# Motor Manufacturers - what is good?



## nvf104 (Apr 4, 2019)

Hi all. I’m brand new to boating. Just bought my first boat - a 14.5’ MonArk v-hull for purposes of getting my kids out on the water. Boat did not come with an outboard, but is rated for 30 hp. So, I’ve started looking at outboards. 

My initial question: is their a general hierarchy as to which manufacturers are good, better, great? 

As far as I can tell, the manufacturers available to me in the US are: 

Mercury 
Yamaha
Suzuki
Honda
Evinrude 

Am I missing someone?

Is Mercury the sole US manufacturer? Are all of their motors built in the US?

Thanks in advance!

Mitch 


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## Weldorthemagnificent (Apr 4, 2019)

I'm a johnnyrude fan for the older motors. As far as new ones, pick a dealer you like who has a good name in the area and go with what they sell. As far as north American manufacturers, Evinrude. All small Mercs are Tohatsu, which are good motors, just not made here. Like most things. 

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## GYPSY400 (Apr 4, 2019)

It all depends on your budget.. if your buying New they are all pretty good ( with Yamaha and Honda being slightly better) if your buying something old, stay away from Force / Chrysler. 

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## Justaguy442 (Apr 4, 2019)

Tohastu makes their own motor plus mercury 30 hp or less and evinrude motors 15hp or less i tihnk.. But i highly doubt you can go wrong with any of your listed engines. Yamaha run forever, Hard to find anything bad about a Suzuki, Honda has been building small engines forever. Mercury and Evinrude guys will be fighting forever, but both good engines.

Warranty, local service is very important,


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## jethro (Apr 4, 2019)

I've got two Merc's from the Late 90's early 2000's that have been fantastic. They all can be good when maintained properly, or useless junk if they aren't.


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## Weldorthemagnificent (Apr 4, 2019)

I run a 1983 Johnson 35 and trust it enough for overnight trips. 

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## turbotodd (Apr 4, 2019)

Mercury never build ALL their own powerheads for years. Yamaha built several Mariner (which is part of Brunswick-which is the parent company of Mercury, so merc and mariner are one in the same basically) outboards. I remember the 40's back in the 80's were Yamaha outboards re-badged and painted to look like mariners. Good motors too, for the most part. Merc small outboards to this day are built by Tohatsu (up to I think 30hp). Then, Merc had a partnership to build some powerhead parts for Yamaha's old school 25hp 4 stroke outboards, and it certainly showed. They were good motors but you knew they had mercury in 'em. They abandoned that and the new powerhead for the 25hp is 100% yamaha designed, EFI and all.


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## JNG (Apr 8, 2019)

Tohatsu makes the smaller Nissans, Mercurys, and Evinrudes. Tohatsu, Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha are all good. I would choose Honda first then Tohatsu but really all are good motors.


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## MrGiggles (Apr 8, 2019)

Where older motors are concerned, OMC (Evinrude/Johnson) is preferred because of parts availability. It can be tough to find parts for older Mercury outboards.


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## DaleH (Apr 8, 2019)

The BEST of the best ... for you ... will be one of the top-rated brands as already reported, that is close to you AND has a proven track record of working with you.

Some brand Dealers in my neck of the woods won't deal with you if you didn't buy the product from them. Oh yeah, they'll promise you the world and tell you to _" .... just bring it in"_, ... but then you'll wait MONTHS for service, and if they reply their response will be ... _"We'll get to you, but right now we're servicing our regular customers ... "_.

Personally I would place Honda towards the bottom of any list and Tohatsu at the top. There are no more Nissan motors, but worldwide they and Tohatsu do have the best reputation as the most reliable brands. With that said however, _Dealer locale and availability does impact ready access_ to their sales and service centers here in the States.


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## ppine (Apr 8, 2019)

I really like Yamaha. Plenty of serviceable engines out there. Lots of good used ones. It takes some looking to figure out which ones to avoid.


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## LDUBS (Apr 8, 2019)

DaleH said:


> The BEST of the best ... for you ... will be one of the top-rated brands as already reported, that is close to you AND has a proven track record of working with you.
> 
> Some brand Dealers in my neck of the woods won't deal with you if you didn't buy the product from them. Oh yeah, they'll promise you the world and tell you to _" .... just bring it in"_, ... but then you'll wait MONTHS for service, and if they reply their response will be ... _"We'll get to you, but right now we're servicing our regular customers ... "_.
> 
> Personally I would place Honda towards the bottom of any list and Tohatsu at the top. There are no more Nissan motors, but worldwide they and Tohatsu do have the best reputation as the most reliable brands. With that said however, _Dealer locale and availability does impact ready access_ to their sales and service centers here in the States.



Dale, just curious why would you put Honda at the bottom? BTW, I agree with on on Tohatsu. I loved my 25 HP Merc/Tohatsu.


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## GYPSY400 (Apr 9, 2019)

MrGiggles said:


> Where older motors are concerned, OMC (Evinrude/Johnson) is preferred because of parts availability. It can be tough to find parts for older Mercury outboards.


I find it is also very hard to find used parts for a Yamaha . If the dealer doesn't have it EBay is scarce.

