Re: Merc vs Volvo
Personally,...
I find Merc.s to be Cheaper to work on,.. More of them around,.. More Parts sources, etc...
I have to say that I agree. When I was shopping around (briefly) for a new engine drive combo to replace my Wunderful OMC King Kobra, I considered both new Volvo Penta and Mercury stern drives.
That didn't last long. To get the same performance I had with the 460, I needed to spend about $24k
I then went looking for a VP or Merc used stern drive and found several Mercs and one or 2 used Volvos.
I like to do my own "stuff" I looked on ebay for example and discovered that at any time you do a search for parts, drives, engines, props, etc, .......I found 3 to 4 times MORE Mercruiser parts than VP. New or used. (Especially new old stock or last years models.... today, almost 2000 merc and about 600 VP....)
I looked for drives and stopped counting new and used Mercruisers but there was only about 10 older used Volvos on there.
Don't get me wrong. There's not a thing wrong with Volvo drives. If I had found a good deal on a Volvo before the Merc, I would have a Volvo hanging on the back of my boat and I wouldn't be looking back.
But now looking back I'm glad I found the merc first. I have no problems finding inexpensive new and used parts whenever I need them.
Incidentally, when I did a search on ebay in "Boat Parts & Accessories for "Volvo 280" I got 22 hits.
When I searched for Mercruiser Alpha, I got 368 hits and Bravo produced 2036 hits!!
Cheers,
Rick
