Tohatsu/Mercury power rating difference?

[gary - k7gld]

The '08 Tohatsu/Nissan 4-strokes carry a power rating of 9.8 HP - yet the nearly identical Mercury versions claim 9.9 HP. A minor point to be sure, but is that merely advertising hype on the part of Mercury in order to distance themselves from the fact their more expensive motors are made by the same source as lower cost Tohatsu and Nissan?

As I understand it, the only actual difference in the Mercury, as compared to Tohatsu/Nissan, are in the tiller/shift mechanism - which would not seem to have any effect on motor power output?

A very minor issue - but a curiosity, just the same.

 

[TGuy]

Re: Tohatsu/Mercury power rating difference?

h.p. ratings are not an exact 100% accurate rating. I think the gov't allows up to something like a 10% variance (up or down) from the actual rating. So a 15hp could actually only produce 13.5hp or 16.5hp and still be called a 15hp. Whatever the actual % is, there is an allowable variance. So in the case of the Merc 9.9 vs Tohatsu 9.8hp, yes, it's for marketing purposes only and not a direct reflection that Merc has 0.1 more h.p. than a Tohatsu model.