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Kawasaki vs. Sea-doo

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scooper77515

freebie fixer
Premium Member
My parts provider told me, "glad you got that Sea-doo for free, but if you decide to buy one new, go with Kawasaki. They break down much less often and parts are cheaper."

Is there any truth to this?
 
I owned Kawasaki's till I bought my first seadoo last Sept. 07, my 1997 Challenger...now I bought a brand new 200 speedster, in January...I will never buy a Kawasaki again. My neighbor has 2 Kawasaki pwc's he bought new 2 years ago...everytime he runs them he has to tow one back. I have owned 14 Kawasaki's in my water time. I'm stuck on seadoo because of the workmanship and quality. I have a lot of friends that own both brands of machines...they swear by seadoo...not at them. Sit back and see where this post goes and than decide. This is just my opinion.

Karl
 
KAW or SEADOO

I agree with Karl,
this is also just my opinion but I'm basing it on my working on all different kinds of skis' the last 15 years. Kawasaki skis' are pretty good until they get about 2 years old. THEN GET OUT YOUR WALLET!!!
Most repairs tend NOT to be simple ones because you can't get the ski to do the same thing twice (good or bad).
I've found parts to be about 30% higher in price than other makes and alot of times they're hard to get.
The way some areas of the ski are engineered makes most of them hard to work on.
Did I mention I don't like things that are hard to work on?
DAWG
 
Engines.....

When you look at the difference in the longevity and performance of the Rotax engines verses the ones used in the Kawa's, then you'd have to ask yourself one question. Which company has the most time and money spent in the R&D of their product? That means, who ever has been building them the longes, must have something right, or they'd be out of business.
The Rotax engine is, in my opinion, the most advanced and most developed engine in the world. Not just for the Sea-Doo's, but for the Ski-Doo, motorcylces (BMW) and airplanes that this corporation supplies.
I did a little research on the beginning of this comany. If you'd like to check it out, follow the below link............http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?t=1838
I'm a Sea-Doo man!.....not by accident, on purpose!
 
I thought this might turn into a debate, but I guess you can't debate the same point when it's the correct one! long live SEADOO!:rofl::ack:
 
Cool...

I don't plan on buying new for a long time, more likely to buy a big blocked jet boat.

But it kinda "got my goat" when my parts dealer said this.

I see LOTS of 95-98 SeaDoos still out on the water (yes, they have had new wear rings, and lots of other parts to keep them going) but few old Seadoos. Maybe a couple of old Wave Runners (are they Yamaha?) but they are usually crapped out or close to it.

So, I just wanted to post up here and see what is what...:confused:
 
Wave Runners....

Yeah, Wave Runners are out by Yamahammer.......but I don't know about buying the big block jet boat. Fuel and weight play a major role in that decision. I had a friend with a 454 witha Berkley pump and the thing was awesome, but it burned like 20 gallons in 2 hours of fun. If I could build one myself, I'd like to go to a military auction and find a gas turbine engine from an old helicopter and build a boat around that. I've always like the sound of the Miss Budweiser, when she's beatin the pants off the competition!.......
Interesting about your parts dealer though. I find that this is common in this type business now days. Reason?........everyone wants to make money. It bites my butt too!.....
I can't tell you how many people I have coming to me to fix their chain saws, riding lawnmowers, cars, etc.....all because of my resentment toward these repair shops that take advantage of un-suspecting customers.
Most of my friends who I help out are female. It seems that a male dominated parts/repair shop type business sees money in ignorance. But it's not totally a gender thing, men get taken to the cleaners too. What gets me (and I've seen and heard this with my own eyes and ears) is that when you (females) go in, the parts or repair guy feels you out to see how knowledgable you are about the part broken or what it's going to take to repair it. Once he sees that the victim isn't very well knowledgable of what's happening, he'll tell them that "well, to replace this part, you need to get that part. And since you got it open, this part here cost $XXXX and you'll be replacing it later. Oh yeah, and the hyper drive clutch assembly to the barium chamber is about to go. You'll need to replace that too. Just a good thing you brought it in when you did." Then, bewildered, you nod your head. The light goes off in his head and you ask how much? His reply, "well, since your such a good customer, I'll cut you a deal. I won't charge you for the adjustment to the hyper clutch, so the price will be $1800 dollars.".........and because you have to have your car, you don't have much choice.....and that's why they do it. Because they know you don't have much choice. Oh, and by the way. That repair you originally went in for, was a stopped up fuel filter. You could have replaced it yourself, purchased from a local parts store for $3.50. What a savings!...................always be weary of who you have work on your equipment. I"ve already seen, here in this forum where someone was told they needed some type of maintenance on their supercharger after 10 hours and it was going to cost $800 bucks.........I didn't see that in the manual under the service section, so I"ll assume it was a ploy to get that un-suspecting person in so they could get rich off them. Before I shut up, one more thing. Have you ever noticed that once you take your vehicle to a repair center, you start having more problems after the initial repair....hmmmm, sounds kinda fishy to me.............:rant:
I will say, in defense of the mechanics and shop owners that may be in this forum, I do know and I'll point out, that not all shops are like this. There are some shops out here where the owners are old school. Their reputation in the community makes them proud, so they strive to do the best work they can. There just aren't many places like this left anymore.
 
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Snipe is right

I was in California all last week visiting my grandmother. While I was there, I did a bunch of work for her on her car, computer, and in her house, because every time she hires it out, they WAY overcharge her. I hate to tell her each time how much she "should" have paid for the work...:(
 
Better answer

I went to pick up my parts from another shop, and asked the head repair guy, and he said "Sea doo, without a doubt!" and asked me how many old seadoos I still see on the water compared to other brands...
 
Better!

Without a doubt. Different shop, better answer:D

Of course, we need to take into account that I just forked over $250 for Seadoo parts to this guy...:p
 
He could have owned a yama-ha-ha and he would have said the seadoo was better... spending that much, but maybe not he could have been honest.
 
I think he was being honest. The shop sold 3 different brands of boats, and I didn't get the cock-eyed look of disgust :ack: when I started asking tech questions about the seadoo...
 
My personal opinion, is that the seadoo is a very good machine and I don't think any other brand can knock it legitimately.
 
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