements is a lovely reminder that, well, you’re in nature. The smells being forced into your nose give you instantaneous understanding for why dogs stick their heads out of car windows; the sound of wind racing past your head makes back-road speeds feel like autobahn velocity.

My partner’s relatives largely have side-by-sides with all the trimmings, from windows to heaters and even air conditioning … but after a day in the Commander XT, au natural feels like the best way to live the off-road life to me.

2023 Can-Am Commander: Alternatives

Can-Am, Polaris and Honda are the biggest names in power sports in the United States, and the latter two offer their own corresponding models in most of the side-by-side segments Can-Am does. From Polaris, there’s the General, which is the closest approximation to the Commander; there’s also the Xpedition, though the latter is a more high-end ride. Over at Honda, there’s the Pioneer. And if you wanna get weird with it, there’s the Mahindra Roxor, which is basically a clone of the original jeep that’s been (slightly) remastered for the modern adventure market.

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