gsxrmike

Let's face it, this activity (sport) that we all enjoy is mostly driven by guys, so once the next generation learns about the ease in which you can see and meet new boobies, I have a feeling the interest will grow.

Just my 2 cents

Pliant

This is a rather new phenomenon that 7 yrs ago one would have laughed at...Hey my house value is going down but my car/boat is going up wtf....In the auto industry its almost to a crisis point we are running out of used car's that is a painful fact ever notice how may 1000000 mile rigs are on new car dealer's lot's it's crazy. As to boats it's much the same 9 yrs ago i picked up a nice little open bow for a decent price and according to NADA in 9 yrs it has only fallen 4000 dollar's in value??? Cazy.

Nate5.0

Young girls don't care as much either. Face it....it is a declining sport/hobby to the youth today.

RSCHAP1

Wake boats

Nate5.0

this is what the ladies are into these days. Not my cup of tea but it is the truth

debcod2

I guess I need to consider myself one of the fortunate few that our son who is 11 now and has all the I phone, I pad, I touch and anything else that starts with an I will drop them all in a heart beat to go to the lake and take one of the boats out.
Even when we are tied up in a cove all day, he will swim and play, or even just hang out with us if there are no other kids around to play with. never once has he asked us to turn on the generator so he can play x box while we are out.
He drives our 36' cruiser more than I do these days, we rebuilt a 13' paradise for him over the winter that he just has a blast in and he is already asking when I will let him drive the warlock sxt cat we have.
I hope he stays on this path as its how I grew up and looking back, I wouldn't change any of it for the world despite how many people say we are crazy for throwing money away by owning 3 boats.

It awesome when we look back at all the pictures from over the years watching him grow up on the water with us.

debcod2

I cannot believe what they get for new wake boats these days! and people say Im crazy for what we spend on all 3 of ours together!

debcod2

Personally I think all the young girls care about is that they found a ride to where the party is, it has a loud stereo and plenty of alchohol on board to make what they think at the time is a great decision. half of them probably don't leave with the guy that got them there because they found someone better.

It is amazing at how many seem to be like this down where we are at.

onesickpantera

iTrader: (1)

Nail meet hammer! The older crowd is moving to CCs and younger crowd wants wakeboard/ski boats. The exception seems to be the high dollar large performance boats.

Don't get me started on young kids and their phones! Uggg, now I feel OLD!

lsc86

It's easy to understand because no one can afford to trade every 2-3 years any more, auto, boat, or whatever. I managed a powersports dealership back in the early-mid 90s and you could easily flip year to year for $1,000 at most. But back then, used unit prices held a higher % compared to new and new units were still within the average guy's reach. Nowadays you take a 50% hit in 2-3 years on trade in for your toy that costs twice as much new to begin with.

Cars & trucks are even worse. Just went through this last year needing to upgrade my truck and surely couldn't afford 45k+ for a new rig, but couldn't see much sense in paying $25K for one with over 80k on the odometer either. Between a rock and a hard place. Find something 10+ years old for say $15k that's rusting out and needs $5k worth of work or bite the bullet and buy new? Wife averages 20-22k per year on her mini-van, so we had no choice but to buy new and make it last ('06 Sienna 201k miles and going strong) until there is nothing left. Couldn't imagine dropping huge $$$ for a new or left-over boat and then hoping to get 70% of the purchase price back in 3 years.

Then factor in who is buying higher ticket items these days and it's not the guys that grew up wrenching with their dad in the driveway, rebuilding carb's for the 6-pack 440, or stuffing a big inch engine into their softail sleeper drag bike. I could probably count on one hand the number of people I work with that even own a screwdriver, let alone an engine hoist or air compressor tool set. But I digress.....

+1 on the kids comments too. I'd have given my left arm if my parents could have afforded to buy me a dirtbike, snowmobile, atv, or had their own boat. Spent my youth stealing rides on on my friends stuff whenever I could. You couldn't pry my off it any of it. Motor head from the beginning, bought my first street bike before my first car- paid for it myself too. Surely thought my son would be the same way, he was until around 6 years old when he started school and all the neighborhood kids wanted Playstation's and XBox's. His brand new XR-50 sat in the garage and got more use from me blasting around the neighborhood. Bought him quads, snowmobiles, etc. All of it just sat. My daughters came along and it was mostly the same way. One summer I sold their 90cc quad after it sat unused for months and about 4 months after that, one of them finally noticed it was gone!

The only thing that they have all liked and ask about has been the boat. But even that, after say 4 straight weekends on the water, they'll start complaining to do something different. It's not just the phones and social media occupying their time, it's the distractions from what they are doing and instant ability to do something else or even get information that has really changed things. 20 years ago, you'd hear a rumor about some bad new Donzi so-n-so saw one weekend in Miami with some secret sauce sprinkled inside the engine and you'd have to wait until you actually saw it yourself or maybe a month or two later it popped up in a magazine article just to confirm its existence. The mystery of anything doesn't exist. Surf your phone and within seconds you can see a 1950 Merc race boat just as easily as the new Merc 400 outboard.

These times, they are a changin........