paulswagelock
Well-Known Member
I have owned many boats since 1985 including Bayliner, Larson, Maxum, Chaparral, Regal, and a few Sea Rays. I ordered a 2018 SDX 270 to replace my 2008 Slx 270. I have had it several months now, and wanted to offer up my experience, and see what others who purchased newer Sea Ray boats experience has been.
I ordered the SDX 270 with the 300 Verado outboard, vacuflush, tan interior, woven vinyl floor, seadek, docking lights, bimini, full covers, trim tabs and some other goodies.
Let's first start with aesthetics. It is a visually pleasing boat with a black hull, tan upper stripe, tan interior, brown swim platform, and black bimini - lots of compliments everywhere I go.
Performance - the Verado 300 is a perfect match for this boat. It leaps on to plane, zings along quickly, and does it without making any noise. Smooth, quiet. It rides and handles well also.
Usefulness - well designed boat. TONS of storage with the outboard. Great seating layout. A day with 10 adults is fine and not overly cramped. The layout is why I decided to order the boat and it works perfect for the way we use it.
Materials - here is where I notice the first shortcoming. The surfaces are nice, but just barely. The vinyls are mid grade, the flooring is mid grade, the fabrics mid grade, all of the materials seem mid grade. I understand this is their crowd-pleaser series, not the SLX series, but it still retails way into the 6 figure price tag. I expected better. The longer I live with it, the more I notice things are not as nice as they were in my 2008 SLX or the Chaps/Regals/Cobalts/Montereys I have been on.
Build Quality - Some corners were cut in the way they upholster with no batting around the backer boards, the stitching on my cockpit cover has already needed redone in a few spots, the steering wheel stitching started to pull out - all small items but added up paints the picture. The gel coat is ok, but not spectacular. The boat had several rattles that I needed to fix - all simple design issues that were not hard to remedy. Some latches needed adjusted after the first few uses. The wiring is not particularly neat or organized - again not bad, just not premium. Some of the rubber seals on the hatches started to pull away. The details in the finishes are lacking or mediocre.
Overall, the quality really seems average. Compared to my last Sea Ray - definitely lesser.
Support - I purchased the boat at a dealer near a summer home that I sold, so now I am 4 hours from him. They were fine, but not great. The boat is cleaner after 4 months of using it then when I took delivery. I did not press the issue because I am super particular and no one ever lives up to my expectations with cars, boats, etc. The local dealer to my full time house is an hour away, but I have not needed to engage them yet. Sea Ray corporate has been terrific for support, answering questions, helping during the manufacturing process, etc. A+ for that team.
So the important part - brand loyalty. My last three boats have been Sea Rays including this one. I didn't even really consider another brand, partly because the layout of this boat suits us perfectly for this phase of life, and I had great experiences with the previous 2 SR's. There were a few other distant choices, but I hardly spent any time investigating those offerings other than price/feature comparison. I will absolutely go look around if I decide to replace this one.
So my review if I had to score it on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the best, is probably a 7.
I want to love the boat, but I worry how things will hold up over the long haul. This is likely a boat I part with in 4-5 years while everything is still nice and do it again. Time will tell.
I ordered the SDX 270 with the 300 Verado outboard, vacuflush, tan interior, woven vinyl floor, seadek, docking lights, bimini, full covers, trim tabs and some other goodies.
Let's first start with aesthetics. It is a visually pleasing boat with a black hull, tan upper stripe, tan interior, brown swim platform, and black bimini - lots of compliments everywhere I go.
Performance - the Verado 300 is a perfect match for this boat. It leaps on to plane, zings along quickly, and does it without making any noise. Smooth, quiet. It rides and handles well also.
Usefulness - well designed boat. TONS of storage with the outboard. Great seating layout. A day with 10 adults is fine and not overly cramped. The layout is why I decided to order the boat and it works perfect for the way we use it.
Materials - here is where I notice the first shortcoming. The surfaces are nice, but just barely. The vinyls are mid grade, the flooring is mid grade, the fabrics mid grade, all of the materials seem mid grade. I understand this is their crowd-pleaser series, not the SLX series, but it still retails way into the 6 figure price tag. I expected better. The longer I live with it, the more I notice things are not as nice as they were in my 2008 SLX or the Chaps/Regals/Cobalts/Montereys I have been on.
Build Quality - Some corners were cut in the way they upholster with no batting around the backer boards, the stitching on my cockpit cover has already needed redone in a few spots, the steering wheel stitching started to pull out - all small items but added up paints the picture. The gel coat is ok, but not spectacular. The boat had several rattles that I needed to fix - all simple design issues that were not hard to remedy. Some latches needed adjusted after the first few uses. The wiring is not particularly neat or organized - again not bad, just not premium. Some of the rubber seals on the hatches started to pull away. The details in the finishes are lacking or mediocre.
Overall, the quality really seems average. Compared to my last Sea Ray - definitely lesser.
Support - I purchased the boat at a dealer near a summer home that I sold, so now I am 4 hours from him. They were fine, but not great. The boat is cleaner after 4 months of using it then when I took delivery. I did not press the issue because I am super particular and no one ever lives up to my expectations with cars, boats, etc. The local dealer to my full time house is an hour away, but I have not needed to engage them yet. Sea Ray corporate has been terrific for support, answering questions, helping during the manufacturing process, etc. A+ for that team.
So the important part - brand loyalty. My last three boats have been Sea Rays including this one. I didn't even really consider another brand, partly because the layout of this boat suits us perfectly for this phase of life, and I had great experiences with the previous 2 SR's. There were a few other distant choices, but I hardly spent any time investigating those offerings other than price/feature comparison. I will absolutely go look around if I decide to replace this one.
So my review if I had to score it on a scale from 1-10, 10 being the best, is probably a 7.
I want to love the boat, but I worry how things will hold up over the long haul. This is likely a boat I part with in 4-5 years while everything is still nice and do it again. Time will tell.
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