When shopping for a used car a few years back, my mechanic was very helpful
in filtering out the wheat from the chaff. Or, the crap, to be technically
correct. When he said "Jeep??? God no! You wanna be out in the driveway
hunting down electrical nightmares when it's 18 degrees???", he turned out
to be correct, based on my discussions with Jeep owners.

Now, I've fallen in love with the idea of a small (16-18 ft) sailboat. This
happened after a week at Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks, where I saw some
gorgeous boats cruising around. I suspect I'll be looking at used boats, and
I'm wondering if, like the car experience, there are any brands which are
known to be complete garbage, in terms of hull construction, proper
installation of attached gear, etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I know it's a vague question, but I can't
be specific about budget yet because I don't have a starting point for
"what's TOO cheap" (like a $3,000 used car).
-Doug