Why did you buy a Sea Ray and what other boats did you consider?

Since I like to restore old school anythings, it is important that the quality of the original build is high and parts are available from both aftermarket and dealer source. I can still walk in to the dealer and order parts for my 76 SRV200. That's cool, and many times they are in stock since the parts are used on many haul types. The other factor is when you sit in the thing it feels and acts like you expect. That's Sea Ray. I have looked at Crownline and Donzie and they are great boats but for my money Sea Ray delivers the best bang for the buck and parts won't kill you. My friend had a Bayliner and it was like a canoe compared to even medium grade boats.
 
JD Powers satisfaction rating, consumer reports, and it just looks good. Love the style of my previous gen 185 Sport.

And Gig-em (Class of '91).

It Was a bonus that I managed to get it in the garage. Fit easily in a 21' deep 2 car garage. Fitting it into a 19.5' one car garage was a challenge. I had to modify the trim to get the trailer through the 8' opening. I don't think there's any way the newest body style would have fit in my smaller garage due to length.

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Resale???

If 2 similar boats from competing manufactures are both sold new for 125K, then they are valued at 75k for the brand A and 65k for brand B then it is a no-brainer at new purchase brand A wins.

At resale if all is equal is brand B a better buy? It seems that the owner of brand B has taken the hit and at resale now and in the future the differential will remain steady.

If not why?

MM




sfergson727 said:
Quality and resale, re-uh ha hahahahahahahahah....okay, once on upon a time it was resale.

I've owned six different Sea Ray's, as well as five Boston Whalers. As a kid, we started out on a Slickcraft, and then downgraded to a Bayliner, which ruined me on the X-liner brand forever.

Before I purchased my first SR, I considered Regal, Four Winns, Chapparrel and Crownline.
Click to expand...
 
Living on the Gulf Coast, I looked at a lot of boat brands as most of our friends have boats. The makes I was most interested in given the positive experiences and recommendations of my friends were Yamaha jet boats, Four Winns, Chapparrel, Crownline, and Sea Rays. While it wasn't the deciding factor, this did influence my decision somewhat: http://www.jdpower.com/Boats/ratings/small-runabout-(16–19-ft.)-ratings
Also the fact that I ended up buying my used Sea Ray as part of someone else's trade-in deal with a MarineMax dealer gave me more warm and fuzzys than doing a private party transaction.
 
Hi guys, I notice this thread of mine has been bumped.

I ended up buying a Crownline, after looking at Sea Ray, Four Winns, Rae Line, Bayliner and Monterey.

My shortlist was a Crownline and a Four Winns.

The Sea Ray was never really given a chance to me by the dealer. I'm not sure whether he thought I wasn't serious, or what, but he was trying to sell me a boat that wasn't a direct competitor to the other boats I was looking at. He kept saying how his boat was cheaper, but he was offering me the 175, not the 185. He wouldn't go to the trouble of finding out if the 185 could be sold without the swim platform to enable it to fit in my garage and in the end the Sea Ray didn't make my shortlist because it was just getting too hard.

I'm sure the Sea Ray is a great boat, it's just this particular dealer didn't really put in the spadework to sell it to me, and as a result didn't get my business.

I take delivery of the Crownline in 4 weeks - be happy for me!!! :D

JB
 
We also looked at all brands narrowed it down to a 34 Four winns and a 32 Sea Ray. We spent a lot of time going back and forth comparing features. We chose the Sea Ray because we felt at the time we want to trade or sell in the future the value will be better and the Sea Ray seemed to be better Quality from the berth, Cabinets, Canvase. We felt the Sea Ray was the better boat. And now I ( Ok WE) own it.
 
We looked at:
Sea Ray 240 Sundeck
Four Winns 234 Funship
Chaparral 236 Sunesta
Crownline 240ex

We pretty much eliminated the Four Winns and Chaparral right away as they weren't nearly as 'nice' as the Crownline and Sea Ray. Then came the hard part. The Crownline and Sea Ray were both very comparable but we ended up going with the Sea Ray because it had less hours and was in a little better shape (we bought used).
 
Hull lay out, quality of hardware, fit and finish. I also felt that the company could withstand the economic conditions when I purchased the boat. I moved up from a WellCraft Nova. TG
 
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