Your opinions on a "new to me" boat...

[Bozboat]

You mentioned that you can't fly up to look, but in this case I would find a way to get there to see it. without a close look, you will never know.

[Jco]

What happened to the decals on the starboard side?

[EchelonMike]

I like this boat color options. Looks better "naked" on starboard side w/o graphics, too. I bought my XTI from an owner who had it on consignment with East Coast Flightcraft and it was a good experience.

If this boat has the features you want at a great price, and the work it needs is mainly elbow grease to clean up, I say go for it. The hull registration shows new hampshire - lots of small lakes up there and i bet it lived there vs salt water. The transom flush is a big benefit to have in my mind.

There looks to be some scum on the transom...if it sat in the water, as long as there are no blisters, it will clean up nicely.

My advice given hours is to see it in person. Also ask if it is dealer owned or consignment. If consignment call the owner direct.

-- Mike

[99response]

..looks like a saltwater boat... based on underside and the flushpro... not worth it.

C'mon seriously, have you ever seen a Malibu that spent 500 hours in saltwater? The board racks would be a mess, not to mention the painted trailer would be rusting all over.

Also what kind of wakeboard camp would operate in the Atlantic ocean?

[obski]

Maybe someone in the area could swing by and take a look at the boat for you?

[eff1fitty]

I'm with you spamhappy! Looks like 99 would be a good candidate, huh? Living in Boston, it would be a hop, skip, and jump over to go give it a looksie.

[99response]

I'm with you spamhappy! Looks like 99 would be a good candidate, huh? Living in Boston, it would be a hop, skip, and jump over to go give it a looksie.

Conflict of interest I'm afraid, I used to work for the dealer

[Steve B.]

I'd keep lookin' till the right boat jumps out and say's "take me home" !

Steve B.

[EchelonMike]

C'mon seriously, have you ever seen a Malibu that spent 500 hours in saltwater? The board racks would be a mess, not to mention the painted trailer would be rusting all over.

Also what kind of wakeboard camp would operate in the Atlantic ocean?

I agree - the boat needs to be seen in person to know for sure. I don't see any signs of salt water. I see a weekend in the driveway with a buffer and some interior protectant to have a boat that looks like new for a solid price for a 2010...

-- Mike

[eff1fitty]

But the one thing I am trying to overcome is the hours. Yeah it will look new, but when the sell time comes, will I be able to break even? Do people buy boats with 800-1000 hours for what I will owe on it at the time? Or will the hours hender most buyers regardless of how good looking it is?

[Bill_AirJunky]

500 hrs is nothing. Certainly not a reason to not buy a boat. My Chevy Avalanche has 105k miles on it & has over 2500 hrs on it. It doesn't burn a lick of oil, still get 15 - 17 mpg, and tows the boat to Shasta or Hells Canyon fully loaded without any issues.

Looks like a weekend of cleanup & detailing to me. I don't see any corrosion on the racks, speakers or trailer. No damage in the interior.

Get one of the TMC members to go check it out, send you some cell phone pics of it & give you a call while he's standing there looking at the boat.

You could also have an independent mechanic check it out.... do a compression test, leak down test, sample the oil test, etc. Probably be the best $200 or $300 you spent.

[85 Barefoot]

As to hours, a well-maintained boat with 500 hours is still in its teens in human years. Does that mean its guaranteed for 3500? No, not if not maintained well. Hours don't bother me.

[DWhynot]

That was most likely a "camp" boat where the model is, they trade them in every two years for a new one (there are no wakeboard schools that I'm aware of in New England - lots of instructors, tho'). So, this was probably used for towing lots of toobers in their orange life-per-savers for hours at a time, with the camp councilors getting to shred some wake in the evenings. From what I've seen, these boats are very well cared for (cosmetically) and are all dealer maintained/serviced. I too used to work for this dealership (part-time) demo-ing and delivering boats, and on more than one occasion, I would be towing up one boat (new or post-service) and towing back a different boat from camps in Maine and NH. I wonder if someone can run the bow number to see who owned it...

[Sunscape fan]

But the one thing I am trying to overcome is the hours. Yeah it will look new, but when the sell time comes, will I be able to break even? Do people buy boats with 800-1000 hours for what I will owe on it at the time? Or will the hours hender most buyers regardless of how good looking it is?