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## DaleH (Apr 9, 2019)

LDUBS said:


> ... just curious why would you put Honda at the bottom? BTW, I agree with on Tohatsu. I loved my 25 HP Merc/Tohatsu.


I find their smaller ones to be dogs - heavy & slow. Their 90hp & 130hp appear to very good, but anything larger appears to be using older (heavier) 4-stroke technology. Just a bias, that’s all ...


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## LDUBS (Apr 9, 2019)

DaleH said:


> LDUBS said:
> 
> 
> > ... just curious why would you put Honda at the bottom? BTW, I agree with on Tohatsu. I loved my 25 HP Merc/Tohatsu.
> ...



Thanks Dale. I've only owned two outboards: a 25 Merc and the current 50 Honda (both four strokes). So I don't have any good basis for comparison. As long as the Honda keeps on being dependable at trolling speed I'll be happy. Haha Truth be told, in the 100+ hours of running, I doubt it has been at wide open throttle for more than 30 seconds total. 

On newer boats I see a lot of Yamahas, Mercurys, and Hondas. I see some Tohatsu's too. Don't seem to see too many Evinrude's. Not sure why. Maybe it is a regional thing based on dealer/mfg promotions.


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## GYPSY400 (Apr 9, 2019)

LDUBS said:


> DaleH said:
> 
> 
> > LDUBS said:
> ...


The main reason you don't see too many evinrude motors is because most boats are bought as a package.. most major boat manufactures are under the Brunswick corperation.. which Mercury marine is also a part of.

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## LDUBS (Apr 9, 2019)

GYPSY400 said:


> LDUBS said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks Dale. I've only owned two outboards: a 25 Merc and the current 50 Honda (both four strokes). So I don't have any good basis for comparison. As long as the Honda keeps on being dependable at trolling speed I'll be happy. Haha Truth be told, in the 100+ hours of running, I doubt it has been at wide open throttle for more than 30 seconds total.
> ...




I got curious and took a look. I am really surprised at how many boat and marine accessory brands fall under Brunswick Corp.


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## turbotodd (Apr 17, 2019)

I won't disagree with Mercury's mid range 4 strokes. They seem to be old-school tech, haven't changed a whole lot since they hit the scenes in the late 90's and early 2000's. Many of the small changes that were made were done to improve reliability (gaskets, etc). I've been doing some home-based outboard stuff and a large majority of what I am seeing is merc and OMC & BRP. Rarely do I see a Yamaha.

Parts are available for all of them if you look around.

Used parts for Yamaha's aren't quite as popular because people generally fix them rather than scrapping them AND they don't break that often. In the 24 years I've done dealer work (yamaha and briefly Mariner/Mercury), I've only had 2 motor failures-both due to lack of oil (one was an oil change who forgot to put oil back in and the other a rat ate into a transfer tank line and the tank ran out of oil). An insurance job or two and a ton of carburetor cleanings from sitting up for months on end. These are mostly sub 100hp, most of them 25hp. While I had mercury, they were in all the time for something or other. Broken linkages, dead switchboxes, stators, wiring (the insulation would crumble on the 40 mag that I remember), coils, leaking exhaust cover gaskets, defective nicasil and then mercosil blocks, etc. And of course Merc didn't want to stand behind the warranty. The 25's were well known for exhaust cover gaskets leaking, water would get into the cylinders through the leaking cover, and would take out the #2 cylinder...rendering the block junk (it is not repairable).Obvious defects, they'd kick them back saying "not defective"-and then we'd have to call the customer & tell them they'd have to pay for the repairs since Merc denied it. A block was around $1100 back then + labor and gaskets (not much off from replacing the entire motor with a new one). Makes us and the manufacture look like idiots. Glad we got rid of them but miss having enough work to justify being a dealer. We could physically call the tech line, get approval for the repairs, then when it came time to get paid, they'd back up on it. A few of those and we were done with 'em. THANK GOODNESS. Nowadays it's all web/computer based. Maybe stuff has changed and I certainly hope so. 

Having dealt with Merc/Mariner and then Yamaha factory dealer support, I can tell you first hand that from day one and day "last" (merc), Yamaha's tech support line is top notch professionals. We are a multi-line dealer of all sorts of stuff and I guarantee you that Yamaha's tech is STILL far and away the most professional of all 9 lines of products we handle. That doesn't mean that there isn't room to improve, however (there always is), but comparing to the other 8? HUGE difference! Now if we could just recruit some other outboard techs....that is a challenge across the board...nobody wants to get dirty anymore and everyone expects a million dollar annual salary for punching a program into a black box.


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## Jim (Apr 17, 2019)

I will echo warranty and local service should be number one factor.


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## DaleH (Apr 17, 2019)

... yeah, Yamaha’s response to the exhaust housing corrosion :shock: sure was the BEST example of outstanding OB support ... _at least for what NOT to do ..._


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## bcbouy (Apr 17, 2019)

some broken records would have you believe that yamaha are the be all end all outboard motor.having owned one i can say hardly.mine was a dog.i'd put my tohatsu and my etec way above my yamaha.


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