New outboard prices outrage

[woodski]

I have recently been looking to upgrade my Mercury 90hp outboard .So I have spent a while pricing new outboard engines. After receiving quotes and talking to various trade reps about the 2 stroke v 4 stroke debate one thing became glaringly obvious. The prices have gone nuts in some cases as much as a 30% increase in less than a year .This being directly attributed to the Sterling –Euro exchange rate .Many of the dealers who I spoke to agreed that this is unfair. Take for example a Suzuki 115 4 stroke RRP £11300 .The nets offered were £8300-£9000



.I said to the dealers that I could buy a………….
New Suzuki ALTO MOTOR CAR from only £7655 and now 0% finance available
£7,655.00


I am surely not alone in smelling a very large rat here? On the outboard motor I have not noticed :- 4 wheels/ tyres/ brakes /transmission/ radio /air con /lights/ seats/chassis/windscreen .etc, etc .Yet all of this is available for the princely sum of £7655 on a Suzuki Alto .I am also aware of the communality of motor parts i.e. engine block and ignition systems etc. This I am sure would vindicate my assumption that price of these engine parts are relatively inexpensive. Let us also surmise that these engines are not powered by rocket science but are indeed largely derivatives of the Car industry .Transmission of their power through 90 degrees to the water no more difficult to engineer than their land based relatives.
Indeed on some engines the same block is used in many models and with the use of a computerised fuel management system the engine HP can be boosted from 90 -125 HP.If you are prepared to fork out an extra £1700 for the privilege.
I can therefore only come to this conclusion if you are running about on a RIB/fishing boat you have more money than sense and are therefore rich enough for exploitation by this arm of motor constructors. I would suggest that a large number of my fellow RIB lovers are men and women are not bankers or hedge fund managers .They are middle income earners that like getting out on the water and who probably have budgets to which they have to keep . I would therefore suggest to The mandarins that they export from Japan Yen to GB Sterling otherwise their already dwindling UK market will drop further .

NB This article also apples to: - Mercury/Mariner/Yamaha/Honda etc

PS Does this mean my old engine has gone up in value? Mmm LoL……

[Poly]

Originally Posted by woodski

I would therefore suggest to The mandarins that they export from Japan Yen to GB Sterling otherwise their already dwindling UK market will drop further .

but Yen:GBP has gone much the same way as Euro:GBP - so the price change is similar. The increased costs of dealing direct with the UK as a single country rather than Europe as a whole region would counteract any benefit.

PS Does this mean my old engine has gone up in value? Mmm LoL……

2nd hand values are determined by market forces - so I expect that it will at least stop depreciating quite so fast, because (a) people think twice about trading up - so there are fewer in circulation (b) people will still need engines but may not be willing to splash out on a new one increasing demand for 2nd hand.

Although the credit crunch may have a bigger overall effect at reducing the number of people buying boats/engines and increasing those trying to offload assets to access cash.

[Marinautic]

As a dealer, I sympathise with you. Unfortunately, we, along with the distributor for Mercury outboards in the UK, don't actually get a very big slice of the price of these motors.

We currently sell a Merc 115 elpt 4 stroke merc at less than £8k, we'd like it to be more, but hopefully survive by selling lots, at low prices!

[9D280]

Couple of techy / cost observations:

1) It may be the same block as the cars, but on a car the oil in the sump tends to sit there happily as it is mounted horizontally. Turn it on it's end and you need a whole new set of toys to make sure the oil gets to where it needs to go & everything stays lubed.

2) Car engines don't spend a good chunk of their time at WOT. How much re- engineering is needed to "bullet proof" against that?

3) The volume of outboard sales per development cost is nothing like what the cars will manage, so the development costs need to be spread across a lot fewer units.

4) The "tweak the engine management for more HP" is in reality "tweak it dowen for less - which brings us back to #3 - it ups the number of units sold for a given amout of tooling cost (block castings, stampings, injection mould tools for the plastic bits...... therfore bringing the cost per unit to manufacture down.



I'll leave the international finance experts to discuss the rest........

