My Yamaha 255xd experience so far......

[84rzv500r]

I feel for ya, it would piss me off to drop 100K on a boat that's not perfect... and the fist scratch or ding it gets in it would make me sick.... that's why I dropped $6500 on my first boat 5 years ago, ran the snot out of it every day and made it the way I want it... now I'm repowering for the next 3-5 years... Sure I'll drop another 18-20K in it with repower and 16 gal extra fuel capacity in the right place on the boat... and I still have room on board for 4-5, the swim gear, coolers, magma grill, tools, anchors, lines, and 2 more 5 gallon cans of fuel. Now I have a boat that I know every inch of... has the cleats where I want them, has the electronics and lighting that I use, can be lifted/stored on davits, runs perfect in less than 3 feet of water, floats in a foot of water, has closed cell foam in the simple to recover upholstery, cruises at 40+ all day long and should flirt with 60 on the top end... and if I scratch it or hit a mangrove stump at speed I dont get nutty I just fix it and plate the keel with 6061-t6 stick a bennet trim tab on it and go... is it shiny? nope (unless I take the time buff it) does it have scratches? yes. is it safe? you bet, is it stronger than when it was new? you bet. is it MORE capable and reliable than it was when I got it? absolutly... but thats just the way I roll...

 

[Ronnie]

Can’t sleep so I just read this entire thread. My first thought, it’s the definition of a first world problem or put another way, rich people problem.

it sucks if it’s your problem for sure, whether you are Rich, poor or somewhere in between. I know people on both ends of the spectrum, some of the wealthy ones would have no issues hiring a lawyer and/or DonNing a sandwich board and protesting outside the dealership, some of the less financially well off would just be happy to have a boat and the problems that come with it at all and may not bother to take the boat in for low value warranty work.

if in the next end the result is you a reliable boat that many good and/or good great memories are made on, I think you come out a winner. Quoting George Carlin, “life is not about how many breaths you take but how many times it takes your breath away”. I could not count how many good times have been had on my boats by me, family and friends (some have not been on a boat before and may not be again) but I’m sure it’s a lot.

now when I think about how much I (over) paid for new Waverunners I look at pics like those below. That’s my 74 year old mom, her 72 year old sister, my son and I last summer. I can’t make memories like this without the pwcs/boats and would have paid a lot more than I did to do so. Dealers know and exploit this.

As consumers we have to make a choice on deal day, either take it or leave it. Currently, if you leave it someone will likely buy it not long afterwards and you have to get in a waiting list for a boat to be delivered sometime in the future, probably not the next boat or few boats to come in and possibly in worse initial shape than the one turned down and a 3% price increase.

 

[Wicked92]

im far from rich, wasnt born into money, im self made and i work long hours to be able to afford things i have, and thats not many high priced items. I extended this boat over 15 years (i know its horrible to have a loan that long) but in order to be in the boat now and have those memories you speak of is what i had to do.

That shouldnt give yamaha a pass with what they are offering for the price, or what they brag about what you are getting with your hard earned money. The issue is everyone just accepts it and takes the boats, and they continue to make them, nothing will ever change. I already had my deposit down and waited almost a year for the boat, it would have been a very hard pill to swallow to just walk away from it with the summer coming up and missing those "memories" made. But on the flip side its yamaha taking advantage of its consumers.

We had a great 1st season on a "boat". Would i buy a yamaha "wake" boat if i had to do this all over again? Prob not. Looking @ Jeffs boat and a few others with older ARs they mop the floor with my boat in watersports. The fact a older AR230 can make a better surf wave with just some ballast and a wake wedge or even the jet wash deflector compared to yamahas marketing prowess for this boat is sad. The lack of care from the manufacture or the dealership to make sure the product that were putting out met the expectations that the customer has after all the promotional work Yamaha does to make you think they are selling you the best thing since sliced bread is laughable.

I cant wait for April to unwrap my boat and get back on the water, but it doesnt change how i feel over this buying experience and the sting i feel when i make my payments every month and realize the growing pains with this boat were.

 

[ChrisM]

im far from rich, wasnt born into money, im self made and i work long hours to be able to afford things i have, and thats not many high priced items. I extended this boat over 15 years (i know its horrible to have a loan that long) but in order to be in the boat now and have those memories you speak of is what i had to do.

That shouldnt give yamaha a pass with what they are offering for the price, or what they brag about what you are getting with your hard earned money. The issue is everyone just accepts it and takes the boats, and they continue to make them, nothing will ever change. I already had my deposit down and waited almost a year for the boat, it would have been a very hard pill to swallow to just walk away from it with the summer coming up and missing those "memories" made. But on the flip side its yamaha taking advantage of its consumers.

We had a great 1st season on a "boat". Would i buy a yamaha "wake" boat if i had to do this all over again? Prob not. Looking @ Jeffs boat and a few others with older ARs they mop the floor with my boat in watersports. The fact a older AR230 can make a better surf wave with just some ballast and a wake wedge or even the jet wash deflector compared to yamahas marketing prowess for this boat is sad. The lack of care from the manufacture or the dealership to make sure the product that were putting out met the expectations that the customer has after all the promotional work Yamaha does to make you think they are selling you the best thing since sliced bread is laughable.

I cant wait for April to unwrap my boat and get back on the water, but it doesnt change how i feel over this buying experience and the sting i feel when i make my payments every month and realize the growing pains with this boat were.

And therein lies the issue with so many consumer products, Boats, Campers, Etc.

 

[Ronnie]

im far from rich, wasnt born into money, im self made and i work long hours to be able to afford things i have, and thats not many high priced items. I extended this boat over 15 years (i know its horrible to have a loan that long) but in order to be in the boat now and have those memories you speak of is what i had to do.

That shouldnt give yamaha a pass with what they are offering for the price, or what they brag about what you are getting with your hard earned money.

If you are going to regret owing the boat why keep it at all? You have not owned it long but in this day and age I doubt you would have to take a loss on it and should at the very least be able to break even on it if you wait until the beginning of next season to sell it.

A good used 230 may be hard to find but they do exist, you could get one for less than half maybe even less than a quarter of the price of a new 250. Personally, it would be very depressing for me to make a monthly payment on a boat I was not happy with, it would hurt even more during the off season and if I thought I’d have to endure 15 off seasons / years like that … no way, not with the time I think I have left above ground.

fyi- I’m not rich either (but this is still a rich persons/first world problem OMHO) I asked my “poor” cousin about it and his response was to laugh as he walked away. despite what my accountamt says, I fall squarely in the middle. This doesn’t give Yamaha a pass to do what it does, as you already stated, this does, “The issue is everyone just accepts it and takes the boats”. Yamaha is not going to change their ways for us, especially since all many of us has done so far is buy their products and complained about them afterwards. After intentionally taking possession and handing over our cash or signing off on a loan, sometimes after inspection and acknowledging the defects.

If boats were subject to lemon laws or if Yamaha had to loan out a boat or Waverunner every time it took one in for extended warranty work I think it would be an entirely different story but I’m not willing to try or fund changing a law or putting a new one in place and don’t know any lawyer that would try to do so for free / pro Bono, so I fall back on the prayer of serenity, it does not cost anything and takes little or no effort to memorize and/or recite. Admittedly, the hard part is living by it/complying with it.