25 minutes ago, 2011vlx said:

Csleaver any chance you can post a pick or lead me to a YouTube video showing it and maybe changing it.

It may be hard to find a video or pictures of a thermostat replacement procedure for that engine online, because it is not a very common repair.  Just curious, why does yours need replacement? 

Front of L96 engine with the T-stat housing on the left.

4 hours ago, tjklein said:

Tommy's is local to me and where I bought my last boat, which was actually Waterski America then. (they were solid, worse since they got bought out)

Anyway, they sent me 2 quotes and they were just over 30% off, but close to $5k for shipping and prep. This was on a '23. Not a great deal considering the situation.

This industry msrp pricing is just plain stupid. 30% off msrp deals as standard, why? Just reduce sticker by 20% and give another 0-5% off like a luxury car dealer does in general, 8% if it’s old stock. 
 

what other industry routinely sells at 20-30% off? Is this to make people think they are getting a “deal?”

I would love to post a pic here to make sure I'm thinking it's the correct thing but I'm not sure how to do that?  Csleaver any chance you can post a pick or lead me to a YouTube video showing it and maybe changing it.  I believe it won't be a hard job I just don't want to take apart something I shouldn't.  

1 hour ago, Steve B. said:

Guessing no dealer can sell any new boat at any old price they want to. No way and large corp would allow a dealer to undercut their other loyal dealers. Wishful thinking.

I’m with you, this is the way it SHOULD be run.  But sadly this isn’t how modern corporations do business anymore.  All they care about is stock price.  So the only thing that will incentivize them to buyback those boats and control the market price will be the risk of a long term stock price slump if they don’t buy them back.  It would be a tough pill to swallow to take all that money they’ve been paid already for the boats in Tommy’s possession and give a lot of it back to them (M&T) just to keep market prices inflated for a few seasons.  I could definitely see them keeping the money, cutting output at the factory the next couple years and increasing their incentives to dealers to compensate for their losses while the pricing evens back out over the next few years.  In the long run many of their dealers will end up reselling the cheap boats from M&T.  Someone will get a good price from M&T, then it will get traded in and resold 10 more times.  If Malibu wins their case I doubt they worry too much about the extra boats M&T is holding.  MBUU shares will get hit the hardest if they are found liable for the damages Tommy’s did to M&T.  

1 hour ago, oldjeep said:

I guess that works if you are ok with kids living with you forever;) Our deal was, you can stay as long as you are doing serious saving for a house.  Otherwise the rental market is your oyster.

Yeah this method seems to work if you’re part of the upper middle class and above.  In my anecdote the guys parents were decently wealthy by todays standards and had multiple houses that he and his siblings could live in while they built their businesses and waited out the housing crisis.  I know a few guys that live with their parents and own expensive fishing boats and do so in much less glamour and style but seem to make it work so who knows 😂.