Brunswick Boats Pre-Rigging Mercs.

[swedishpimple]

How do you feel about Brunswick boats buying out companies familiar to people in our region like Lund and Crestliner, then only pre-rigging the boats for Mercury motors owned by Brunswick. I know it makes sense for them, but as a consumer I wish there was not a such a huge extra charge to go with an Evinrude, Yamaha, Suzuki or Honda. All of which I would consider far superior to Mercury.

[marine_man]

I believe you can still get Honda Pre-rig...

And a dealer can order a boat without a motor from the factory (which tacks on more money) and without pre-rig (which tacks on even more money) and rig it with whatever motor you want. It just won't come from the factory like that.

marine_man

marine_man

[Payday]

I was quoted that it is a 10% upcharge to order a non rigged boat. That's a small price to pay to get the exact package that you want IMO. With that said; a lot of people have been bashing Lund for the decision yet nobody says anything about G3 or Skeeter...Hmmm

This has been discussed far too many times already.

[marine_man]

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I was quoted that it is a 10% upcharge to order a non rigged boat. That's a small price to pay to get the exact package that you want IMO.

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I agree with you here.. 10% is a small price to pay for what you want. I believe though that the motor you decide to purchase will also cost more than if the dealer purchased it directly from Lund - they get a pretty good discount that way.

In the end, in my opinion, it's still a small price to pay to get what you want.

I think we don't hear as much about Skeeters or G3's because they're not nearly as popular as Lund / Crestliner in the upper midwest.

marine_man

[dkf]

Quote:

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I was quoted that it is a 10% upcharge to order a non rigged boat. That's a small price to pay to get the exact package that you want IMO. With that said; a lot of people have been bashing Lund for the decision yet nobody says anything about G3 or Skeeter...Hmmm

This has been discussed far too many times already.

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10%, thats nuts. There shooting themselves in the foot there. I love Lund but I'm not getting ripped off when there is too many other good boats on the market. No way I'm buying a Merc. G3 is a nice boat, wouldn't hesitate buying one.

[Ralph Wiggum]

You can't get a Chevrolet with a Ford motor...

[LMITOUT]

I didn't know Lund made boat engines?

[eyepatrol]

10% can be a lot, depending on the amount you spend. For a $12,000 boat, that's an extra $1,200. For a $40,000 boat, of course it's $4,000. And if you finance a loan, it's even more with the interest added on. Unless we're talking a 10% markup on the motor only, then that would be a different story (but costly too depending on size of motor).

Mercs are not an inferior motor by any means. However I do agree that being limited to a motor brand without paying extra is unfortunate.

[marine_man]

They don't .. but they have a purchasing program arranged with Mercury (suprise there, right?) and with Honda offering a substantial discount over purchasing the motor outright from the engine manufacturer.

marine_man

[LMITOUT]

I'm well aware of that...I was using the same logic as the post above mine with a little dash of sarcasm.

If you could get a Toyota, Ford, Dodge, or Chevy engine in a Chevy truck and vice versa for the other brands, people would be happy to have the choice. Now all of a sudden you are penalized if you don't get a certain engine in that truck and people are naturally going to be upset because their ability to choose has been taken away.

This has all been hashed through before......same result. The business decision has been made and times are changing. Same goes for the other company who is doing the same thing.

[mulletwalleyes]

Brunswick owns both Lund and Mercury.

[LMITOUT]

yep

That's the main storyline about this thread.

[dkf]

Chevy with a Ford motor. Then you'd have a motor that far exceeded the life of the truck. Just teasing.

[scaup]

I have had three lund rigs and I was dissapointed when Lund (Brunswick) went to Merc Pre Rigs. I don't like having my options limited like that. As far as skeeter and G3 goes at least they are up front about being owned by Yamaha. I talked to a guy this weekend and he was telling about his recent crestliner purchase. To make a long story short the sales person was less than truthfull when describing why the boat he was looking at had a merc on the back. Of course this buyer did not know the difference. This is not a lund or crestliner decesion this is a brunswick desicion. Just be up front about it. Who knows what this will do to Lund in the long run. Probably nothing but I have been looking at used boats lately and it seems like if it has a yamaha on the back the boat has a higher value.

[Valv]

The problem is boats and motors have always been separate items, even if they come together installed, now we have to get used to have them as a single unit.

I hate to say but it's the Japaneses that started this, Yamaha does NOT install Mercury or Evinrudes on their G3s and Skeeters (that's why they were mentioned), I feel the retaliation from Brunswick will hurt somehow but I don't blame them much.

Yamahas are good motors, but I think it's mostly a trend we are following, they came in this sector using parts from other brands, then copied everything and separated.

Mercury makes great motors and the 2 strokes Evinrude are probably the best out there.

[PerchJerker]

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I hate to say but it's the Japaneses that started this, Yamaha does NOT install Mercury or Evinrudes on their G3s and Skeeters (that's why they were mentioned), I feel the retaliation from Brunswick will hurt somehow but I don't blame them much.

