Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

[captaindale]

Puchased a boat with a 2010 Suzuki 150; the boat is a 2007 Mako. When advertised the dealer stated the motor had 1200 hours on it. I questioned that and the salesman said that probably was not correct. It was used as a pleasure rental boat in the area of Destin Florida; I said I would not buy a boat with that many hours on it considering it was a 2010 model. I asked for a motor history report. I received a typed report and one item said 3400 hours and this was highlighted in yellow;a "handwritened" note was inserted next to the items hightlighted in yellow that the estimated run hours were 560. My confidence was secured and the compression figures turned out good so I decided to make the purchase since it is a very reputable dealership in Florida. Brought the boat home to Louisiana and decided to have my local Suzuki dealer give it a fresh tune up and oil change. He said the boat did not have a Suzuki tachometer and the most ideal thing would be to have one put in so that I could receive caution warnings when something need attention. When he installed the tacometer he said "this is showing that the red light is blinking 3 times which mean 540 hours per blink. I contacted the dealership and the Service Manager where I bought the boat who admitted that the original computer that came with the engine "broke" and to save $1500 they replaced the Suzuki computer with one from another motor...what type or name of motor I have no idea. He said I am to start counting from this point and that the replacement computer was put in "recently". I have the motor history report that was recently generated and there was no mention of replacing the original computer. I told the person that if I had to trade in or sell this engine in the future that I would be faced with a dilema. I could not convince this person that what they did was unethical. I plan to bring this to the attention of the owner of this dealership. This dealership has 4 large locations in Florida and I have not seen any bad reviews about them. Doesn't all of this sound deceiving though.

 

[JB]

Re: Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

Failing to disclose is sometimes even worse than lying. You were deceived. Take it back and get a full refund.

 

[captaindale]

Re: Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

I would like to consider that as an option but I am waiting to here from the owner of the company. I emailed him Monday and have not heard from him yet and today is Wednesday. The copy of the purchase does not have the box checked off "As Is". I am not sure what grounds I have but will investigate. I paid $14,200 for the boat and motor. The boat is in great shape but I now feel very insecure about the motor. If you remove an outboard motor's computer doesn't that destroy all of it's true history. This seems very unethical.

 

[99yam40]

Re: Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

I would never buy a rental to start out with
the hours put on it are not the same type of hours someone that owned the boat would put on it.
They are run hard and the renters do not care one way or the other about the boat and motor.

You have a report that the motor has 3400 hours on it, hand written note it estimated to have 560, and the computer saying it has 3 times 540. did they say where all the stuff on the report came from if the computer was replaced with a used one?

If an ECU went bad there are not a lot of options on keeping all the info that was in it.
they should have said that up front, but maybe they did but not in understandable words if the report is so different from their estimated hours

 

[captaindale]

Re: Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

You are right about there other options on keeping the information that was on the motor's computer. This seems more and more like clear deception on their part to hide hours. The 3400 hours info is coming from the computer that was placed on the motor according to what they are telling me. The red light flashed 3 times which means 3 times 540 hours.

 

[99yam40]

Re: Something Seems Suspicious Here...Opinions Sought

3 times 540 is not 3400 it is 1620