noli

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I think that the Merc 150 has an optional Joystick, not sure if that's only for the 4 strokes

News | Mercury Marine

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obrien

the joystick will only be on the l6 verados. Hands down go with the mercury. why be a traitor and run yamaha junk anyway?

TeamSkater

sounds like a ton of research went into that study. you must've gotten those results from thehulltruth.com

OP - dont let uneducated asanine comments like this have any effect on your decision. mercury will admit that the first few years of the optimax had some problems, but that was expected with the new technology that went into that motor. now, almost 15 years later, there is a reason mercury is still making a direct injected 2 stroke and yamaha doesnt. mercury also cant build engines fast enough to keep up with demand while other manufacturers are having to offer some serious deals to try and keep up and are still having trouble. modern day outboards are only as good as the dealership you bring them to. everyone makes a good engine these days and just like with vehicles, not every single one will be perfect.

if you are still interested in the optimax, i would suggest looking at the 175 pro xs. that engine is seriously under-rated. we have a few bass and bay boat customers that blow the doors off vmax 200 yamaha powered boats.