Are mariner engines any good?

[Homer J]

I was looking at 90 - 115 hp outboards at the Southampton boat show today. Mariner 90hp £8k. Many others 10-12k, so much cheaper. One of the competitors (when I pressed him suggested they were put together with Chinese parts and wouldn’t be as robust.

Is there any truth in this? Are they a good buy?

 

[Beamishken]

Mariners used to just be badge engineered yamaha/mercury/tohatsu. No idea if thats the same today but I doubt there is much difference in the build quality of the big few outboard builders

 

[drydog]

I was looking at 90 - 115 hp outboards at the Southampton boat show today. Mariner 90hp £8k. Many others 10-12k, so much cheaper. One of the competitors (when I pressed him suggested they were put together with Chinese parts and wouldn’t be as robust.

Is there any truth in this? Are they a good buy?

Did your sales guy say where they get their manufactured parts from.???? But to reiterate whats been said before, there arnt many outboard manufacturers left so pick the one with the longest warranty and best price. and you won't go wrong

 

[Assassin]

In reality most components are Chinese made on most of the engines and it comes down to the quality of these components as a top branded engine will be constructed to a much higher quality than components for a cheaper engine.

 

[Fishtigua]

Most new smallish outboards are now all made in the same factory. They all seem to come with the same warranty too. Just pick a dealer you trust.

I worked with Merc/Mariner for years and trust Barrus greatly.

 

[[2068]]

"The new Mercury engine brand was named “Mariner” to invoke a reliable, durable outboard that would appeal to a different customer than the fast, high-performance image of the Mercury brand" - i.e. marketing differences - Mariner is designed to appeal to the more practical boater or fisherman.

Mariner 90hp is physically the same engine as a Mercury 80/100 with a fractionally different state of tune, a different colour cowling, and a cheaper price sticker.
As far as I know, these are made in Wisconsin.

Some Mercury 40/50/60 outboards are made in China, but it's final assembly only, not casting/machining.
All the small engines are made by Tohatsu as above.

The RNLI use Mariner engines in the D-Class and inshore rescue boats.

.

 

[C08]

Did your sales guy say where they get their manufactured parts from.???? But to reiterate whats been said before, there arnt many outboard manufacturers left so pick the one with the longest warranty and best price. and you won't go wrong

I think there are big variations how manufacturers view warranties and a surprising expense to service outboard engine.
I think Yamaha are much more stringent than say Tohatsu in the record of servicing at a licensed engine dealer. It may not always be possible to have the first Yamaha service done at 20 hours/3 months which ever is less, for a variety of possible reasons and my discussions with Yamaha around this have not been encouraging at all. The dealer I bought from also re-iterated that Yamaha will not entertain warranty claims unless the servicing has been done to the letter and recorded as such.
I also may come as a surprise that a relatively small (25hp) outboard has to have the engine out (100kg ?) or the boat lifted to do a full service-cost that into the service!
So the length of warranty is only part of the consideration of who best to buy from.

 

[Beamishken]

I also may come as a surprise that a relatively small (25hp) outboard has to have the engine out (100kg ?) or the boat lifted to do a full service-cost that into the service!
So the length of warranty is only part of the consideration of who best to buy from.

Makes me wonder how youd expect to change the gear / engine oil with the boat/ engine in the water?

Your post kinda reinforces why servicing is expected to be done within the dealer network.

 

[TheOrs]

So the length of warranty is only part of the consideration of who best to buy from.

Availability of spare parts is another deciding factor IMHO. I have currently: 1991 Mercruiser 350 Mag, 1992 Mercury 75hp two stroke & 2012 Yamaha 6hp four stroke. Getting parts for either of the Merc's is easy & quick; the Yamaha, more convoluted & two to three times as long.

 

[Assassin]

"The new Mercury engine brand was named “Mariner” to invoke a reliable, durable outboard that would appeal to a different customer than the fast, high-performance image of the Mercury brand" - i.e. marketing differences - Mariner is designed to appeal to the more practical boater or fisherman.

Mariner 90hp is physically the same engine as a Mercury 80/100 with a fractionally different state of tune, a different colour cowling, and a cheaper price sticker.
As far as I know, these are made in Wisconsin.

Some Mercury 40/50/60 outboards are made in China, but it's final assembly only, not casting/machining.
All the small engines are made by Tohatsu as above.

The RNLI use Mariner engines in the D-Class and inshore rescue boats.

.

FP, they are assembled in Wisconsin and component parts come from numerous countries, and this is done for one reason which is because if the final assembly is done in one place they can put a sticker on it saying "made in Wisconsin" or "made in USA" and Ford really kicked this off in the 1970's when they were building cars in Spain and transporting them to Germany by train where the final assembly was done which was fitting the VIN plate which was done with the train in a long shed, and they we claiming to made in Germany.