Considering 2007 190 Horizon

Hello everyone! I have been lurking for a while and finally registered on the forum. I live in the California Bay Area. I have been doing a lot of outdoor activities most of my life and own dirtbikes, already on my second RV (travel trailer to a Class C), backpacking, and plenty of water sports. While my family has had boats and I have been in and around them for years (father, brother, friends, and other family), I have never owned one myself. I am looking at getting my first boat and I am pretty excited about it.

I am one of those guys that really appreciates quality. Yet I like great deals (who doesn't). Right now I hear it's a buyers market and I don't mind spending extra to get great value. I am really thankful there is a forum with you all here. I really appreciate any help/guidance/feedback you can provide me. Thank You.

Anyway, I am looking at a 2007 190 Horizon with 6.8 hours on it (seems unbelievably low doesn't it?). Has the wake board tower, sun spot seating, 4.3 motor 225 horsepower (I think Volvo), upgraded steering wheel, and stainless cup holders, extended swim platform (though not installed yet).

The seller is asking $17,900 for it. From what I gather on these forums, many people claim that you can get a new boat for about 25% less than sticker. When I configure up this boat on Fourwinns.com it adds up to just shy of $30k. So 25% of 30k would make $22,500 brand new.

• What do you think of the price?
• 6 hours seems good (not even broken in). Though, from my many years of maintaining vehicles tells me that all the fluids need changing before anything is done on it. Correct? Anything else I should consider here?
• Warranty. Will the warranty transfer to me? How does this work?
• What should I be looking for on the boat and/or asking the seller?

Thank you again for the help!

P.S. Is the extended swim platform difficult to have installed? Costly?

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

I love my Fourwinns. I have an darn near all original 1987 215 sundowner. I have found that the quality is out standing. I have got into some intresting situations and the boat was great. I know a lot of Fourwinns owners and they all love them. I get complements all the time and get offers on my boat alot, people always ask if I know of any FourWinns for sale. The price sound good, 6 hours is good and could very well be tru, many people buy boats thinking that they will use them all the time, have them for years and only take them out a few times, they always underestimate the time, cost, and care a boat demands.

Make sure you pay close attention to the motor take it for a test run and put it through some work, beat up on it a little it will help bring any issues foward. Check the engine over, look for cracks and any evadence of cracks in the block.

Give the hull a good look over for any fiberglass work that may suggest a crash or evadence that it has taken on water. Look for cracks in the gel-coat, this will tell you if and where the hull is flexing and how bad. gel coat will crack but a boat that new shouldnt have any.

Check the sterndrive, broken skag, broken cavitation plate, damaged prop and see if the drive shaft is damaged, you will more than likely see some damage but a lot of it can be an indication of future issues, and suggest that the owner has hit the bottom a few times.

Make sure the gages work, new boats have warning systems much like a car and you dont want a problem to come up that could have been fixed if a warning lite or gage was working.

The swim deck should be pretty easy to put on, you should be able to put it on if all the hardware is there. Any "shop" is going to charge a lot for it mo matter how simple just cause its a boat.

Good luck.

PS, it takes ten hours to properly break-in a boat engine. The warrenty depends on the original dealer. Ask the seller everything you can think of, but take his answer with caution he is trying to sell you something so if something he said dosnt make sence investigate further, safty is important. Changing fluids depends on the last time it was done but every 100 hours in the rule or at leats once a season witch ever comes first.

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

Thank you for all the helpful information. Fantastic!

Another thing I forgot to ask was about having a local dealer. Interesting enough, the Four Winns website shows that the closest Four Winns dealer is 125 miles from here. Which is strange because I live in Silicon Valley...

Anyway, I have never had maintenance/repair performed on a boat (never owned a boat). How important is it that this is performed by a Four Winns dealer?

Thank You!

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

So I ran the NADA Bluebook on this boat and it came out with the following:

Low Retail: $13,035
High Retail: $14,845

Should I be concerned?

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

New here too, and just bought a 2003 Four Winns Freedom 180 with the Volvo 4.3.

I too looked at NADA and many people said its not the same as with a car, though it at least gives you some guidance.

What I found in my search though was that many of the prices for boats were higher than NADA because these people had loans on the boats. Remember alot of these boats were sold new with no money down from the dealer and a small payment. So unless they want to meet you at their bank and write a check along with your purchase, they cannot go lower.

Found one I liked and he was $4k over NADA and would not budge after I emailed him the NADA as he a loan. I won't go into the one guy who had a 30 year loan on his 20ft Four Winns.

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

ClearCreekRdr said:

Thank you for all the helpful information. Fantastic!

Another thing I forgot to ask was about having a local dealer. Interesting enough, the Four Winns website shows that the closest Four Winns dealer is 125 miles from here. Which is strange because I live in Silicon Valley...

Anyway, I have never had maintenance/repair performed on a boat (never owned a boat). How important is it that this is performed by a Four Winns dealer?

Thank You!

Click to expand...

Well the maintenence of a boat with a inboard or sterndrive isnt much diferant from a car. So if you do your own oil changes and ect. on your car you can do it to your boat, there are only very little diferances like some boats you have to pump the oil out of the dip stick because the oil pan plug is unreachable and the oil it self. The only realy tricky thing is the cooling system. If you plan on using it in salt water, witch by your location suggests you will, you will want to hook a hose with muffs on it after every use to flush the water system and get rid of any salt or it will rust from the inside out.
You more than likey wont have to worry about winterizing, but if you do you will want a Marine shop to do it, because if done wrong it can cause big issues.
A Four Winns dealer dosent have too do the work, any Marine shop can do any maintenance you cant, no differant then Ford or Chevy saying that a dealer should do the work on the car.
They will all have a big price tag. Normal charge for an oil change on a boat is about $90 vs the $20 norm for a car, And gess what you do the same thing, drain pan, remove filter, install new filter, replace plug in pan, and add oil! Can you beleive it!
I do all maitanence to my boat my self unless it is a really big issue. But as long as you take the proper steps to maintane the boat and engine you should be able to go along time without seeing any big issues. This incudes keeping a cover on it or keep it in a shelter the sun and weather can do a lot of damage. I have seen a lot of boats go to crap cause the owners just let the weather mess it all up.

The price sounds good to me, try to get him down, but as long as everything is in great working condintion it is resonable. Plus every boat owner wants to beleive that their boat is worth more than it realy is. Plus as stated before he may have a realy crappy loan on it.

Last but not least, you say you have been around boats along time, even if you beleive you know what to do take a boating safty class you will learn a lot of things you didnt know and beleive me a time will come when you use what you learn there are of a lot of people out on the water that know nothing about proper boating such as witch boat has the right of way in a given situation. And when it comes to sail boats it seems that no one (at least around me) knows what to do, they just freeze!

Good Luck

Re: Considering 2007 190 Horizon

FYI, saw your other post. My Fourwinns is 3500lbs dry and empty. It has a 3.7L, 224CID, 180hp streight Four cyclander in it. I can pull two adoults on tubes with four adults and two kids in that boat and still get to 35MPH. A V6 will do just fine as long as it is proped right and you are runing in the proper RPM power band. This is something I have found that many boaters dont know about. At least around me. AT full trottle the boat should run in a certain RPM range for the best power. Example mine is 4400-4800 RPM, the prop size and pitch make a big diferance on this. If you get it just right you may even be fast then him and his V8.

Hey and mo matter how big the engine they all will take a little longer to plain the more drag and wieght they have to move.