Hi everyone. Been lurking for years, finally decided to sign up. I've been around boats my whole life, enjoy them, work on them, now have enough saved up to buy one. Now for the question. My buddy has a 1989 baja 235 force in super nice shape. He takes extremely good care of it and has owned it for around 15 years. Its got the black 454 mag stock engine besides captains call exhaust, with a stock bravo one. Besides regular maintenance and religiously I should add. The engine has never been opened up. Its got just shy of 1000 hrs on it. Runs like a top and doesn't burn oil. Ive been on the boat, out on the lake and it rides nice and smooth. Its got a ton of upgrades like stereo, gaffrig gauges, ss 4 blade lab finished prop, interior is in super shape as is hull and paint. For the most part besides small things the boat needs nothing. Hes asking 10k for it, he'll give it to me for $9250. Im only worried about the hrs and how much longer before I have to sink in more money to build a 496 stroker. Any input is extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance.

It is 24 years old, has a lot of hours, is underpowered and it has never been run at WOT in all that time ? It might run high 50s but that is just a guess. It's overpriced. Keep looking.

Many on here seem to think all older boats are worth more as parts than as whole boats. In many cases thats true. If the boat is turn key and exceptionally clean, I would be a buyer at $6-7k.

many good deals out there for much less. I'm sure your buddy's boat is nice but with that many hours I wouldn't want to plan on that power running for more than a couple years. Many out there with much fresher power. although thats not always a good thing.

Thanks so much for the input. That's all I keep hearing locally as well. Way to many hours for that price. Something is going to give in the engine, then gonna have to sink in at least 5k more for a rebuild.

Yep I have to agree. 6-7K boat at best.

I have a buddy with 1300 hours on a 311 with 365 mags, she runs perfect, lower hp engines can go a ton of hours if they were taken care of, I do however think any more then 5-6000 I would be buying a lower hour/bigger/newer boat

A little high on the price. We had a 94 Caliber with the 454 Mags. Nice motors. One started burning oil at about 500 hours. So definately will need a rebuild soon. Keep shopping there are ALWAYS good deals out there. Keep an eye out on craigslist. Boats like that always seem to appear. Where are you boating at?

congrats on saving and buying youre first . better keep saving . since youve been a,lurcker . you know what the word boat means . enjoy, boats are kool .personally 9250 dont buy much . theres always 454 around pretty cheap besides . if you know the history . everythinfg is in good condition . its worth 9250.00. run an oil analist on it .

+1 - OP, you just listed a couple of thousand in upgrades on the boat. You know the owner, the boat. If you trust the owner, buy it. If you don't, then don't. It's not like your going to pay WAY over what it is worth who don't know.

But.........Pay attention to how he operates it and takes care of it. If he babies it and you jump in and start slaming throttles as hard as you can, then you will most likely Break Out Another Thousand or five.