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Lot of bads, not a whole lot of goods from what I've seen and experienced.. For me, just bought a '04 328 Vista with twin XDP drives, and have thus far not had a good experience.. Hoping the issues are over, but from what I understand, bellows issues exist through three revisions of them (have not experienced this yet, but I'm just getting started).. My boat, was inspected by a certified marine surveyor, and a marine engine surveyor (two different people), and my issue was still missed. Was on the boat several times before and during the survey, and never once saw the bildge run.. THe boat is in otherwise immaculate condition and was well cared for by the previous owner, and was rack stored during the boating season.. We purchased the boat, had a trailer made for it, and hauled it home from West Virginia to Central Illinois.. It was a salt water boat with it's original owner, but as I said, was rack stored when not in use and flushed after every use. I get it home, in the water, and in my slip, used it for one weekend after its arrival, and the following week get a call that the bilge is running every half hour at the most. I immediately headed down to check it out, and could see water coming in somewhere at the transom area of the drive line it seemed, but couldn't pinpoint it for lack of visibility. I called the marina the next day, had them go look it over, and they determined that there was a hole in the exhaust y-pipe at the elbow. I was able to verify with a camera, and pulled it out the following weekend (after using it a little more). Hauled it to my local Fourwinns dealer 2 hours away, where it was set to have the motor pulled to have the y-pipe replaced, this is where the real problem was discovered. When the motor and drive came out, it was discovered that the transom shield (basically what the drive hangs on and the drive line runs through), had a crack in it, and would need to be replaced as well. This crack apparently seeped water through the shield, where it ran down the exhaust pipe, and dripped off of it at the elbow, where the salt water ate through the pipe from the outside in.. Apparently, Volvo is VERY aware of the issues with the drive, but has never issued a recall on them, but fairly quickly stopped making them, and most of the parts associated with them. My dealer had to make a call to Volvo to locate the transom shield, and was advised by Volvo, that only two where left in stock anywhere in the world, and they were both in Sweden.. At $1100 a piece, I purchased both, and paid $600 in shipping to get them here.. All went back together fairly easily, and my mechanic was a pro at removing and reinstalling motors and drives so the labor was kept to a minimum, but the whole ordeal was not cheap, and leaves me with a sick feeling about the other drive now too... Beyond fixing the transom shield, which cracking is also a fairly common issue with this drive, the other option, is to convert to another drive system, which requires changing out the shields as well, along with the drives at a cost somewhere around $10k to $15k each.. I got the boat back in the water for one more weekend before having to call it a season, and upon pulling her out for the season, discovered that the other drive had developed a gear oil leak around the shift lever shaft. This was a bad seal that I was able to fix myself pretty inexpensively.. Hopefully, I won't have to deal with this anymore, and my issues will be over with, but it thus far has not been a pleasant experience. I blame myself for not doing my research, but my previous boat had Volvo drives, and I never had one bit of trouble with them in 5 seasons so I went with brand experience I guess.. Next time around, I will definately do more research....
_________________  2004 Four Winns 328 Vista 1997 Larson Cabrio 290 - sold 1988 Rinker Fiesta Vee 248 - sold
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Better to know this stuff now rather than find out after I buy. Thank you for the input, fellas!
