4bus,
Yes agreed, Mercury’s mark up is high, reasons are; Warranted parts, they stand by their Dealership and when we have a problem they are there to support us, never have problems claiming, they pay very well. Needless to say you don’t become an exclusive Mercury Racing dealership over night, you need trained Mechanics with Mercury Racing certification, large warehouse space, tools, huge inventory etc etc… I have a passion for high performance boats, we're the only repair shop in Quebec.
We usually don't take the time or don't have the time to reply on forums but we just had to give certain explanations. As mentioned we have a good reputation and work hard on keeping it that way. Have a great summer! Maybe will see you in Pokerruns. www.marineextreme.ca
Yvon Desautels.

Just to chime in here, it appears that I may have offended Marine Extreme which was certainly not my intent. In fact I have mentioned numerous times in my threads comments like the following about them:

"I have a really great very well known and super honest mechanic here in Quebec, one of the only shops certified for Merc racing. Everybody knows this guy and his crew and have nothing but super positive things to say about him. He has a massive shop, a hanger to store all boats that remain in his possession over night, only works on racing boas......very impressive. They even have a full upholstery shop that honestly shames factory quality. I have to pick up my boat next week and will ask him many questions to see what he's done and get his opinion on what needs to be done. He's got plenty of cash and does this for he love of the sport. He has a 2007 47 Fountain and an MTI that would make any boating enthusiast melt......besides......Florida i a drive from Montreal lol"

"I tend to agree simply because my mechanic made it pretty clear that I'm panicking for nothing but he would appease me and do the compression and leak down test to make me feel better. Now if this guy was new in the business I'd be concerned but this is not a new rodeo for this massive 6 bay shop. Additionally, its not like I told him I'm on a budget....in fact the the polar opposite.....I made it clear to check and change whatever needs to be changed to give me a clean bill of health last fall. Clearly he would have taken on an upper refresh it it was required especially having all winter to do the work"

Not to say that I'm still not panicked about all the top end comments and how easily a catastrophic failure can occur......I'm stuck on the cost to do top ends this late in the game at 400 hours if a rebuild or block swap is required in a few short months or 50 to 60 hours. Was never big on throwing cash away but also never was one to cheap out.........confusion comes with the time to amortize the expense. If over a year or two fine but a few months...........