The million dollar question
 

Well I have the million-dollar question I bought this cigarette in October drove it once. winterized and put it away. Thanks giving weekend I fabbed up some things on the trailer to get it up to par for the 2015 season and good old Illinois weather decided to get up to 55 60 degrees. So naturally I wanted to go out and do a little test and tune on the trailer and while I was at the lake might as well take the boat for a hot lap or two since I didn't get to drive it. midway through my hot lap I checked the oil. There was water in the oill long story short pulled the heads off and take him to a machine shop heads are warped the The springs are worn. And valves were leaking not seating properly scorched firm obviously had gotten hot. Supposedly the motor had 30 hours on it on a freshly rebuilt the machinist said definitely not new heads definitely had problems. I don't know even for sure if the block is cracked yet obviously this is just the start of my problems. The million dollar question is should I call the previous owner and asked for money. He's not answering my texts or phone calls now. He did at first but now he won't. I understand fully the used game buying used vehicles boats cars etc. and etc. and that nothing as a warranty and that when you bought it it's yours it's your problem now. But I also believe that if you pay the 50k for something the damn thing should run at least for a month or two not be jacked up right out of the gate!!! Especially when he promised you the motors were fresh and Run perfect no problems at all not sure what to do don't want to really be that guy call the owner for money but I spent A lot of money on this and I think that he isn't telling the truth completely and that I feel that it should run longer I want to Hear what is your guys take on this is. Help me out

You bought a top gun with hawk power correct? While it's not right, the price isn't too high for needing a bit of work. And continuing to try and contact the previous owner is just going to waste time and aggravate you more. Did you get receipts for the rebuilds? If not that is why I assume the power is beat and junk if they don't have receipts.

I think that here in Michigan the million dollar question would be; Does the bill of sale say "sold as is" or words to that effect. If not and the seller deliberately concealed a problem then you might have recourse. If it says "as is" you are screwed.

Maybe the previous owner thought that the motors were fresh with 30 hours on them...

I'd be having a nice long talk with whoever did your prepurchase mechanical inspection. Thatshould have shown on the leakdown test etc.....

It ran good in October, now you have issues with it? Whether it was bought right or not it's not the sellers problem. 30hrs are used engines in my opinion. Did the seller refuse a sea trial is that why you think he might be hiding something?

It's buyer beware, I'm sure seller did not put on it warranty implied. The situation just sucks though.

this might not be what you want to hear but,as a buyer it is up to you to do a good check of the boat,including the engines before you buy it.if the seller can,t validate that the engines are rebuilt with 30 hours,than you must price it as not with rebuilt engines,same for the drives and all the mechanical,s on the boat.in this day and age you can,t just believe what a seller said,you need proof.

Mike is right. Its unfortunate, but thats powerboating.

In this day and age, everyone thinks they are an engine builder. You see more half azz engine builds these days than ever. Guys who honestly have no business doing a tune up, let alone complete overhauls on the engines.

While I think that mercury may have left some things on the table when it comes to performance, at least when you buy a boat with stock merc engines, you know what you're getting. Once someone has been in them, I consider them in need of a rebuild. Then if they turn out ok, its a nice bonus.

If the heads are junk, I'd strongly recommend going thru the shortblocks as well at this time.

Not so fast:

"Implied Warranties

Most consumer purchases are covered by an implied warranty of merchantability, which means it is guaranteed to work as claimed. For instance, a vacuum cleaner that does not create enough suction to clean an average floor is in breach of the implied warranty of merchantability. Federal law defines "merchantable" by the following criteria:

They must conform to the standards of the trade as applicable to the contract for sale.
They must be fit for the purposes such goods are ordinarily used, even if the buyer ordered them for use otherwise.
They must be uniform as to quality and quantity, within tolerances of the contract for sale.
They must be packaged and labeled per the contract for sale.
They must meet the specifications on the package labels, even if not so specified by the contract for sale.
Even used goods are covered, although some states allow retailers of either used or new goods to invalidate the implied warranty by stating "sold as is."

If you don't write "as is" or "with all it's faults" on a bill of sale then you are leaving yourself wide open for liability.

Do diligent's. Fix it and go on with your boating.

