Hey Tim,
I think its like anything - you could find a guy in a ford with rusted out
body panels, blown gaskets, grinding gears - who would still tell you that
Fords rule !

I think if you are going to have your work done by a shop/mechanic - it
makes way more sense to go with a mercruiser as you will have best luck
finding a mechanic who will work on it, and parts will be reasonable. If
you are willing to do work yourself, you could look at the older volvo's and
omc's .

Most of what I read on the internet has absolutely no bearing in reality and
it written by people who either have never even used the product they are
complaining about, or have completely neglected theirs and then blamed the
manufacturer - FOR EXAMPLE, the shift cable adjustment on the omc's is VERY
easy - it is about 9 pages in my shop manual and it scared the crap outta me
to read it, until i realized that 3 pages were dedicated to removing a cover
that took about 2 seconds to remove ("...carefully open the spring loaded
retaining washer on the upper mount hold down bolt while holding the back of
the mounting plate in proper alignment vs. the ... blah blah blah ..") If
the cable is out of adjustment, then gear may not fully engage - usually you
would hear it 'ticking' - should be a clue !!! But i guess some morons out
there ran around at high rpms with their boat HALF in gear and spun off
their gears ! What a surprise !!! Lets blame OMC for people being clueless
!!!

No matter what brand you have, I can only emphasize "KEEP IT MAINTAINED" -
and do about twice what they recommend !! Change your lower gearlube as
often as practical, and definitely make sure your upper gearcase has the
PROPER amount of lube at all times ! Make sure all of the water and exhaust
flows are working properly, that your water pump is pumping adequate water,
your prop is 'true' and balanced and that your hull is kept clean of debris
and growth (if you are in salt water).

"Tim" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hey! thanks for the input!

I did a lot of searching and found mostly that the Problem with OMC
outdrives, is that they had shift cable problems, and seemed to take
some "special" know-how to get them adjusted.

But even with the corrective recalls and warrenty, only a few people
seemed to be impressed with the OMC "stinger" "Cobra" etc. etc.

here is just one of the many examples of what I read.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.b...04e51605f72a10