in the process of looking for new to me(used) boat. finally located exactly what I have been looking for except ,the engine scan that was emailed to me shows 130 hours and the hour meter gauge shows 600.present owner says always left key on while listening to stereo. Everything else about the boat looks awesome. Boat is 700 miles from me and I wanted to make a deal ,but not comfortable with the Discrepancy in hours.

Have a mechanical survey performed, bleed down test. Worth the investment.

I call bulls#it. Do marine key switches even have an accessory side?
Most all stereo equipment on a boat is turned on/off by a rocker or toggle style switch.
Not that the engines are bad, just never new anyone to leave the key on in their boat.

My last 3 boats all counted hours on one meter so I had a lot more showing on one side.

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was the engine's electronics replaced? Even better, were the motors replaced? if so, the engine's internal hour meter would start at zero, but the dash gauge would continue to accum hours.

Had an Evinrude back in the 80's and the standard OMC hour meter would actually run backward if I reversed the spade terminals on the back of the dash!
Needless to say, I reversed them for a couple days every month......

To the topic, unusual but not impossible. I've owned older boats where the stereo had been wired (backyard style) to the ignition presumably to prevent accidentally flattening the battery by leaving the stereo going.

Get the engine scanned independently, I don't think anyone can fiddle the scan but make sure you know you are getting the original unaltered printout. Seller should understand your reasoning without objection.

RR

told me the motor is original (from pictures looks very clean/original).

What motor?

I had a mechanic leave the key on for a whole weekend, luckily the battery died and it stopped after 30 hours or so.

(1) 496 ho