Re: Crownline questions. Love the boats.
Well, I will agree with you on the widetech design. The boating magazines seem to like them and the outside the box thinking (ignoring the fact ski boats have had this for a long time) but I do not care for the look. And besides that, I never know how much bias is built into any particular article. I never see a boating mag say that a boat just wasn't decent. I think the value proposition is a relatively easy one to assess which hopefully should include some discussion of resale but the quality side seems to be more difficult to really assess in real life ( I say this having driven an 84 Bayliner since new which by all accounts should have imploded years ago but was a great value). Other than the showroom Glastron and the Stingrays I looked at, most boats seemed to have quality. Those two boats had suprisingly similar issues to the problems you saw on the Widetechs and one even uses VEC. I think the Glastron was just a bad example of a decent boat and the Stingray was about what I would expect at the price point. This whole discussion is really subjective though. I sought the best value/most ammenities/high resale reputation/good quality reputation here in my local market which is dominated by lower end boats mostly made by Brunswick. It probably wasn't that hard to be impressed. At the end of the day though all that time, effort and energy I put into picking the right boat probaly went to waste. Neigher my wife or kids care about what boat we are in as long as it is decent. I could have just as easily bought a nice looking newer Bayliner and we would have still had fun. I do like getting nice comments at the launches but again that is just ego but does contribute a little to the experience. Lots of the Brunswick and other brand owners have come up to me to see a Chaparral because they are so uncommon here.
Well, I will agree with you on the widetech design. The boating magazines seem to like them and the outside the box thinking (ignoring the fact ski boats have had this for a long time) but I do not care for the look. And besides that, I never know how much bias is built into any particular article. I never see a boating mag say that a boat just wasn't decent. I think the value proposition is a relatively easy one to assess which hopefully should include some discussion of resale but the quality side seems to be more difficult to really assess in real life ( I say this having driven an 84 Bayliner since new which by all accounts should have imploded years ago but was a great value). Other than the showroom Glastron and the Stingrays I looked at, most boats seemed to have quality. Those two boats had suprisingly similar issues to the problems you saw on the Widetechs and one even uses VEC. I think the Glastron was just a bad example of a decent boat and the Stingray was about what I would expect at the price point. This whole discussion is really subjective though. I sought the best value/most ammenities/high resale reputation/good quality reputation here in my local market which is dominated by lower end boats mostly made by Brunswick. It probably wasn't that hard to be impressed. At the end of the day though all that time, effort and energy I put into picking the right boat probaly went to waste. Neigher my wife or kids care about what boat we are in as long as it is decent. I could have just as easily bought a nice looking newer Bayliner and we would have still had fun. I do like getting nice comments at the launches but again that is just ego but does contribute a little to the experience. Lots of the Brunswick and other brand owners have come up to me to see a Chaparral because they are so uncommon here.
