Volvo Penta???

[wannasearay]

I went to the St. Louis boat show this last weekend, and got to see all the fun new toys...still dreaming about that 4300 Sovran Tiara. But back onto the topic. This was the first chance I had to actually see the Volvo IPS drives. I must say, very impressive.

Does anybody know if there is some kind of feud with Searay and Volvo? I would love to say that this looks like the way of the future, but it could just be, and probably will be, just an expensive fad (I heard like 20 grand for the IPS 600). But I would think that this is something that Searay would want to be involved in. But then again, maybe Merc cruiser has something similar in the works.

 

[Bridog]

SeaRay's parent (Brunswick) also ownes Mercury Marine. That's why no Volvo's on SeaRay's. Mercury has a new drive similiar to IPS called Zeus which should be available later this year. Motorboating mag just did a review of it and liked it very much.

 

[gerryb]

http://www.cmdmarine.com/projectzeus.html

 

[Sea Ray 300]

Bottom line: Volvo introduced the I/O configuration in 1958.
For whatever reason, their marketing was not as agressive as Mercruiser, hence, Merc owns an 80% market share, versus Volvo's 20%. Both are top quality, and for whatever it is worth, I think that Volvo is more than a little bit ahead of Merc in inovation and technology... Just my honest opinion...

 

[RobF300]

SeaRay's parent (Brunswick) also ownes Mercury Marine. That's why no Volvo's on SeaRay's. Mercury has a new drive similiar to IPS called Zeus which should be available later this year. Motorboating mag just did a review of it and liked it very much.

you used to be able to get volvo diesels in Sea Rays, not too long ago either, can you still get them?

 

[Bridog]

Rob, yes your right. I forgot about the Volvo diesel options on some of the smaller cruisers. I think mostly for the Euro markets.

 

[Dave S]

There is a very nice write up in the new issue of Motor Boating magazine on the Zeus drives tested on a 44 Sundancer. Although the author stopped short of calling the Zeus a better drive than the Volvo IPS, I thought he liked it better based on his comments.

 

[RobF300]

There is a very nice write up in the new issue of Motor Boating magazine on the Zeus drives tested on a 44 Sundancer. Although the author stopped short of calling the Zeus a better drive than the Volvo IPS, I thought he liked it better based on his comments.

im sure they know who pumps the dollars into the magazine for advertising :thumbsup:

 

[Robski97]

Dave,
The article focused mainly on how it would maintain station regardless of wind current. and docking . Said nothing about open sea handling. Rouch seas.... turning radius's maintanance... etc
It was basically a fluff piece.. NO pictures of the dash with the joystick. No engine room pics of how much room u gained... There articles over last few years are like advertisements... They never bash anything .. its all fluff... No substance