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You might be right but I thought it was the other way around, although I haven't paid enough attention to know which is correct. I thought the chain of events was Merc and Yamaha were partnering on producing 4 strokes (basically yamaha motors with the merc name on them), then Yamaha got busted for the price dumping issue (underpricing their motors and not paying full tariffs to create an unfair advantage vs. the competition), then Merc split away from the partnership with Yamaha and Brunswick started the pre-rig thing, then Yamaha followed suit with the pre-rig thing with their brands (G3 and Skeeter).

Regardless, the pre-rig thing doesn't really matter to me at all. There are a lot of good boats and motors out there, and a lot of good options available to people that are shopping. Not as many options as before, but still plenty of good options in my opinion.

[LMITOUT]

That's the way I understand it went down also. Merc's were Yamaha's painted black. They were so into their Opti-Max line that they fell to the back of the pack when the four-stroke craze started so they had to use Yamaha parts to just compete until they could get their own four-stroke line going. This was moreso on the bigger HP engines.

[Valv]

Actually it's been the opposite, Yamaha didn't know how to build gearcases so in the '80s and '90s they were trading their powerheads with Mercury lower units. Slowly they caught up, but the "exchange" went on for many years. Merc 4 strokes were never Yamaha, only few models of 2 strokes. Yamaha then pulled off and copied the lower units.

It's Evinrude/Johnson that had Suzuki 4 stroke motors repainted with their brand

[LMITOUT]

Actually I believe the larger Mercury four-strokes were made by Yamaha about five years ago or so. These were the big HP engines. I know that Merc used their own gearcases though. The big thing item here is the engine and how far behind Merc was in the four-stroke race. They were adament that the Opti was the engine of the future while the rest of the manufactures passed them by with the new four-stroke technology. All they could do is work with Yamaha to try to keep pace. As you mentioned, evenutally Yamaha went to work on their own gearcase and Merc had to develop their own four-stroke engine line. A few years later the whole "dumping" thing became an issue and that's where we are today.

edit: Went back and looked and found that the "Mercury" 225 4-stroke released in mid-2002 (2003MY) is indeed a Yamaha engine painted black. Even the cowlings are similar.

[kjgmh]

I have heard lots of variations on what happened, but I believe that BRP and Yamaha would not sell motors to Lund and Crestliner to sell with the boats. So then why would a boat company prerig for a motor that they can not get?

[dkf]

Well if Yamaha copied mercury's lower unit they did a much better job than mercury does as far as quality goes. Compared to the evinrudes and yamahas I have, mercury's castings are Horrible. (Both lower units and engine castings)

[bassNspear]

Man, this is a huge topic that has hit the top charts.

Selling crestliner boats, we have customers that are looking at these boats wondering why they can only get a merc on it. And all the reasons that were said before, are correct, that the boat manufactors are in the motor business. THey are doing this for the simple fact to exclude some of the motors. I have talked to a few of the crestliner reps, and the problem that they were having, is that they were seeing alot of boats sitting around, where they had curtain motors on them, yet the boats were not moving.

The cost of loose motors has gone through the roof. As a dealership, you have to order 2 or 3 motors at a time, to even get them motors in. It sucks for a dealership, becuase the price of a loose motor has went through the roof, becuase of the fast that they are all coming pre rigged.

The other problem is, if you want a lund or crestliner, but you dont want the merc, you order the boat without a motor, then your going to have to buy a loose motor, buy all the controls for that motor, and pay for the rigging on top of it all, to get the motor that you want.

Mercs power heads where yamahas, up till this year.

Its a on going battle, and i think that at some point in time, they they might go back to putting a few different brands on the boats. But we will have to see in the next few years, if they keep this same steps on it.

[katoguy]

Basically it will be up to the consumer not buying certain boat brands because they can only get it with certain motors that will force a company directive to change.

If sales of Skeeters, Lunds, Crestliners, Tritons, etc... drop below a certain threshhold because consumers don't want the Yammy or Merc/MotorGuide then the boat manufacturers will need to listen and change. (It isn't really the boat manufacturer, but, rather, the parent company - Brunswick, for example.)

[mulletwalleyes]

wondering what you guys thought of Lund's spring catch promotion - the incentive is a basically a leather jacket and some sport trac accessories. I was not excited about the leather jacket at all - other manufacturers are giving away mooring covers, etc. The Lund dealer said they didn't like it either, but that it came from Brunswick.

[dkf]

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wondering what you guys thought of Lund's spring catch promotion - the incentive is a basically a leather jacket and some sport trac accessories. I was not excited about the leather jacket at all - other manufacturers are giving away mooring covers, etc. The Lund dealer said they didn't like it either, but that it came from Brunswick.

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I have jackets, how about $1000 off or 0% financing. Or a Yamaha or Evinrude at no extra cost.