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I am in the market for a 2005 Suzuki DF140 with a 25" shaft.


The 140 4-stroke Johnson Outboard is the same as a Suzuki 4-stroke 140 and
may be priced less and have more servicing dealers than Suzuk doesi.



I live in California, so a four-stroke is the only way to go as I plan
to use the boat for many years. California is becoming very restrictive
in what type of motor can be use on fresh water.



California regulates the output emissions from an outboard, not the type of
outboard. I understand that the Lake Tahoe patrol boats use the 2-stroke DFI
Evinrudes because they have fewer total emissions than an equivalent
4-stroke outboard.

Bill Grannis
service manager

I have read about the Suzuki/Johnson 140.

Johnson was bought by Bombardier a few years ago. They issued this
following announcement on April 27, 2005.

http://www.johnson.com/docs/320001/0_794_US.htm

The key phrase in that document is "BRP will no longer offer the
Johnson 40-225 hp four-stroke engines in the North American market". I
expect that will have an impact on service and support, even if the
motors are Suzukis.
It would be interesting to know if Bombardier was planning to take some
of their 4-stroke Rotax 912 technology and apply it to the outboard
motor market. Those motors are very popular in the aviation market and
have established an excellent reputation for reliability. If they
wanted to, they could design a very light and powerful motor with ease.

The other problem is that the nearest dealer is 130 miles away.

You are correct regarding the output emissions regulations in
California. There are two stroke engine that meet the EPA 2006 regs.
California will be moving to the EPA 2008 regs in the near future. It
remains to be seen if the existing motors will be "grandfathered". It
didn't happen before and I doubt it will this time.

I am very skeptical about the long term success of running a 2-stroke
on an extremely lean mixture. The manufacturers have done extensive
field testing on the backs of the early buyers of these designs. They
may have figured out the real world problems and resolved them. I don't
want to find out at my expense that they haven't quite resolved them
all.

One issue I have is the lack of dealers that are within a reasonable
distance of where I live. Another issue is that the outboard business
has had a lot of turnover in recent years with OMC going under, etc.
Suzuki and Honda are worldwide companies that sell a lot of things
other than outboards. Suzuki cars aren't as nice as Hondas, but they
are as reliable, by most accounts. Suzuki isn't likely to go away
anytime soon, as far as I can tell.