Engine Hours too much?

[Seattle12]

Hello - I am about to buy my first Malibu. Looking to buy a 2020 22 LSV for $75K at the dealership - the only “downside” is that it has 950 hours on it. I want to get people’s feedback on if this is too many hours? How long do the Malibu engines last? 
Thank you! 

[Cole2001]

You can easily get thousands of hours out of these engines with the proper care and maintenance. My main question’s with this boat would be the overall condition (upholstery and gelcoat), maintenance records, and previous use. If it was a rental I would be cautious, as they’re used pretty hard. 75k is a decent price depending on options tho… 

[Woodski]

As you are raising an engine health question / concern, a leak down and compression test would be a reasonable expectation along with maintenance records specifically on oil change intervals.  Any service records of major repairs, etc.  As noted, look closely for evidence of how well the boat was cared for.  

[MJHSupra]

I've seen some boats with good maintenance records for boats that are in rental fleets and/or wake schools.  The problem I noticed was also listed in the above comment, the upholstery started to look rough.  1k hours is a lot of climbing around.

On the flip-side, I've seen a boat sell with 2k hours.  It also had 2 v-drives installed.

[cmargosi]

Hard to tell, but seems like a lot of hours for a not too old boat.  I believe the boats have a 5 year factory warranty, would you benefit from any remaining time on that (I suppose it depends on when they put it in service).  My two Malibus have been relatively trouble free but not perfect.  I'd look to make sure all the electronics are functioning as intended as well.  The touch screens can get pretty expensive to repair.

[PNWoke]

All the above is sound advice.  My only thought is you’re likely in the realm of hours where you might consider replacing some of the less expensive accessories like bilge and ballast pumps, maybe pnp bags if they are getting worn out, trailer bunk and axle repairs things of this type of nature.  Not super expensive but stuff I would feel better about replacing in a 1000 hour boat.  I wouldn’t get too hung up on upholstery because at that discounted price you will find that there’s good options available to renew the interior for a reasonable price.  Fwiw my general rule for most modern wake boats is that they are usually designed to make it to 2000 hours pretty easily when well maintained.  I sold my 2014 with 950 hours and it ran flawlessly and didn’t have the best maintenance record before I bought it in 2017.  It’s still on the water now, after being fully totaled in a marina fire in 2020

Edited April 24 by PNWoke

[dizzygti]

This is my first boat.  One month  until I've had it a year, it's at 288 hours.   Am I doing it right?  

[Slayer]

11 hours ago, dizzygti said:

This is my first boat.  One month  until I've had it a year, it's at 288 hours.   Am I doing it right?  

Indeed you are!

[DRB10SEVEN]

We only have a 5 month boating season, the closest lake is an hour drive each way, and we still average 80-100 hours of run time on the boat each year. If we lived somewhere we could actually boat all year we would easily double if not triple that. May not quite put 950 hours on a boat in the same time frame as the one you are looking at, but we would be close.

Another thing to consider is if that boat needs work sooner than one with lower hours would, if you save enough money up front it could still be worth it even if you did need to make major repairs.

[Slayer]

Last year was our first season in 6 years with only 2 boats.  We put approximately 120-140 hours / season on the LSV, and maybe 40 on the pontoon.  They are on 2 different lakes.  We put less hours on our wake boat when we also had the RLXi.  We let that go because the kids only want to surf and wakeboard, so it wasn't in our favor to keep the RLXi unfortunately.

[smeagol]

OP, you’ve probably figured this out by now, but I just learned in the past few days that the engines (at least my Raptor 410) are under warranty for 5 years or 600 hours.  The boat is 5 years or 500 hours.  So, hours do play into your calculus.  

[granddaddy55]

On 4/23/2024 at 9:15 PM, dizzygti said:

This is my first boat.  One month  until I've had it a year, it's at 288 hours.   Am I doing it right?  

yes!