Admin Would You buy Verados?

[jawz12]

one word answer here....NO!!!
the optimax engines are great,but the verados are terrible...

[Questsportfishing]

seems verados like sitting right outside the 92 octane pumps though...must be a cult kinda thing! The other part I HATE about Merc is that they will get down to putting some people under the microscope to make them pay every cent and over for all work needed ... and some people can have thier boat 4' out of the water and props spinning and coming down hard and they belly up to them... I'm surprised at how many regular people they treat like crap and then sponsor others that are complete jerks. but thats what you get sometimes from everyone... hell Clinton couldn't figure out if Monica was having sex with him when his member was checking her mollars out ... why should a biz. like Merc think they have all the answers??? that was supposed to be on the funny / serious side.. have a great day guys!

[SHOWTIME2]

This is John Eppehimer's exp. with 2005 Verado 275's.

In 2005 I was a really happy young man as I took delivery on a 2005 Hydra-Sport 33cc. This boat was everything I wanted in a fishing boat. To this day I still love my Hydra-sport but sadly my Mercury Verado's have failed me time and time again.

I had some issues in 2005 and 2006 but it seemed that everyone had the same issues and VERADO was very decent about getting everyone fixed up.

In 2007 hydra-sports made me a great offer to redo my 2005 Hydra Sport. So the boat went on a road trip to Sarasota and Hydra Sports hooked my rig up big time. She came back with new hard top and pipes, all new bolsters and seats, well I'll save you all the upgrades but the boat is upgraded to the hilt and Hydra Sports did an amazing job.

Sadly though when my boat came back up north and went in the water, things just went to hell in a bucket.

My Verado's have been torn completely apart and put back together. Every time I spend time and money to go pick the boat up and put it in the water the freaking motors take a shit.
I do not have the list in front of me right now but I think the boat has been towed back to a dealership about 10 times since 7/3/2006 when the boat went into the shop for the 7/3 repairs. the boat was then worked on again on 7/6, 8/21, 8/25, 8/26, 8/29, 9/11, 9/14, 10/03, 10/10.
So basically with work and busy schedule every time I was able to get the time to go enjoy this boat we would go and grab it, drop her in the water just to have it fail before getting to go fishing. I think 9/6/2007 we made one trip offshore fishing and one of the motors took a complete shit during the trip.
Sadly that was my only fishing trip on this boat since the fall of 2006.

The boat is again sitting at a dealership getting more work done to add to the above. Went down the other day to pick her up and attempt to get her ready for one trip this year.
Sadly when I got there we dumped her in the water just to have the center motor take a shit.

Something that really has gotten me pissed off with Verado is the fact that I have been nothing but nice.
I have kept my mouth shut out of respect that I was the owner of this website, and had hopes of one day maybe being able to work with Mercury in a business sense. So my thoughts always was to keep a level head and be nice hoping they would just do the right thing.

Sadly every where I turn around I see speak with people who had 2005 Verado 275's and had major issues amazingly a lot of people got new motors on their boats.

Well he I sit like a freaking asshole with three piece of shit Mercury Verado's on the back of my boat.

I am going to spend some time typing up all the repairs these motors have gotten. I will also keep this thread updated with info constantly from here on out with the progress of my motors.

Please post up any questions and pass this thread along to anyone thinking of putting the Mercury Verado's on the back of a boat.

It just really kills me that we have spent a ton of money to have a nice boat for me to enjoy fishing with my kids and friends and it just sits as a flower pot.

Anytime I tell the wife the boat is ready can I take the kids out on the water she says " NO WAY ARE YOU TAKING OUR KIDS OUT ON THAT BOAT WITH THOSE VERY UNRELIABLE MOTORS."

Hey that's great, spend $150,000.00 dollars to have a boat to fish with my kids and no way in hell can we trust the motors to take us out and bring us home.

Well that's the start of my story and what I get for keeping quiet.

Anyone that thinks I'm an asshole for posting this just remember I'm the one with a boat I cannot fish on and also the one who owns a killer boat that I can not sell as anyone who looks at the work list that has been done on these motors would have to be smoking crack to buy them for a decent price.

I want to say one last time, I FREAKING love my Hydra-sport, I would buy the 33c again any day of the week.

Thanks for listening to me *****.

Signing off
John Eppehimer

SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM JOHN.Im not a fan of the verados,have seen many assorted problems with these motors most still under warrenty.Been a yamaha and bombardie cert. mech. for so long im a bit bias.love the hydro 33 hull fantastic boat.have hung quite a few e-tec motors past couple of years for offshore applications with very few problems,they seem to be doing well,have some out there with close to 1000hrs

[rarhomes]

Hell No.

