Question regarding boat motor- Buying new boat

[billb1981]

Hello,

I'm new to the board and plan on posting a quick intro, but first....a question for you guys/gals who have bought new boats...

We are buying a 2015 Lowe Pontoon through our Cableas here in Kansas City. We paid for the boat and received all the paperwork. I was going through it, and looking at the information specifically on the motor. It is a 60HP Mercury Bigfoot. Anyway, the model year on it is 2014, and it was produced in late 2013. It is a new motor, but I am wondering is that normal to sell a 2015 model boat, but use a 2014 model motor? I don't figure there is much difference between a 2013,14,15 outboard 4 cycle motor, but was just curious if anyone else has had this happen, or is the dealer trying to get rid of their stock of 14's and charging me for a 15, or is there any difference in price between years? I didn't know if it was like a car.

Thanks,

Bill, Shawnee KS

[ron nh]

I don't think they make "bigfoot" anymore. they now call them "command thrust" not positive about 60hp. sounds like there trying to get rid of leftovers. I'm sure thats common practice as long as there up front about it. I just bought a mercury 115 and made sure I got the 2015 because its a new design.

[curtiscapk]

Welcome Neighbor! Sounds to me like they maybe? pulled a fast one? I would call them to discuss. I am sure it is a fine motor, but if they didn't tell you upfront that seems a little sketchy... I would have them throw in some goodies to make up for it! Boat hook, life jackets, bumpers, etc.

[billb1981]

Thanks....I'll def. put a call in, we don't pick it up until Saturday, wanted to take it out this weekend, but.....the way our weather has been I won't need a lake for it.

I'm guessing that's common practice too, and it's probably all about the same price, and you're right it's not officially a bigfoot, it's the ELPT CommandThrust.

[BobG]

Make sure they give you the 60 with the "115" logo.

[billb1981]

Hah.....yeah we really wanted to go to a 90 or a 115, but prices were just out of our budget. We looked at used, but this time of year it's hard to find something as specific as we wanted, so we figured we'd get along just fine with the 60 CT. It's a Lowe SF214, with a lot of great options on there. It was between that and suntracker, and I wasn't impressed with the dealers at Bass Pro and how they handled the boats, and as much as I like the suntracker, the 22' was too much and the 20 didn't have everything we wanted. The Lowe has a few more bells and whistles for us...

[crookedlaker]

I was my dealership last weekend and we discussed this exact subject, This is how it was explained to me.
Boat motors have a date of manufacturer but are normally titled in the year they are sold. but can vari from build date to title year.
when i bought my boat my dealer had quite a few 60 hp motors from 2013 that were changed out to larger motors per customer request. One of the boats we looked at had a 60 and i asked about putting a 115 on it, he declined as he had too many 60's in stock already. he had three 60 bigfoots on the floor for sale with 2013 build dates
Mercury did come out with a series of 75 thru 115 command thrust motors for pontoon and
other large boats in addition to their standard 75-115 hp motors, they have a larger gear case and higher gear ratio
and can run a larger 16" dia prop. ideal for pontoon boats
The old "big foot" motors are now called Command Thrust" in the 40 thru 60 hp series. i believe the command thrust and the
Big Foot motors are the same, only the name has changed.
As long as they are upfront about it, no harm, no foul.

enjoy your new boat

Mike

[billb1981]

Thanks for the response...that helps out a lot. They did throw in the additional 2 year warranty giving me full warranty for 5 years on it, something bass pro offered after pulling teeth. Would it be safe to assume the price is about the same or should I ask for money back?

[crookedlaker]

if you are happy with the total price go for it
5 years of warranty is a good thing

[curtiscapk]

Where do you plan on boating Bill?

[Cowracer]

There sometimes is some weird shit that goes on with model years, and year of manufacturing. My buddy and I bought our campers at the exact same time literally on the same phone call. They are identical in every respect, down to the penny. As we both wanted a certain set of options, they had to be built for us. I figured they would come down the line together, and have sequential serial numbers.

He got his 3 weeks before me, and according to the VINs, his is a 2013 and mine is a 2014. Go figure.

Tim

[Bamaman]

FYI: The difference between a 60 Merc bigfoot and a Merc 90 hp should be $1350-1400. The 115 hp motor's another $700-800.
That's from a dealer inventory purchased directly from Mercury.

Boat manufacturers get even better deals when they purchase engines in bulk and in turn deliver them to the selling dealer with the boat.

[ROLAND]

I really don't think it's a big deal that your motor is 1 year older than your model boat.. as long as the motor is a "new" motor... When I bought my toon in 2010, the boat was a 2010 model, but the motor was a 2009 model... it was a new motor but I was told I could get a little bit better deal by taking the 09 motor... didn't bother me a bit since I was able to get in on Yamaha's "YES" program, which was a 5 or a 6 year warranty.... I'm sure you'll be fine, but I do think your dealer should have at least made you aware of it.

[billb1981]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts....I think the big thing for me was the fact they didn't bother telling me. I sent a rather "honest" email to the salesman, who I think is overall a good guy, but gotta remember they are there to make money. I kept joking to my wife throughout the process, "you only believe about 50% of what they say."

I would appreciate them just being up front with it, sounds to me like it's old inventory they want to get out which is fine, but give me a little price reduction. One benefit of Cabelas, is that you get 2% of your purchase back for points, if you don't finance through them....So most of the equipment we need for the boat will be paid for. Will send out an intro this AM.

Thanks again,

[justfishing]

from my understanding is they quit assigning a model year. I would see what is the difference between when the motor was built and what is built today. Are there update that need to be done? sometimes there are changes that affect reliability and fuel efficiency. In a 60hp model there is probably not a lot of change. At one time the verdaos saw a big change that decreased fuel consumption by a substantial amount of the big engines. That would be nice to know which side of the fence you sit on.

A great resource is to go to bass boat central and go to the merc board in this case, armed with model # and serial # they can tell you a lot of about the engine.