[C2 RIBS]

There was an interesting conversation at Southampton show last September that engine prices had to go up very soon due to the issues around the price in the UK and the prices in Europe as the exchange rates were so poor. Apparently there was some suggestion that prices in the UK had to go up due to financial equality in the european market. I think that was the mark of it, for GBP it seems a lash up for us.

I suppose the market in Europe was sinking on engine sales yet rising in the UK as buyers from Europe saw our money transfers made the price excellent in the UK.

[Mollers]

Marine engines and cars bear no comparison. Car manufacturing is hugely financially assisted in many ways and for many reasons. Governments prop-up car companies all over the World. I know that Suzuki and Yamaha are also manufacturers of road going products, but their marine depts will be 'stand alone' businesses. Also it's a numbers game, everyone has a car of some description. Not so many own an outboard.

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

..... for GBP it seems a lash up for us.

Where are you from?

[C2 RIBS]

Originally Posted by Mollers

Where are you from?

Sorry Mollers was appealing to the world and Penryn with pounds

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by C2 RIBS

Sorry Mollers was appealing to the world and Penryn with pounds

It's certainly a 'lash-up'.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by woodski

I am also aware of the communality of motor parts i.e. engine block and ignition systems etc...these engines are not powered by rocket science but are indeed largely derivatives of the Car industry

Do you know this for a fact? I've looked at a number of modern outboard engines, all of which bear little comparison to any car engine I've seen. When I was researching the purchase of a Suzuki DF90 the blurb made the point that this was a specific design for an outboard and shared no parts - other than perhaps some sensors - with any Suzuki car engine.

I'd be interested to know which 'car' engines also double up as 'outboard' engines

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by Mollers

Car manufacturing is hugely financially assisted in many ways and for many reasons.

Interestingly, this is actually illegal in the EU as it contravenes anti-competition laws. It's amazing how much, er, creativity comes in to play for it to happen.

[Carl]

Originally Posted by Leapy

Do you know this for a fact? I've looked at a number of modern outboard engines, all of which bear little comparison to any car engine I've seen. When I was researching the purchase of a Suzuki DF90 the blurb made the point that this was a specific design for an outboard and shared no parts - other than perhaps some sensors - with any Suzuki car engine.

I'd be interested to know which 'car' engines also double up as 'outboard' engines

the big hondas

[Mollers]

Originally Posted by Leapy

Interestingly, this is actually illegal in the EU as it contravenes anti-competition laws.

LDV government bail-outs and Nissan buying a a large chunk of the NE for agricultural rates.

[Leapy]

Originally Posted by Mollers

LDV government bail-outs and Nissan buying a a large chunk of the NE for agricultural rates.

Sadly, all of this is small scale to what goes on in France and Germany

[davej]

Hi, Unfortunately marine engines and everthing else connected with the marine industry is and always has been expensive and while I agree that they actually have gone up significantly in the last year due to the sterling- euro exchange rate drop (blame the government), in relative terms they are probably still alot cheaper that they were 20 years ago when we all earned 10 quid a month!

I think it's a great opportunity to keep running the older O/B and actually look after them, as when they are looked after they will last a lifetime. My dive clubs 2s Yam 115 is a 1994 engine and looks almost mint, its been very well looked after and apart from gobbling fuel is as smooth as silk and is 100% reliable!! mmm that's a dangerous statement.

I agree it's tough if you need a new or bigger engine, just a thought but could you import one from the states, a colleague did that with a bayliner boat a while back and it was certaunly cheaper than buying the same craft in the uk. I also sometimes buy boat bits from the states via the internet.

As one of the other contributers have said, marine engines and cars are very different because of the different volumes involved, just look at the costs of running a small aircraft. All the spares are very expensive and not really because they are anything special in terms of technology its just the volumes and the bull shit that they are manufactured out of special materials and are genuine OEMs etc.

I intend to keep my old smokey Merc going for as long as possible as its, light in weight, cheap to maintain, simple and I can understand how it works and generally fix it myself, using a merc workshop manual.

Just my thoughts.

Davej

[Jizm]

Originally Posted by Carl

the big hondas

That's what I was told, by Honda....