Like the title says are they cheaper. Fuel, maintenance etc? I know I would miss the sound but just curious if anyone can speak from real work experience. Thanks.

Yes.

I would say yes as long as you have a good one but there is few things more expensive to work on and goes up from there if the person working on it don't know their stuff.

Without a doubt. I have a close friend with twin 90s vintage 225 Mercs with umpteen hours on them, and over a 10 yr period my maintenance costs, on my near bulletproof Innovation 600s, versus his are probably 10 to 1, no joke.

till they blow up...heard and seen to many issues with them for me...and when they do no getting around the high factory parts cost..

What the question should be is HP for HP are they cheaper. Not is a 225-250 HP outboard cheaper to run then a 500-600 HP I/O.

crb76 put up a really good post here several years ago comparing his Glastream with twin Verados and Active Thunder with two 525s.

The numbers were marginally different, slightly in favor of the outboards; but we're talking a hundreds of dollars per year, not thousands.

Definitely yes, outboards are cheaper to run.

Take into consideration how much easier it is to work on two outboards versus two big blocks that are 1 inch apart.

Do routine maintenance on both and I think the outboards are far easier to work on when they need it.

^^^ What he said.

Working on your motor standing up..............PRICELESS!