YAMAHA QUALITY CONTROL - GOING DOWNHILL?

[Leojay]

Attention Yamapeeps!
Are you satisfied with the fit, finish and overall quality of your Yamaha boat?
Many have been complaining lately that Yamaha quality control has gone downhill, my latest video explores these concerns as we review some of the newest models at the NY Boat Show.
Happy to hear your feedback:

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

Watching the video …that first bow rider..that wiring won’t last and the spalled fiberglass is a bad look in the anchor locker / bow ladder area.


on the 222 FSH Sport E

Yes there is no aquarium live well up front on the port side, but there is a large storage pod which I think is more practical. The live well is in the aft starboard quarter

In the head compartment it appears there is a large piece of starboard missing that would go over the fuel tank to provide an enclose-ment of the fuel tank area as well as a shelf. To be fair, I’m pretty sure that was a pre production boat you were on.

An improvement is that there is weather stripping on the glove box and storage pod doors. Mine will all allow driving rain water in.

The salt and corrosion look the same as the boat in the boat test video of this boat…someone should have cleaned up that engine bay! I mean how much would it have taken to give it a good wash down with salt away and spray it down with silicone spray as the Yamaha owners manual says to do?

The jump seats are perhaps not as roomy as the other snap down style but the fact they fold down to increase the walkability of the non skid in the rear deck area is nice, there is a special hand hold for those seats off the bottom of the main helm seat a very nice touch. And I bet those seats, other than the helm seat are a very smooth and secure place to ride in rough weather, great for any kids that might be on board.

As far as the Helm seat goes, yeah it’s a ways from the steering wheel but you guys didn’t try moving the adjustable wheel to see if that would help, it was all the way forward in your vid. I’m 6’1” and I have to sorta hop up onto the helm seat in my 210 FSH, and its More comfortable to drive standing.

Yes, it’s better if you stand to drive it, and yes, you’re out in the wind if you’re not at the helm, that’s the nature of a center console.

The table in the head compartment also serves duty as an insert in the bow area to make a casting platform. Don’t know if there will be an included cushion to make that area a sun pad as well

on the 222 SD

Indeed a pretty boat and spacious! Lots of what looks like comfy seating.

Storage compartments are a tad small, but still quite a bit of storage, the clean out area looks darn massive for all kinds of things. Sealing job mediocre, if it allows water into the aft bilge then poor. The helm console would have a lot more storage if the DrIVE components were not in there. The in floor storage also massive.

The bow rollers…sigh… agreed Yamaha needs to install Stolz rollers, that’s kinda huge.

In fairness we don’t know for sure how much Yamaha was / is still being affected by possible labor shortages, not making excuses for poor quality, however, these boat show

But! The better finish is what you are going to get with the higher end boats. Little things like attention to detail with wiring and such can be corrected pretty easily with some time and just a few bucks to make it look Grady White esque.

You‘d think Yamaha would have had their boat show crew detail these boat show boats so they’d be looking their best at these shows, I know if I was the guy in charge that’s what I’d be getting done as well as making sure all those details were taken care of.

 

[Wicked92]

Going? its been ever since MY21. I guess all the complaints still didnt change a thing 2 years later. Heads should roll in management if nothing has improved.

 

[HangOutdoors]

Going? its been ever since MY21. I guess all the complaints still didnt change a thing 2 years later. Heads should roll in management if nothing has improved.

As long as people are buying up their boats in the droves at premium prices, I don't suspect much change.

 

[TommyMcK]

By nature, anecdotal reports of quality issues are hard to interpret. It's hard to know what the comparative statistics really are year to year based just on reports of problems.

Nice informative video though. Some of the complaints were designed based. Storage on the 222se is what it is. Some were likely the result of getting banged around moving from show to show. The anchor locker and rubber windscreen molding on that first boat (the video didn't say what boat it was) is clearly a mess and indicative of a real quality issue.

The 222FSH issues seemed to be design or prior use related...so not necessarily indicative of anything. The storage door on the 222SE was a real quality issue...

I took delivery of my 222XD in March. Fit and finish had no issues. I had issues with wiring not being tight on bus bars (which was a "fun" intellectual exercise tracking that down based on the quirky symptoms that produced...but ultimately was able to figure it out and the fix took 5 minutes). But my understanding is that the wires from the battery compartment to the bus bars is a dealer installed thing, so I can't really blame Yamaha for that if true. I'm expecting that the electronic gizmos associated with a Drive equipped boat will, over time, prove to be less reliable than a traditional boat, but we'll see. I did have to replace steering cables and shifter cables on my '04 AR230, which was a royal pain, so maybe I'll end up being pleasantly surprised......

 

[TeenGee]

An improvement is that there is weather stripping on the glove box and storage pod doors. Mine will all allow driving rain water in.

I installed weather stripping around the top and sides of my glove box last week. I had to adjust the latch so the door would close.

 

[FSH 210 Sport]

I installed weather stripping around the top and sides of my glove box last week. I had to adjust the latch so the door would close.

Right on… thanks for the tip! There is some weatherstripping on the storage pod doors but definitely not enough.. was at a fishing tournament and over night there was a huge driving rain storm and our tackle bags were soaked as they were sitting on the floor of the starboard storage pod and wicked up water from where it got past the doors.