Originally Posted by
smashdn
Commercial fishermen near here are moving to Suzukis. There is good dealer support near here for them now too.
My thoughts on outboards (worth exactly what you are paying for it) is it is about 60% the outboard and 40% the dealer support for it. No sense in buying something that you have to drive a crazy distance to get worked on.
Not sure how it works around you but closest to where I live I have a shop that does Johnson/Evinrude/Mercury and one that does Yamaha/Mercury and an independent guy that works on "US" motors but wouldn't touch my yamaha. Immediately around me there aren't many suzukis on boats. Go west of here 100 miles and they are popular. Same with Honda. Not many honda's immediately around me but go south 50 miles or west 100 and you see them.
If you get to looking at the suzuki look at the 140 as well. Compare the gross weight of it to the 115. Somewhere in their offerings they are the same or very similar weight but you can go up hp. I can't remember if it 90 to 115 or 115 to 140. HP to weight ratio is what I would look at and do the best you can there compared to the mercury you are taking off. It would be pretty sweet if you could get into a 140 and it be the same or less weight than your current 115.