Mad at Mercury Marine

[Fr. Frank]

Its the new "American Way" of doing things. Seems that very few want to take RESPONSIBILITY for their products or actions any more. I'm in construction and I see it daily with others. Customer is number 1 with my operation; be it a builder or individual homeowner. One of the main reasons I'm still hanging on in this s**t housing market.

I used to be in the recreational boating industry. I sold new SeaCrafts among others. I even sold new Johnson outboards. But even with that, I was a Mercury man. (Frank Brown sold mercury OBs across the street)

Eight new Mercury outboards in my lifetime so far, and I probably would be good for another 1 or 2 at least. (yes, ok, I admit it, I've also purchased 2 new Johnson 235hp motors, 3 new Suzukis: 2hp, 25hp and 150hp, 1 new Tohatsu 140hp, and 1 new Yamaha 220hp)

But if Mercury had screwed me with a month left on my warranty, I promise you I would have never bought another Mercury. And even though I'm currently looking at new 6-8 hp motors right now, I'm leery of Mercury because of my recent experience.

(I'm leaning toward Danchai/Hideo for either the 2S diesel or the 4S gas 8hp. Danchai and Hideo make many of the small Yamaha branded motors sold in the US. New Danchai gas 4S 8hp is just under $1800 plus shipping if you don't mind waiting 6-8 weeks to get it. Every single part but the paint and decals is available from Yamaha )

[FishStretcher]

I guess I would be leery of dealing with Mercury with that failure rate and reluctance to honor the warranty, even if you eventually got them to.

FWIW, my 4 stroke 6Hp Tohatsu kicker was $1299 and 58 lbs. With a 15" or 20" leg and a 2010 leftover, you might be able to get one for less.

[rockdoc]

Wow- five big repairs on an '06 motor- that's an eye opener! Glad you got Merc to honor the warrantee; but the fact that they tried to weasel out of it says alot to me.

Steve

[Fr. Frank]

Wow- five big repairs on an '06 motor- that's an eye opener! Glad you got Merc to honor the warrantee; but the fact that they tried to weasel out of it says alot to me.

Steve

I agree, Steve. It's no longer the Mercury Marine I grew up with, where they would fall all over themselves to make good repairs under warranty, which is a huge part of why I was a die-hard Mercury fan for so long.

[jorgeinmiami]

Seems like the issues you were having were mostly related to the "gas" that we have out there.
I would think that Merc and the other manufactures would have worked out most of the issues by now. If not you can imagine the warrenty issuses and expenses that they have due to this.

I can't purchase a new engine so when I can get the newest and best I at least plan to do what can be done to make the engine as safe as possible with the gas problems out there.
I remember way back in the day that the least of was the gas issues

[Fr. Frank]

Seems like the issues you were having were mostly related to the "gas" that we have out there.

Yeah. I'm not buying ethanol gas for my boat ever again. I'll pay the extra 30 cents per gallon.

I, too, remember the days of leaded/low-lead gasoline with NO corn alcohol in it. No phase separation issues/worries for nearly a year, and with SeaFoam or Sta-bil, gasoline could be safely stored for 3-5 years.

Remember the Sunoco pumps where you could "dial" your octane rating up to 107 octane? (only 103 in some states) I used to stop at Sunoco on the way to the drag strip "back in the day".

[Old'sCool]

I pumped mine dry 1 1/2 yrs ago and have only run non-ethanol since. No problems at all with my 250 OX66. I just hated paying 3.21/gal....we would all gladly pay it now. The non-ethanol is ~ 3.90 here now. Seems like most Exxon's have it.