Re: Where did Mariner come from?
As I understood it Mercury and Yamaha had an agreement where Mercury would sell re-badged Yamahas under the Mariner name, up to 60hp, with Mercury handling the motors above that. Yamaha, at the time, didn't have a full line of motors available (2-250, etc.) and this was their way of getting their foot in the door of the U.S. Market. The deal ran out in 1986 when Yamaha entered under their own name.<br /><br />Mercury kept the Mariner name into the late 1990s, offering pretty much identical lines of Mercs and Mariners. Part of it was due to brand loyalty and trying to keep the dealers happy. If I recall, Mercury had some requirements for dealers along the lines that there can't be two Merc dealers within a certain area, but a Mariner dealer could be located near a Mercury dealer. If Mercury had just dropped the Mariner line in 1986 they would have had a lot of unhappy Mariner dealers who now would have to either drop outboards alltogether or take on another brand so as to not compete with the local Merc dealer.<br /><br />Merc and Yamaha still have a love/hate relationship with some 4-stroke stuff coming from Yamaha, but then claiming foul about some of Yamaha's marketing and importing methods...<br /><br />- Scott
