I wondered what was up with it......LOL

I got a loan for my 33 and got a better rate then my house. I don't minde making payments and deduct the interest on my taxes as a second home so it is like paying no interest anyway.

That also has a lot to do with age, how much you put down and year of the boat. We pay for all toy's cash, and I still have never bought anything I could not pay for if something happen.

Same boat, I could pay off basically everything with maybe the exception of my house if I had to.....My F/A has always advised against paying cash for anything that cost a decent amount of money as long as interest is cheap..And he doesn't get a dime from me unless I make a withdrawl so it is in his immediate interest for me to pay cash for stuff...For 15 or 16 years I haven't paid him a cent....

What the person saying abouth the monthly payment thing is what I see at my shop all the time, and it's not a matter of if the loan % interest is less than what some of us came make for a % with our cash.

It is (what I see) probably 50% of people or more.

Here's an example:

"i can't afford the $800 to fix my car. I'm going to get a new one."

Then you see they do, a freakin cheap Hyundai but they lease it...cause of the lower payments.

So....their car being absolutely fine other than needing tires and some brakes, they go lease a stupid fkin Hyundai because they can't afford the $800 but they can the $250 or what have you.

Crazy huh ? How much money did they blow because of that extra $500 difference that one time. $800 one time (for the year) or $250+ month after month, after month..plus of course higher insurance, excise, etc,etc.

Monthly:
Rent / Mortgage
Cell Phone / Reg phone (if they have one)
Cable / Internet
Electric / Heat /
CC Payments
Etc,etc

This area and probably country, has reduced itself to monthly...and that's it.

Yeh, I have many customers with serious cash that will buy a new car cause they don't want to have a 3yr or older car, but that's because they can and that's what they do. These are not the people I'm taliking about.

I'm talking the one's who have no cash, and no more CC balance to come up with $800, all to take on another $300 monthly payment.

Which leaves them with less of a chance to ever have any cash.

Sad.

As pretty much everyone has said. Main reason, MONEY.

I found the respect for money and credit early in life, so I saved, saved, saved... started retirement account early... Bought my first super duty when I was 19, first motorcycle at 19, and first boat at 20. Started with a 19ft Bayliner capri... I didn't care what kind of boat it was, I was on the water! That started the addiction... I kept the motorcycle for a few more years but when i realized that at most, I was taking one passenger and it really wasn't that comfortable (sport bike) and I could load a boat up with 4+ friends, and go enjoy music, speed and sun, I opted for the latter.... I moved up to a 237 powerquest, then to a 272 baja then finally a 36' Pantera... Cost is surely more exponential as boat size grows... so I can see where people can go and buy a 100k wakeboard boat that really has minimal operational costs vs buying a 50k performance boat that has huge operational costs... Fuel, oil changes and maintenance, props, bling! (gauges, throttles, blah blah blah) that people dont normally change out in other style of boats...

Both boats could be financed for about the same payment depending on the amount of money down, rate, and payment term but the out of pocket expense is the hardest part to swallow. Most people can prepare for the payment but neglect to think about fuel, these are performance boats, go fast, speed etc... all runs on one thing.... hot babes and expensive fuel costs.... Not to mention everyone always wants to "go bigger" therefore we all eventually step up to big badass fast boats... then we forget that we don't always have the place to operate these things... you can put a ski/wake boat on any lake, you can put a jetski in a puddle but you usually cant drop bigger than a 30ft go fast on many inland lakes, for depth reasons, noise ordinances and sheer lake size. Where I live we have a ton of lakes but I drive an hour to get to one that is suitable for my boat. Even the 272 couldn't really go at most of the inland lakes... it just wasn't fun. Surely with the 36 I cannot operate anywhere around me other than upstate, (torch, charlevoix etc...) so I boat on Lake St. Clair.... Its an hour each way to the boat launch... Pulling this 36 with a 6.4 ford just sucks the fuel down... so you have truck fuel costs, travel time, storage etc.... it just gets expensive fast and most people would rather own a home or smaller toys I guess... or they just waste their money on dumb stuff... As everyone always tells me I wasted money on a "toy" but only idiots cannot fathom the idea of what an asset is. Even if you have a lien against it, eventually if you keep paying and do not default, you will be in possession of an asset....

Over financing and risky borrowing has shut the financial sector of marine lending down... yes people with money in the bank and stellar credit can finance go fast boats, but as we all know... recreational loans are among the most difficult to secure, especially performance boats... High risk of default makes them the most difficult to finance. Alot of the younger crowd with limited credit experience will not allow for performance boat financing, unless they have a decent cushion in the bank, and an extremely low debt-to-income....

My last thought is INSURANCE.... you can insure a bayliner capri, small powerquest, single baja with most insurance companies (my boats and experience) but when I stepped up to the Pantera, even with just 525 power but speeds at 90mph and stepped hull.... the "No's" started flying left and right... had to look for the right insurance and that met me with Wozencraft... they took care of me but I do pay (as I expected) and partially the reason I didn't move to a cat. Andy (at wozencraft) told me that age and experience has everything to do with rates.... which is obvious... I am freshly 30 years old and I was looking at a 33 eliminator with mild power (700's/nxt's) and the rates were well beyond what I would ever want to pay for living in a 4 month boating state.... but again, insurance is another cost of owning a high risk boat.... People love bling and showing off but people also love money (meaning cash) so for some people its hard to come off money to get something badass, rather than something that will just get them to the lake party.... I personally don't care what kind of boat people show up in... I learned that years ago and that is the mad RESPECT i have for 99% of the boating community.... one of my first years on the bigger lakes with the Baja I went to a party where an old bayliner (like my old one) was rafted up to a 47 Fountain lightning... these two owners did not know each other but were partying together nonetheless and having a great time.... boating is the one community that I have seen, where you can park a pinto next to a bugatti and no one gives a damn and the owner of the bugatti says "hey bud, want a beer?"

My $.02.... now can someone bring summer back to Michigan?????

I blame the government, they set the precedent of borrowing your way out of debt.

It has a lot to do with more than that.

I have terrible credit and am OK admitting it. I made mistakes as a young douche and pay that price now. I chose to finance 20% of my total boat cost just to build and reestablish good payment history.....my APT would make some faint but it has worked. We could have bought the boat in full and still could now but the reoccurring payment that is always paid and on time has helped out a lot.

I never have and never will lease any type of car or truck....You are just throwing money down the drain, no different than renting and people look at me like I crazy when I say that...I rented an apartment and a house for a couple years prior to marriage...I was sick at the money just going down the drain...I vowed never again!

Look at both sides of the coin.

We rent and love it.....I have zero desire to own. We have had prob $8k -$10k worth of **** break at the house....guess you pays it?

I am not tied down, I can move as I please, etc, etc, and I never worry about a loss in the market in home prices.


Everything is based on the people and how they live. There is no right way.