Merc-Volvo

[EmeraldCoastBill]

I'm recently retired, but been around boats my whole life on the shores in New England and now retired in Florida I need the voices of experience. My only hands on with marine engines was in the Navy with PBF's and PBY's and now that I'm in the market for a 20-24 foot deck boat, which will be my first that I own and I'm confused. I've been told conflicting stories regarding Mercruisers and Volvo-Penta engines. I'm told both are good but "when" the time comes for repair, Volvo's can be more expensive, parts are tougher to find and not all marinas will service them. What are are your opinions?

 

[popazog]

Re: Merc-Volvo

I'm not an expert by any means, but like you I have heard differing opinions. Some swear by Merc and others swear by Volvo. As far as I'm concerned it's pretty much the old Chevy-vs-Ford argument I used to hear as a kid. Or the IBM-vs-Mac argument or Pepsi-vs-Coke etc. My guess is that all things being equal you get what you pay for regardless of brand. <br /><br />P.S. I'm a Merc guy for life (just my 2 cents)

 

[chris in va]

Re: Merc-Volvo

I've had my 94 with Volvo 5.0 SX for about a year. What I noticed is the unit seems to be very solid in design and shifts well, but very few places work on it when it does need it. <br /><br />My flywheel got crunched after a hydrolock over the summer, and 90% of the shops told me "If it's not black, we don't work on it". Even the ones that do had a 2 week backlog.<br /><br />However, you can lurk on these boating forums and find that a high percentage of topics are about Mercurys, so it's a tradeoff.

 

[Doug Durako]

Re: Merc-Volvo

Cobalt dealer in the Missouri Ozarks (largest Cobalt dealer in the world) told me he used to sell 2 to 1 Merc over Volvo, but trend has excatly reversed over past few years.<br /><br />Both are solid---if regular maintenance is performed. Volvo was the first with the dual-prop design back in the late 80s, if that gets your grease hot.<br /><br />If you are thinking about continued running in saltwater, I would seriously look at a larger outboard setup----easier to flush out the salt and has fewer moving parts actually exposed to the saltwater.<br /><br />A 24-foot deep vee would be the minimum I would run on the big water.

 

[burp]

Re: Merc-Volvo

My first boat had a Volvo and my current one has a Mercruiser. My preference, Volvo. It was very solid and performed flawless. Volvo service was hard to find in the area that I live but even a good Mercruiser service center is hard to find here. You will find that Volvo has a standard 2 year warranty vs. Mercruisers standard 1 year warranty. Also the Volvo 2+4 extended warranty is MUCH cheaper than the Mercruisers extended warranty. If you are into after market engine performance modifications, go with Mercruiser. Otherwise, I'd go with Volvo.