I have an old friend who won't ride with me because I ride a Raider not a Harley. Same friend was welcome to tie his little Bayliner up to my Warlock on the lake. Misplaced loyalties.............Morel of the story, don't act like a ***** because you ain't special.

Nothing really wrong with them. More of a budget, black motor/bravo, sporty boat. Midwestern rednecks love them, which can be a turn off for some.

I always thought the styling was good except for the obsession with the color purple.

People are always such cheerleader for the brand they own. I have a Mastercraft but still like Supra, Cig, Outerlimits, Baja...even Azimut, Viking, sailboats....
I'm a motorcycle guy and I don't have to put a costume on to go ride. I have a lot of Harley friends that I ride with and have that attitude that it's the only motorcycle brand and buy into all the BS Harley sells them as a lifestyle. I own 2 Harleys, a Moto Guzzi and a Ducati.... I like to ride them all and it's not a status symbol for me.
Boat in whatever you want and don't be a D***...as long as you're on the water with friends have a good time; who cares what you're in!

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I sold my Checkmate in 1988 and bought my Baja 270 new in 1989. Loved it, eventually put CMI headers and bigger carb. Good 80mph boat. Sold it when I bought a 35' Sonic with twins. Great boat. No issues.

As others have stated and whenever this topic comes up I always say

you’ll be hard pressed to find a prior baja owner that hates on them. Can’t tell you how many guys I know that have MTI’s Skaters, Cigarettes OL’s etc that started with Baja and remember owning one fondly. It’s always those that have never actually owned one that hate on them. And that hate comes from the fact they’re entry level basically production performance boats that can be had for less money….and their ignorance of the brand. Granted, over the years they’ve had their known issues but overall, best bang for the buck on the market.

id own another all day.

I’ve only had experience with one Baja owner and to say that is was less than good would be an understatement
( just happened to be Tanks old Baja )

but I should mention that later they did contact me to apologize
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I have worked on quite a few over the years as well as others. main thing with the Baja is that it is a production boat. not that that makes them bad. biggest issue I have run into with them is the rigging. wiring sucks in some of them, better in others but some of what they do is to get them down the line fast so once you fix those issues they seem to hold up as well or better than some of the others.

Loved all 3 of our Bajas especially the 100mph 33 Outlaw.

Not sure exactly why they get so much hate, lots of good reasons already posted.

I think Baja, Powerquest, Formula, Fountain, Donzi etc. are all very similar for the most part. There are a few exceptions but the way I explain it is.

Baja Challenger
Formula Camaro
Fountain Mustang

Doesn't really matter which ones which but what gives Baja a bad name is most of them were optioned like a V6 base Challenger where as Most Fountains and Donzis were more of a GT or SS trim. They are still all in the same "Class" overall but not always a fair comparison inside that class.

Our 33 Outlaw was built more like a Hellcat or Shelby Cobra, and it was pretty badass! But it's still no Lambo or Ferrari.

2005 30 Outlaw 496ho great boat.

I've had two, loved/love them both. I think it is very accurate to say that they found a much bigger audience in the midwest than on the coasts. It was/is extremely rare to find a Donzi, Fountain, Cigarette, Scarab (the old ones), etc on lakes like Tablerock, Beaver...maybe a few now on LOTO, but on the smaller inland lakes a "Baja" boat was often synonymous with ANY 'go fast' type of boat. The 'in the gelcoat graphics' were indicative of a higher-end boat. Hand-laid fiberglass construction versus chopper guns...Baja marketed their boats well. The boats out of Bucyrus, Ohio are generally considered to be 'better' than others. My little big-block powered 208 made a lot of people shake their heads in grudging admiration, lol! That was a FAST boat.
But there are always the snobs, doesn't matter if boats, cars, motorcycles, etc. Some of the Harley crowd, as noted in posts above, can be pure dicks...I ran into a few of them in my Yamaha street bike days. So yeah, as also noted above, the 'hate' for something or someone just because of the brand, hard to understand.