The first red flag for me when looking at boat ads is "Fresh Motors" Why would someone put that kind dollars in a boat that they were going to sell? If they did freshen the motors and all was good, why sell it? Just another red flag for me. If the motor guy was not a brand name guy, that too would get my antenna up, just because you then have no clue as to the quality of the builder.

This is not the first time this type of deal has come up. I just always go with the buyer beware no matter what. Do your due diligence no matter what. As for "As is" or "With all its faults" on the bill of sale or not, who wants to go to court over the purchase of a boat. There's plenty of fish (boats) in the sea to get the right boat for you. Again the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true........it probably is" comes to mind.

I'm just saying that if you could prove that the seller hid a defect. . . . . . That will not be easy to do though unless you find a post somewhere on a boating forum or something ;)

Not meaning to take a shot at you at all. I always put "As is" on anything I sell with a Bill of Sell. But then again, I don't want to take advantage of anybody and probably disclose to much for my own good. :) The last thing I want to do is give the lawyers or courts a bunch of money over a deal gone bad no matter what side I'm on, buyer or seller. But that's just anal me. lol

I've said it before - despite the fact that I would have a hard time following my own advice, just fix it and move on. You'll spend more time/energy/resources trying to get blood from a turnip than just fixing it and moving on

I disclose things too. I'll point out every hard to see scratch. I agree that the OP has to eat this one especially after 2 months.

Ya pretty much what I was thinking. It's hard to swallow and this being my first taste of powerboating of this size of the boat makes it even harder but you live and learn I guess I'll just keep replacing stuff and fixing things LOL wish I had unlimited amounts of money so I could dump big motors in it but I'll just keep fixing it As I go and bite the bullet thanks for the help guys appreciate it.

When are people going to learn that "FRESH MOTORS in an add means that they have been fogged with Fabreeze, nothing more, nothing less....

you point out the small imperfections because you are honest,unfortuniatly not everyone is .bying a used boat is almost like bying a used car from a fly-by-nite junk dealer,a lot of people will say anything to make a sale.

I bought a boat once with "fresh motor" never asked a question about the motor. The guy says " you never asked about the engine , the best part" you have receipts? No. Ok so the only thing fresh is prob the paint.

My advice would be yank the motors, do them now, and forget about trying to get anything out of the seller. My reasoning is this: It is extremely disheartening to buy a boat, find it has a problem, feel screwed by the previous owner, and then try to bandaid or go light on the repair only to lose valuable boating time in the spring when you figure out there is more wrong.

Experiences like this can haunt your entire ownership experience and you or even worse your wife will end up hating the boat or even the idea of using it. Just bite the bullet and take it in the a$$ now and do everything right while you have the time. Sure the wallet gets hurt, but in the end you will end up happier and if you are like me you will forget quickly how much money you spent to fix it up.

That may be true for the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner, but for a used boat it is 100% buyer beware.

not necessarily true,,
anything used is a "as is sale" for the most part,but if the seller knew the item he was selling had a major problem and he went out of his way to hide it then if you can prove it you might have a case..

about 10 years ago I bought a 10th Anniversary Trans Am over the internet as a as is and shown deal,when the car arrived it had a vibration at idle,,called the guy and he said he never had a problem with car,,next day when I drove the car and lifted up on the rack I could clearly see the oil pan had just been dropped ,once I took the engine apart I found #3 and #5 cylinders were bored .30 over while the remainder were stock..that by law is considered fraud..I did not even need a attorney ...he paid for the engine repairs because he went out his way to hide a known issue,

now if the engine spun a bearing or dropped a valve I would be on my own because according to the judge that is the chance we take when we buy used,,but its a different story if someone goes out of their way to cheat you.

I agree, when the seller is purposely hiding a known issue you may have a case. But there is no "implied warranty" on a used boat sale.

Yes, I meant if the seller purposely concealed a known problem and misrepresented the boat and did not write "as is" on the bill of sale. Two months later though all bets are pretty much off as there is really no way of knowing how much use the boat had or if it was properly winterized.

fix it and keep going or sell it "as is"

I never had issues with others building engines I ended up with... NOT!!!!

Buying anything with an engine that cannot be quantified is a crapshoot. Anytime I buy used hotrod equipment, I assume I'll be going through it and if I can save some parts, I consider that a bonus.
I know that's of little help to you and I feel bad that this kind of stuff happens to good folks but, that's
How I look at used performance gear.