Not only your wife and kids are scared to go out in your boat,
Just think how hard it is going to be to put together a crew for a tournament.

Good luck, hopefully Merc. will step up to the plate here and take some responsibility.

[Gringo]

Where we live, someone would have to really be pig headed to decide to buy anything but Yamaha. They have at least 90% of the market here. But this is not sport fishing country, like the US....these guys have to use their boats day in and day out. To visit mom on North Caicos. To bring groceries and plywood to brother on South Caicos, To load up on conch and lobster to sell to the restaurants on Provo. To catch snapper and yellowtails to feed their families.

They don't have the money to have their boats re-tweaked every weekend by a Phd. factory mechanic at eleventy thousand bucks an hour in a clean environment using inert gases to polish the injectors... They need the boat to run.

They don't need a motor that has to be hooked to a garden hose and flushed out every time a drop of seawater lands on the block, they need the boat to run.

They don't need to find out that the new unobtainium valve goosing rods on backorder til next season will increase their mileage by one one thousandth of an inch per gallon.....they don't give a damn about mileage, they just need the boat to run.

They don't need a motor that needs a technician with a computer to turn it back on after it overheats..they just need it to run. Every time.

And there is no Sea Tow here. Nor Navy. Nor Coast Guard. You can talk to yourself for a long time on Channel 16. But most of the guys running boats here don't even have a VHF radio. They know that if they are out of cell phone range they are screwed anyhow.

So the boat stopping for some outboard related reason is in really bad taste.

And they almost without exception use Yamahas.

[CB&T]

In my business, I put to many hours on motors to have outboards. But my first charter boat was a 32 Regulator with 300 HPDIS on it. Did not have any problems until about 1000 hrs, then they went to the shit hole. If I had to get outboards again, it would be the new Suzukis, a friend of mine has them, and they have been trouble free.

[Deep C]

Hello Admin
Sportfishermen.com is more than a place to talk about fishing, or boats, or other related topics. It goes past just a community of names and faceless people. Its a family... A family that cares for its own. I for one am sensitive to the family members and always have an eye open to those that are hurting for what ever reason. You sir are the glue that holds this special place together...
I pay attention to subtle things that are bothering my friends. I have written how many times now to check up on you and others who seem to be preoccupied with issue? Sometimes its related to the site operations... A server is acting up or some infighting among members is disrupting the happy flow. Sometimes its family things that are so distracting. I often try to help or at least let those who are hurting know I'm there for moral support.
This is a fishing site and you are a fisherman... I have known about a load of the Verado issues you have had. Seldom do you ever say anything. I can see it in your demeanor though. I can sense the frustration when a planned rare day to play is ruined by mechanical failure after mechanical failure. I have to pry it out of you sometimes. Yes you have been nice.
Too nice. How do you get repayed by the makers of the engineering blunders they call verado? Note I am slow to use a capital letter to start their ame... They have not "earned" that respect. .. I'll answer the question with my observations. If the manufacturers of those engines were anything close to concerned or respectful of your issues they would have had a new set on there in a blink. Any responsible manufacturer would. Their inaction indicates not only that their product is inferior but that their representitives themselves are pieces of shit.
Had it happened to me you would have read a whole lot about it. Not just about the woes with the engines and the reps but it could have made page two headlines as I was cgharged for holding a rep or two under the surface til the bubbles quit!
John... Nice did't work. Bring the heat to em. Use every single bit of leverage you can muster. Make this a front page issue. Members. Copy a link and pass it on. Print it and post it in every marine establishment you frequent. Ride em like a rusty ten speed. Get some legal help and let them know that you are comming for them backed with 20,000 pissed off family members.
Would I buy one??? I'd rather eat glass...

[Gringo]

Does someone here have an email address for the VP of marketing at Mercury?

I just BET a few thousand of us overloading his customer-service people would get some attention.

I don't mean the old "yer product sucks and yer a piece of shit" type emails.

I mean some thoughtful missives pointing out which specific customer's experiences have led us to stop plans to buy Mercs in general, and to go buy Japanese. ANY japanese.

What do y'all think? Market pressure is really useful. But it wont do much good unless it gets to the people who can make decisions at the top. The dealer can't do anything, really, but keep putting bandaids on the problems.
"
lets get on the case of the guy who can replace the motors with a single memo...

[Jer]

i work with programmers every day.... i know the breed.. but they are geeks... i am pretty sure they don't fish and hunt...

but it's a clever little trick, don't you think?

Hey, I do fish






(rarely)

[Russell A. Jost]

NO, too many horror stories.