Cterre, maybe the reason you're not seeing many Etecs in your shop is there aren't many in the field. Somebody has to buy them for you to work on them. If this board is an indicator, there are only a few Etec owners here. Maybe Evinrude should compare an Etec 2 stroke to a Yamaha or Mercury 2 stroke. I think the results may be a little different. I think you'll see that Yamaha has many more four stroke outboards in the field than Evinrude Etecs. Unfortunately, the Fichts put them in a hole and their market share dropped. What I see is it's a four stroke marketplace with Yamaha, Suzuki, Verado, and Honda. I do however think BRP is trying to do it right, especially with warranty issues. I think it's difficult to give a 5 yr warranty when Etecs haven't been on the market that long. In my area of Florida, 90% of the guides are running Yamahas, some with upwards of 3000 hrs on them. A friend recently removed a Yamaha 2 stroke (with no major repairs) from his boat with 4800 hrs on it. I know Evinrude makes a statement about no maintenance for 300 hrs, what about the typical guy that puts 50 hrs a year on an outboard? Six yrs w/o maintenance, could that be true? This post is just my $.02. When it comes down to it, it's a matter of good dealer and factory backup and personal preference. It is nice to keep the business in the USA, however, guess where the final money goes, Canada.
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