Them and Bayliner switched back and forth for the biggest volumes of boats sold in the past. Now up for sale. Wow how times have changed. Man cruiser boats with outboards is Fugly to.

https://www.tradeonlytoday.com/manufacturers/brunswick-to-sell-sea-ray?utm_source=trade-enewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink& utm_campaign=enewsletter-120517

One has to wonder if this is the beginning of the end of mercruiser?

Prob within 5 years yes IMO. Sales have been down year after year 5 to 10 percent. Indmar sells more engine packages than Mercruiser and keep in mind how many I / O and inboard boat manu s there is compared to only 8 real players in the wakeboard boat manu world.

I feel bad for Volvo Penta as well. They spent millions to bring forth the GM direct injection engines and forward facing drive to market all within the past 5 years. What a kick in the teeth to be only selling about 6500 new engines packages for the past couple of years.

When Medium size and bigger cruisers resort to outboards looking that bad installed - it has to be the beginning of the end for I/Os and inboards.

I still can not get over how ugly cruisers look with outboards. Looks like an after thought install. And they all look the exact same. Kind of like most of the center console boats. All vanilla and nothing else.

Matter of opinion and interest level. The same can be said about a lot of things. Cars, to someone not interested, a Camaro, Mustang, and Challenger all look alike. Guitars, Fender Strat and any of the 100's of look alikes.

Business 101, make and sell things that are profitable. The boats we all know and love are not selling.

Hey now, I kinda resemble that remark....

http://imgur.com/gallery/Wj6kx

Mercuriser is not going anywhere (being they build outboards also). Inboards went out with the invention of the (instrument of the Devil) outdrives. Then I/O's were going out because of outboards. Its all about room in the boat and how small of a boat you can make with that room. They are also simple to rig to a boat with and easy to connect control wise. There is nothing leak in the boat and then there is the weight advantage because now they can make the bow heavier with bathrooms and kitchens.
But the bottom line is though boats are going out of style. We lost a generation during the last recession and they aint coming back. When Donzi is selling their 18' boat for close to 70 grand you can see why.

When Donzi is "Asking" 70K.......not too many selling at that price!

OSO had a dealer listing for a new 22 Donzi for 59K......

not that long ago all the pundits were forecasting the end of the outboard.... what goes around comes around....

The real future may be electric. Look at the Tesla power plant. Incredibly fast and smooth. No pollution and less fire hazard. If they can lighten up the batteries the gas motors will dinosaur overnight.

We're all addicted to the cough and catch of a V8 when they first start up. Especially on a boat, because it carries across the water. I remember being towed back off the lake as a kid in the summer heat, because the damn outboard wouldn't start again. My family went I/O after a couple of summers of that. That was fifty years ago. It took them that long to build outboards that could compete with the I/O platform. Now they are cheaper too. But I must agree with BUP that they have no appeal to me whatsoever. Kind of like the rice burners were when they came on the scene back in the early 70's and 80's. But I digress. Main reason I replied was that I was at LaveyCraft last weekend. Holy cow, they're putting outboards on a boat there too! More interesting was the lil electric boat they were working on. Looked like an old school woody mainly to be used in the bays on the coast. Goes 10mph . Yep, just a matter of time before gasoline and internal combustion will be a novelty.
Michael