On Sun, 3 Aug 2003 19:09:38 -0700, "RD" wrote:

I need to buy a new outboard for my 9 ft. dinghy, I was looking at the 9.8
hp Tohatsu primarily for price reasons. Does anyone have any input about the
Tohatsu product? Are they good or do they have problems? Should I pony up a
$200 more dollars and get a Mercury or Evinrude?

RD


I had a Tohatsu 5 for years, and it survived an early dunking into
salt water with no problems. (I grabbed it while it was still
floating.) Utterly reliable.

I now have a Tohatsu 9.8 that I bought a year ago and finally fueled
and started a couple of days ago. It started on the second pull...

Tohatsu makes the small Nissans and they at least used to make the
small Mercurys. A detuned Tohatsu 5 was also called a Mercury 4. You
might take the cover off the Tohatsu and a similar HP Mercury and see
if the block is the same.