no one sells E-Tecs around here. Admittedly, this is Yamaha country. Yamaha has always gone after the independant boat companies(although they own a couple) and there are a lot of independant boat companies manufactured here in SC. There were a couple of dealers that suffered thru the OMC/Bomb buy out, and suffered thru FICHT/RAMFICT/E-TEC. But every one of these dealers around here bailed on the product. There were a lot of issues(just about every company has issues), but the volume of sales didn't justify the problems. There is only one dealer in this area that services E-Tecs. There are 10 Yamaha dealers and 6 Mercury dealers(one Honda and one Suzuki). Personally, I'd say there have been some engines that OMC has built over the years that have been pretty good(carb 2 stroke<150 hp) and I'll put them up against most of anything out there. But in my opinion, the V6 engine family from OMC/Bomb has not been one of the better series. As far as the newer engines goes, at that type of money investment, I wouldn't take any chances on a product I had questions about, I'd go mainstream(Yamaha). Keep in mind, I work on all kinds of engines, outboard, Inboard, I/O, gas and diesel. I've been doing it for 30 years and held a master certification in more than one manufacture. I just haven't seen anything on the E-Tecs that would warrant me to buy one over a Yamaha or Merc. If you look at areas that have a popular E-TEC customer base, you'll notice most of them are in colder climate, usually fresh water, IE:shorter season, less corrosion. The people I know that have bought E-TECS have made their decision mainly on price difference. There are not enough of them around here to really form a good opinion. In over 1500 drystack slips in the tri county area, I can point out less than 10 E-Tecs, at the recent local boat show(over 1000 boats) there were three E-TECs on display. They may make a good engine, but they have their work cut out for them to gain market share. Their recent redesign didn't help them much
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04-16-2015, 08:14 AM
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