Personally I think hours do matter. Lets say the average hours per year are 50. When the boat is 10 years old, there will be 500 hours on the boat. If you have (2) 2010 23LSV wakesetters, that are similarly equipped, both have been taken care of, both are the same color and the interiors are the same, but one has 500 hours and yours has 900 hours, they are NOT going to be worth the same price. They just can't be worth the same. Higher hours don't bother everybody, but I'll bet most people would choose the boat with lower hours if all else is the same. Someone on here said a boat with higher hours is better than a boat with low hours. Well I disagree. I think it all comes down to servicing. Will the higher hour boat give up sooner?...maybe, it depends on service and how well it was looked after. Bottom line, if it were me, I'd pass on this boat. There are too many things working against you. You can't see the boat in person, you have no one to see it for you, and one of the biggest things that would cause a red flag for me is that you've asked for more detailed pictures and the guy said no. WHY?? Is he trying to hide something? In this economy, there are literally tons of boats for sale. If it were me, I'd wait for that one perfect boat to come along. Don't forget that the 2013's will be coming out in just a few months. So those people who who buy a boat every 3 years are going to be selling/trading in their 2010's soon. Also, you're trying to buy a boat at the beginning of the season. Boat prices are always higher in the spring than they are in the fall. I would wait and be very choosy. JMO

[Sunscape fan]

Look at your car or truck. How many hours do they have? Do you think they will fail you soon or not. Just food for thought.

500 hrs is nothing. Certainly not a reason to not buy a boat. My Chevy Avalanche has 105k miles on it & has over 2500 hrs on it. It doesn't burn a lick of oil, still get 15 - 17 mpg, and tows the boat to Shasta or Hells Canyon fully loaded without any issues.

You cannot compare a skiboat engine to a truck or car engine. A truck or car goes down hills and idles and isn't worked hard all the time. If you had a vacuum gauge on your truck, it will go somewhere between 14-17 inches. You go up a hill with a load, you'll probably be down in the 3-5 inch range. When you go out in your wake boat and load it up, do you idle it along the lake or do you open up the throttle and tow a surfer/boarder etc?? I'll bet if you put a vacuum gauge on a wakeboat it's in the 3-5 inch range ALL THE TIME! That is much much harder on an engine than driving a vehicle along a flat road and going down hills etc. My point is trucks see loads periodically, a boat engine sees a load constantly. As an example, the work car I drive, never gets shut off unless the next guy isn't driving it for a while or it's between shifts. It now has 8050 hours on it!! There is NO WAY a boat engine would last that long...not without being rebuilt...a couple times. JMO

[shawndoggy]

You cannot compare a skiboat engine to a truck or car engine. A truck or car goes down hills and idles and isn't worked hard all the time. If you had a vacuum gauge on your truck, it will go somewhere between 14-17 inches. You go up a hill with a load, you'll probably be down in the 3-5 inch range. When you go out in your wake boat and load it up, do you idle it along the lake or do you open up the throttle and tow a surfer/boarder etc?? I'll bet if you put a vacuum gauge on a wakeboat it's in the 3-5 inch range ALL THE TIME! That is much much harder on an engine than driving a vehicle along a flat road and going down hills etc. My point is trucks see loads periodically, a boat engine sees a load constantly. As an example, the work car I drive, never gets shut off unless the next guy isn't driving it for a while or it's between shifts. It now has 8050 hours on it!! There is NO WAY a boat engine would last that long...not without being rebuilt...a couple times. JMO

... and yet ...

How many threads do we see on here about someone who wore out their engine? Rebuilds seem to result mostly from winterization errors and a distant second from random catastrophic failures (throw rod, etc.).

In reality, recreational watersports boats tend to fall apart around working power plants, it seems.

[Sunscape fan]

... and yet ...

How many threads do we see on here about someone who wore out their engine? Rebuilds seem to result mostly from winterization errors and a distant second from random catastrophic failures (throw rod, etc.).

In reality, recreational watersports boats tend to fall apart around working power plants, it seems.

Maybe. My point is a boat engine won't last like a truck engine would. Now if you use a truck engine like a boat engine....well then I bet the truck engine will be replaced much sooner than normal. I agree though, most people don't take care of their toys properly and then wonder why it breaks on them.

