Re: Evinrude E-Tec vs Mercury OptiMax
I'm not saying this is the case, but you should consider that a lot of business issues figure into what motors are offered by dealers, in addition to (or sometimes instead of) technical superiority of one motor over another. <br /><br />The fact that Mercs are offered on all of the boats you are looking at could also be a function of Brunswick's control over the hull manufacturers and dealer network. <br /><br />For example, my local Boston Whaler dealer will not offer you a Whaler with anything other than a Merc, since Brunswick owns BW. However, if you ask for it, they will replace the Merc with a Yamaha in a flash, as they are still a Yamaha dealer, and actually prefer Yamaha over Mercs. But they can't say that out loud over fear of losing the BW line.<br /><br />I have an E-TEC 90, and I love it, although I just had the fuel pump replaced under warranty (a freak thing, I've been assured!). I guess if I were to summarize the difference, it would be that you are paying for the no break-in period, the no service for 3 years or 300 hours, the 3 year non-declining warranty, and the new technology. The E-TEC is lighter, but only slightly.<br /><br />I was looking at the Merc Optimax 90 site, and they claim superior fuel economy, speed, hole shot, etc. over the E-TEC 90, but if you look closely at most of the numbers, they are indistinguishable.<br /><br />Maybe the real question is whether blue or black goes better with your hull colors?