On Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:19:13 -0400, HK wrote:

Well, I won't argue two versus four stroke with you. Way back when I
would have argued that two stroke engines were lighter than the four
strokes, and had a more interesting power band. But the new high tech
two strokes seem about as heavy as the four strokes these days.

In general, two strokes are about 100 lbs lighter than four strokes so
that's a minor marketing point - I agree with you.

Out of all the four strokes I've run in the past year or so, the one
I'm most impressed with is the Verado - that's real competition in
terms of power for ETEC engines - those beasts have power up the
wazoo. Efficiency kind of sucks and they are heavy, but they have a
serious power band.

I've mentioned this befo I have yet to see anyone using an etec
evinrude around here. In fact, I haven't run into a dealer on my side of
the Bay that actually sells evinrudes "loose" or pre-rigged. I think the
OMC bustout a few years ago and the subsequent sale of its brand name to
the French/Canadians did great harm to its dealer network, and I don't
think that network has recovered.

That's part of it - OMC did a lot of damage to the product line I'll
admit. Part of the problem, of course, is the exaggeration of the
whole FICHT debacle. It only affected certain engines and a limited
number of engines at that, but "everybody knows" that they are "junk"
which just isn't true. The USCG over reaction by demanding recall of
the entire line didn't help either.

The other component is pricing. Let's face it - Yamaha is dumping
engines at or below cost to manufacturers to force market share. I'm
not sure how this is a viable economic model, but it seems to be
working. Instead of buying boat companies like Brunswick did and
putting Mercs on them, Yamaha just went with wheeling and dealing and
now supply a ton of engines via that route. It's hard to compete
price wise with Yamaha - that's absoutely true. Having said that,
when I looked into repower with the Ranger, dollar for dollar, Yamaha
was just as expensive as the ETEC considering control and guage change
over - in fact, it was almost $4,000 more expensive for a 200 hp
Yamaha four stroke than the ETEC.

Suzuki? Don't know much about them per se. I konw they are priced
well - almost like Yamaha in fact.