[85 Barefoot]

Everyone is welcome to an opinion but I can't help but vociferously disagree that 500 hours is squat, mechanically anyways. I have personal experience and ownership of boats with well in excess of 1000 hours. Some over 2000 and none have had any mechanical issues. None. Have the boats had repairs, yes , catastrophic engine issues no. This is not 1950. These engines if maintained have far more life in them than people apparently think. I have heard of boats with excess of 10000 hours within 200 miles of me.

Chill out on the hours examine the boat for what it is is my advice.

[MalibuTime]

It looks to me like it sat in Salt water. The wedge looks corroded and the pics are not very good.. The pics sure don't look like a 9.5... I would pass on this one for sure. I am sure you can find an 08 or 09 in that price range with way fewer hard hours.

I looked at pics for 30 seconds and thought the same thing. No way wedge and exhaust tips would look like that from only 1-2 years in fresh water.

[jtrovato]

I looked at pics for 30 seconds and thought the same thing. No way wedge and exhaust tips would look like that from only 1-2 years in fresh water.

My boat looks like that from only 2 months of sitting in the slip on the local river. It takes me about 30 minutes to get it looking like new again with a 50/50 mixture of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner and hydrogen peroxide and a scrub brush.

[jwl019]

My boat looks like that from only 2 months of sitting in the slip on the local river. It takes me about 30 minutes to get it looking like new again with a 50/50 mixture of Lysol toilet bowl cleaner and hydrogen peroxide and a scrub brush.

Never tried this mixture! Learned something new!

[jtrovato]

Never tried this mixture! Learned something new!

Learned about that on here. I believe it's called Tony's Tropical Tonic on here. It really is amazing how well it works. I've got many boating friends hooked on it.

[Indyxc]

You cannot compare a skiboat engine to a truck or car engine. A truck or car goes down hills and idles and isn't worked hard all the time. If you had a vacuum gauge on your truck, it will go somewhere between 14-17 inches. You go up a hill with a load, you'll probably be down in the 3-5 inch range. When you go out in your wake boat and load it up, do you idle it along the lake or do you open up the throttle and tow a surfer/boarder etc?? I'll bet if you put a vacuum gauge on a wakeboat it's in the 3-5 inch range ALL THE TIME! That is much much harder on an engine than driving a vehicle along a flat road and going down hills etc. My point is trucks see loads periodically, a boat engine sees a load constantly. As an example, the work car I drive, never gets shut off unless the next guy isn't driving it for a while or it's between shifts. It now has 8050 hours on it!! There is NO WAY a boat engine would last that long...not without being rebuilt...a couple times. JMO

Not sure I completely agree. If the boat is used that way, then yes I agree. I put probably 65 hours on my boat last year. I would bet 20 of those hours were wakeboarding, at 21.5 mph. The remaining 45 hours, were idleing around the lake at very slow speed.

I've said this before, but us a GM employee, I've talked to the guys at work who do engine validation on the indmar engines. On the dyno at heavy load and duty cycles, the engines typically make it 3000 hours before anything goes wrong. That load is more signifcant than what a boat loads the engine with.

Edited May 15, 2012 by Indyxc

[A-hole]

can you still get votec motor in malbu?or is that original motor

[mainekneeboarder]

It seems alot of people compare the boat hours to the engine only, When we were looking at boats the hours on the engine didn't concern me much, I more worried about how many times that seat was stepped on stressing the stitching in those hours, or how often the boat was covered, or what was used to clean the seats and how often? I know alot of this you can never tell, but I bet that a school or camp doesn't buy babes or boat bling, and probably they just use some industrial cleaner that harms the stitching! How many threads have we seen on seat repair/re-skins vs engine worn out threads. The interior cost alot to replace also, and is a terrible eyesore to deal with when one seat starts to come apart, this may not be as big a factor on a newer boat, but that seat has still been stepped in how many times in 500 hours, with how many kids walking on them? The engine hours really wouldn't bother me, but with a high hour school/camp boat I would be concerned more about the other stuff.

There are quit a few guys around this area running Indmar/GM marine engines in work boats that get 5000 hours often on them. I know of one guy I knew very well that would change an engine every two years just to be sure he had no issues, he would average 3500/4000hrs per engine and never had catastrophic engine failure in the 6-7 years I worked out of the same harbor with him, he did have mechanical issues (as all engines do) but I never remember him having to change an engine early during the season. I think the engine and running gear with proper maintenance will go alot longer then most people think.