omc or mercury

[GerClaire612]

i have never owned a mercury only omc.i found a basstracker that has a mercury dont no nothing about them.so what i'm asking are the motors any good or should i stay with jonhson/evinrude

 

[Bifflefan]

Re: omc or mercury

Merc has been around for many years, OMC is gone, Johnson is gone, Evinrude is still here but its made by BRP.

Merc is very good, hence the fact they are still here.

I had an older Johnson and it was a very good motor. Never had a Mercury O/B.
Now I have a Mercruiser and its also a very good motor.

They all have good and bad points, its just what you like.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: omc or mercury

I don't know, this is like the question:

"Chevy or Ford" they both are just fine as long as you do you part, I have owned Evinrude, Johnson, Mercury, Elgin and all of them were just fine as long as I maintained them, just as my Chevy's, Dodges, Fords and Plymouth's..

The key is YOU, keep them up to snuff, maintain them as your suppose to and you should have no problems.

Yes, I am aware there are bad products out there, but 99% of the time, it is the owner that does not do his/her part to ensure as few problems as possible.

 

[GerClaire612]

Re: omc or mercury

im going to the lake tomorrow to test ride it is there any thing i need to check for. and does these motors have a tell tell were the water pisses out

 

[GerClaire612]

Re: omc or mercury

went to test the boat out it wouldnt start so i don't think i'm going to get this one

 

[SeaKaye12]

Re: omc or mercury

It wouldn't start; eh?

Wow...that must have been embarrassing for the owner... Maybe that opened the door for you to do some aggressive bargaining. A boat that won't start...at the end of the season.....time to snap up a bargain.

As for your initial question...my only input would be to buy whatever brand is well represented in your area from a service point of view.

If you decide to pursue this boat I think you would get more helpful responses here if you would give us some idea of how old the motor in question is; the HP and year...that sort of thing.

Good luck, Chuck

 

[reelfishin]

Re: omc or mercury

Service in your area is a good point, I've always gone with Johnson/Evinrude simply because those dealers were the best to deal with around here. I've never had a Mercury dealer I liked or could deal with.

The later Mercury motors seem to be pretty much on par with all the others, the early Mercury motors were a bit different all around from the rest. Mercury also seemed to always take more special tools to work on than did the OMC motors back then.

I've owned both, most of the issues I had with my older Mercury motors were wiring related due to age, while I've had the same issues with several OMC built motors, I was able to find the parts to fix it more affordable than I did for the Mercury. Their 'switch box' electrical system also could get expensive when the switch box failed. The last one cost me $400, yet a power pack ignition module for a Johnson cost me only $110 from the dealer, and it was in stock. The same year Mercury switch box took a week for the dealer to tell me it was back ordered and I finally bought it from NAPA auto parts aftermarket for over $140 less than the dealer wanted for. Both were early 80's motors. I also liked the OMC built in power tilt units vs the early remote pump and lines tilt set up that Mercury used back then.

 

[GerClaire612]

Re: omc or mercury

thanks for the info we got a lot of mercury and evinrude shops here the boat i went to look at was a 93 50hp mercury.i didn't even try to bargan with the guy cuz i know nothing about mercury.i have only had the omc motors i know working on them not hard

 

[jbjennings]

Re: omc or mercury

A mercury that wouldn't crank???????????????
Can't be.....................

 

[bktheking]

Re: omc or mercury

I like both OMC and Merc , i'll throw in my 2 cents.

I like the OMC's for their ease of repair, Merc's are just as easy minus the special tools required to do simple maintanance. Now it all depends on the year of a motor, I'll take a KG7 over a QD-12 any day of the week, I'll take a 64 Tower of Power over my 83 johnny 90hp just cause they are cool and have heaps of power, I'll take a 90 ETEC over any motor on my boat.