Fair enough. The early versions were well know garbage. (Opti Pop), (Popti Max). The wife's last boat had a 99 that was an out of the crate total failure no matter what the dealer, or should I say multiple dealers did to it. They seemed to have fixed the problems in the early 2000's.

We'll be looking at 2006 boats and newer with around 300 hours or less.

A couple of things to consider if you are going with the verados. If they are out of warranty, replacing a supercharger or a lower can get very expensive. The lower units were a weak link on them when they first came out. I believe that the newer ones are "beefed up". Maybe someone with some first hand experience can comment. I know that during my search I decided that if I was buying a boat with verados on it! I wanted a warranty... That put me out of my price range and I ended up with EFI two strokes. very happy with it so far!

I think it was late 2010 the Mercury changed the lower units on the Verados going from a 1" shaft 4.88" torpedo to a 1.25" shaft 5.44 torpedo and if memory is correct gear ratio changed from 1.85 to 1.75

FWIW I have the old lowers on mine 350 hours with no problems

The current 300 Verado is the 5.44 and you can get it with either the 1.75 or 1.85 gear ratio. The 300 Pro still has the 4.88 and only comes with the 1.75 gear ratio. The Pro is recommended for lighter implementations like bass boats. For the 30' center console range boats he is looking at he definitely wants the 5.44 Verado.

Here's a 32' - 2008 that advertises 300s with 10 hours on them, on paper the boat looks great, of course anything I buy I'll get a survey and compression tests on, we may go take a look at this one if it's still for sale, anyone know anything about this one.

http://www.powerboatlistings.com/view/13914

The 5.44" Verado gearcase does come in both 1.85 and 1.75 ratios. The black 5.44" is a 1.85 ratio with a 1" prop shaft. It is designed for any boat 24' and up, multi-engines included, and uses the plastic "sacrificial" Flo-Torq prop hub kit. The silver HD 5.44" gearcase comes with a 1.75 ration and a 1.25" prop shaft. It is designed for larger, multi-engine boats, and uses the solid metal Mercury Racing prop hub kit. The Pro Verado does retain the original standard 4.88" gearcase with a 1.75 ratio and a 1" propshaft. It is designed for any single engine boat 23' and under.

We have many single, dual, triple, and quad engine Verado powered boats that put 1000+ trouble-free hours on the original 4.88" gearcases before the 5.44" was ever released.