www.iFourWinns.com

If that is your position I will accept it. But, you are at least forced to accept that chocolate is better than vanilla. There are NO known people on the planet who think otherwise.

_________________
Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Yes, chocolate over vanilla!!!!

Four Winns vs, well, just about most of them.

_________________
2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

Howdy,



Well, I don't really think it's a FORD/Chevy comparison really and the

"Myth" is not really a myth.


If you're going to buy new manufacture, OEM parts, you're right... there's really no difference if you have a VP dealer/parts source nearby. It won't make any difference getting even NON-stock parts since there's always FEDEX/UPS overnight etc available. You'll get your part.....same availability.


If you're a "do-it-yourselfer" and you want parts, new or used and you like to get them on ebay, craigslist or other classified (NON-dealer) source, then it's a "whole nuther story"


Take EBAY for example. do a search in the EBAY Motors "Boat parts" section for "Mercruiser" and do a similar search for "Volvo"....

On any given day you'll find about 3 times as many MORE Mercruiser "parts" than you will for Volvo. Just now it was 2498:786 (for you math wizards that's slightly greater than 3:1)


Now lets say you're looking for a new drive because you whacked a log or a rock with yours.... (dealer of course wants a small fortune for a new drive)

I did my search and sorted highest price at the top. 200 items per page.

But if you just count the number of brand new drives for sale,
I found about 25 new Mercruiser drives. on the first page!

I didn't count the used ones for sale.

I found No new VP drives on the first page of 200 items (highest price first)....... and 7 used drives.


There's NOTHING WRONG WITH VP drives and NO, you didn't make a bad choice.........

Besides, the first Volvo drive was designed by Mercury!

http://www.rbbi.com/folders/pat/isd.htm



Cheers,


Rick

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1987 Four Winns Liberator 211, formerly OMC 460 King Kobra powered, replaced in 2006 by a 1997 Mercruiser 454/Bravo III

The complete opposite in the UK ! VP comes up #1 on Ebay, due adverts by one of the dealers.

Graham

And if by chance you like to use aftermarket, well there is just about everything available for Merc drives, everywhere you go, some for OMC and some for Volvo, but it is so much more Merc that I can see why some people just go with Merc. Now if I ever have to repower my old boat (probably not worth it) the Volvo conversion being available for the Cobra, makes it much easier because you don't have to change everything as you would going to Merc....but the Volvo drive costs more than twice as much as a Merc Alpha (these are new prices just for comparison, used prices vary too much to compare directly). Of course some will say the Volvo is more the equal of the Bravo, than Alpha, but cost wise in terms of parts, I could get an Alpha+the entire transom assembly+trim rams, for less still than the Volvo drive alone costs.

_________________
88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II