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VLX vrs xstar


Sandbagger

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Test drove an 04 xstar last weekend and here is my opinion:

1. Poor visibility from drivers seat and passanger area, mostly due to bow rise.

2. Boat is sluggish out of hole.

3. For a 23 foot boat it did not seem very spacious for seating.

4. Great board racks.

5. Good instrument panel but in way of driver sight.

6. Handling/Performance: Power was good (350 HP), handling was poor in my opinion. Not responsive and had to slow down to make any real sharp turns.

7. Good wake but very wide.

Test drove an 07 VLX with 340 monsoon w/power wedge; here are my thoughts:

1. Great visibility with minimal bow rise.

2. Pretty strong out of hole.

3. Took chop extremely well.

4. Board racks just ok.

5. For a 21' boat the seating was more spacious than the xstar at 23'.

6. Wake: great wake, wedge offered ability to shape to your preference.

7. Handling: This boat is amazing, like comparing my Ford F150 to my Corvette. Cranked a full turn at 35 MPH, turns flat, sharp and smooth. Power was excellent and planed at 20MPH. Unbelievable.

All I can say is that the performance and handling of the Malibu compared to the xstar is far superior. Needless to say, my paperwork for purchase of this Malibu is currently in process.

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Ex-Mastercraft owner here who upgraded to a Malibu based on a similar driving experience..... actually multiple experiences.

I was used to driving the "Corvette" of inboard boats (1994 MC 205) & loved it. I resisted buying a v-drive because they drove like tanks, were slow to accelerate out of the hole, and took a country mile to turn around. Even the older Malibu v-drives were not the best handling boats IMO. As both companies developed the performance in their boats, I kept looking & test driving. When Malibu added the Gorilla fins & higher horsepower motors, their v-drives really started to perform nicely.... leaving the MCs in their wake!

A couple years after that, after some depreciation settling, I picked up my first Malibu, a 2005 V-ride. Coming from Malibu's "budget" series of boats, we found the V-ride still outperforms most of the similar sized boats from any other make. While still way too expensive, the V-ride price compared with other boats well. And the performance & features it came with blew others away.

Funny, your talking about the new VLX & X-Star. I just realized I've been playing with the older versions of each. Guess I knew that all along but the consensus still came out the same.

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Another welcome to TMC.

My buddy has an 21' 03 Maristar and went on one of my Malibu test drives. I am pretty sure he's going to be ording one up next fall after our families spend a weeks vacation together in August and he drives our VTX a bit. We shall see...

Edited by TheBlackPearl
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So happy to see the comments from a wide spectrum of previous boat owners! Yahoo.gif This is my FIRST boat and I work very hard for my money, and because of the feedback I got from "The Crew", I am 100% sure I made a wise decision.Thanks again to all, and glad to be a part of the family!

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I own an 08 VLX and my good friend owns an 08 X-Star. Both purchased late last year. My son regularly rides behind both boats. The VLX was drop in the water, fill the MLS and drop the wedge. The X-Star took additional weight, on top of the factory, just to get it ridable (in my sons opinions). And, the opinion of the X-star owner.

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Took possession of my brand new '07 VLX on Saturday, runs great and has a kick a** stereo (12 speakers on the tower, a little overkill). Still breaking it in.

Its funny Malibu saw this thread and used it for marketing purposes, good for them.

They are right on track, the mastercraft dealer tried to discourage me from test driving a Malibu while the Malibu dealer said to test drive everything and then try the Malibu. When you have the best performing, best looking, best designed and highest quality product you want people to try the other stuff so they will know just how good yours really is.

To Malibu, if you need my address to start sending royalties please let me know, LOL.

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Took possession of my brand new '07 VLX on Saturday, runs great and has a kick a** stereo (12 speakers on the tower, a little overkill). Still breaking it in.

Its funny Malibu saw this thread and used it for marketing purposes, good for them.

They are right on track, the mastercraft dealer tried to discourage me from test driving a Malibu while the Malibu dealer said to test drive everything and then try the Malibu. When you have the best performing, best looking, best designed and highest quality product you want people to try the other stuff so they will know just how good yours really is.

To Malibu, if you need my address to start sending royalties please let me know, LOL.

Clap.gif congrats on the boat but were are the pics? Dontknow.gif
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Took possession of my brand new '07 VLX on Saturday, runs great and has a kick a** stereo (12 speakers on the tower, a little overkill). Still breaking it in.

Its funny Malibu saw this thread and used it for marketing purposes, good for them.

They are right on track, the mastercraft dealer tried to discourage me from test driving a Malibu while the Malibu dealer said to test drive everything and then try the Malibu. When you have the best performing, best looking, best designed and highest quality product you want people to try the other stuff so they will know just how good yours really is.

To Malibu, if you need my address to start sending royalties please let me know, LOL.

Malibu...the "Ultimate" boating experience!...(Que classical music...pan out on wake...fade to black)

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Rode behind the brand new Ronix Xstar this last weekend at my buddy's wedding. Beautiful boat, but seemed like less room than our VLX (isn't the Xstar a foot bigger that the VLX?). Also, I noticed that my wake is about the same size but the Xstar had 8 people in it with stock ballast. Mine would only have to have about 4 people (and stock ballast) to equal what the Xstar had in it that day. I just can't see spending $20,000 more to have a MasterCraft. Lucky for my best friend, he doesn't have to pay for a boat. :)

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Rode behind the brand new Ronix Xstar this last weekend at my buddy's wedding. Beautiful boat, but seemed like less room than our VLX (isn't the Xstar a foot bigger that the VLX?). Also, I noticed that my wake is about the same size but the Xstar had 8 people in it with stock ballast. Mine would only have to have about 4 people (and stock ballast) to equal what the Xstar had in it that day. I just can't see spending $20,000 more to have a MasterCraft. Lucky for my best friend, he doesn't have to pay for a boat. :)

Were you on Lake Sammamish Sunday? Saw a couple M/C loaded up when we were out. One was an x15 for sure.

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no, we were at Table Rock lake, MO at Big Cedar Lodge for the wedding and had his new MC Xstar there for the wedding.

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no, we were at Table Rock lake, MO at Big Cedar Lodge for the wedding and had his new MC Xstar there for the wedding.

That's a ways away. Ronix is local so I thought you might've been in this neck of the woods.

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Yup, Grant (Northern Ronix Rep for US) moved out to MO to live with his Fiance (at the time). He has the new Xstar and it will be wrapped with Ronix soon. Which I guess makes it the new Ronix boat since he will be pulling it all over the US.

I'm thinking about the new VTX like yours. I wonder how much different it is from my wake (04 VLX)...??... That boat looks so good and has soo much more room than mine it seems.

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