your 2-stroke for a brand new 4-stroke

[Chaz]

New or old .. (real old gets way more expensive) Labor usually is around 50% of most repair bills. Now I have to agree, when you are talking Merc's parts price structure (which is way out in left field) you are going to spend quite a bit more on the parts side of the bill. The 450 - 500's will be old, broken, and littering the salvage yards some day. Then the normal guy will get parts on the cheap. It's already happening to the used 450 market .. no self respecting bazillionare wants 450's on his year old open fish Cigarette .. LMAO

[powerabout]

Labor is the lower cost on most modern day repairs. When a new case goes its 9K doing it on the cheap. A supercharger goes away and its 10K shift actuators are 1500.00, propellers are 5500.00 but they are covered if you lose a case or shaft. Its the new world we live in if you want to run fast (450s and 500s lead the pack)--I have been very fortunate and happy with all of hours/miles we clock on them.

I don't think that their are too many people that would cover my repairs for the next 5 years if I gave them 20K upfront. I can go to any authorized Mercury dealer worldwide. To me it was obviously a fair gamble. Approx. 30% of the owners purchase extended warranties before the expiration of the standard "makes the boat a much easier sale".


Joe

I think the gov needs to step in to regulate length of warranty when items are over x value and a repair bill is greater than the market value inside say 5 years?
EV's are causing this issue too also compounded by accident damage

[JPEROG]

I think the gov needs to step in to regulate length of warranty when items are over x value and a repair bill is greater than the market value inside say 5 years?
EV's are causing this issue too also compounded by accident damage

We don't need the government to do anything. Let the manufacture set the warranty guidelines and let the consumer decide if they want to buy it or not. This is our system, not the governments.

Joe

[David - WI]

I agree, Joe. Ruger sells a lot of guns with no written warranty. Everybody knows they stand behind their products if you have a problem... but the Magnuson-Moss Act (government meddling in free markets) had some unintended consequences.

[powerabout]

We don't need the government to do anything. Let the manufacture set the warranty guidelines and let the consumer decide if they want to buy it or not. This is our system, not the governments.

Joe

You already have the FTC

[JPEROG]

New or old .. (real old gets way more expensive) Labor usually is around 50% of most repair bills. Now I have to agree, when you are talking Merc's parts price structure (which is way out in left field) you are going to spend quite a bit more on the parts side of the bill. The 450 - 500's will be old, broken, and littering the salvage yards some day. Then the normal guy will get parts on the cheap. It's already happening to the used 450 market .. no self respecting bazillionare wants 450's on his year old open fish Cigarette .. LMAO

You are right about the old market and prices dropping. I am fine with the 450s-they are an incredible motor and we will be seeing some really fast Argos soon. I have a friend with a pair of 70 hour fresh water mint 300xs motors, wingplates, steering rams, tiebar complete and he was offered 18K for all of it (half of what it would have been 2 years ago). I paid 39K for my first 450 and today used salters are bringing 25K with six to seven hundred hours on them (3K depreciation per year isn't bad and my guess is that they will bottom out at 15K in a few more years).

Joe

[JPEROG]

You already have the FTC

We have a hell of a lot more then that. If the government had it their way you would buy every single item through them and pay what ever they want to charge you for it. Then they would decide what products you had the choice to buy based on what is in their best interest or on their agenda. Let free enterprise be free... We are humans and have the ability to make decisions--let people make them. If you want to live that way, go to California and read every label that is posted on every item "for your safety and knowledge". Better yet, if life is too complicated, go to a country where you don't have all of the choices "hope you like it". Now if something is advertised and or promoted then not backed up, it is a different issue-called fraud.

Joe

[hydra-sports]

Gentlemen, If you want to play, you’ve got to pay. Buy an extended warranty, don’t buy an extended warranty. High-performance boats are costly, just don’t cry when it breaks down. If breakdowns are a concern, find a cheaper hobby.

Stoker Boy has this right. It cost a ton of time and money to own a boat and keep it top condition. People always ask, why are you always working on that thing. You can't take it to a shop, most don't have qualified help to diagnose and repair. The good shops are usually booked out 6 months and take weeks to do sometimes simple repairs. Those that can afford it don't wait, they trade up.

A good warranty doesn't mean anything if your not on the water. That's my humble opinion

Rich

[powerabout]

We have a hell of a lot more then that. If the government had it their way you would buy every single item through them and pay what ever they want to charge you for it. Then they would decide what products you had the choice to buy based on what is in their best interest or on their agenda. Let free enterprise be free... We are humans and have the ability to make decisions--let people make them. If you want to live that way, go to California and read every label that is posted on every item "for your safety and knowledge". Better yet, if life is too complicated, go to a country where you don't have all of the choices "hope you like it". Now if something is advertised and or promoted then not backed up, it is a different issue-called fraud.

Joe

wait till the gov tries cbdc's, govs ai will tell you what you can buy.

[David - WI]

We have a 4 year window to set things right... coming soon.

[Instigator]

I sometimes get frustrated when my friends and family don’t understand and or respect the amount of effort I put into our boats.

I work and work and work so we can spend a weekend having fun.

Then it dawns on me, I’m the one that chooses to buy junk and fix it up!
Thats on me, not them.

Financially I can’t afford to write a ck for a new wizmobile but have good enough credit to finance one.

The way my brain works though, is, if I’m spending 5 times more $ on a boat, I need to be having 5 times more fun than w/my scabbed together crap.

And I don’t!

On two different projects, the Mrs got sick of listening to me whine and said let’s go to the Miami show and buy something and go boating now.

Both times I only found one boat I was interested in and both were $130k+ and that was 10 yrs ago!

In my world, at that price, that boat would have to buy its own gas, clean itself, buy its own insurance and I still wouldn’t sleep at night!




Also have to remember that for many of us it’s the journey that we live for, not the destination.

Stoker Boy has this right. It cost a ton of time and money to own a boat and keep it top condition. People always ask, why are you always working on that thing. You can't take it to a shop, most don't have qualified help to diagnose and repair. The good shops are usually booked out 6 months and take weeks to do sometimes simple repairs. Those that can afford it don't wait, they trade up.

A good warranty doesn't mean anything if your not on the water. That's my humble opinion

Rich

[AlliStan]

There is a sense of pride, not foolish pride, but self-accomplishment pride, that comes with taking a beat up, mistreated old boat and making something beautiful out of it. Like Instigator, and Chaz, it requires dedication and a willingness to make mistakes in the learning process, but it gains you something that the big-check writers will never know.

I’ve been blessed to have a long time boat and o.b. motor whiz just a couple miles from me to help me along, Michael Dixon. He and Wally Lamkin have been patient and helpful, to the extreme, with me these past years as I’ve slowly learned the ropes. I’m grateful to them both more than they could know.