Has Motorguide Improved?

[keninaz]

I am in the market for a trolling motor. I have never had one before. it's for my 12' aluminum boat and it will be my only power on small lakes. Yes I have oars but I don't have the back to go with them due to an injury 6 years ago.
I am strongly leaning towards Minn Kota but I thought I would look at Motorguide.
In my research on the interenet I can find little in favor of Motorguide products in the past.In fact I find very few people that have anything good to say about them.
But I see not to long ago they were taken over. I am nor sure just how long ago that was or if they have improved.
Have they improved any or am I just better off to sick with Minn Kota.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

I have always used Minn Kota without disappointment. My father in law used Motorguide and had a few cable problems. If you want the more complex options or will be operating in the salt, I would go Minn Kota. For a straightforward tiller handle motor, I am not sure it matters.

 

[keninaz]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

I will almost never see salt water again for fishing, and if I do it won't be with my little tin boat I have here.
In my search for every 1 positive comment I found on Motorguide I found 10 that were negative for many reasons.
I was rather hoping that they had improved.
I also see that there are lots of refurbished Motorguides out there that can be bought cheap too.
Yes I found some refurbished Minn Kotas too. The funny thing is that most people want nearly as much for a refurbished Minn Kota as you can buy a new one and then give you half the warranty of the new one that's two years.
Not much of a deal if you need the warranty.
The funny thing is that Minn Kota's website says I can can buy the Minn Kota Endura C2 40 for a suggested retail of $176.99. That must be old advertising as I cannot find one that cheap.
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/trolling_motors/freshwater_transom_mount/enduraC2.aspx
I did send them an email letting them know they might want to update their advertising on the website.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

There phone service is good. Their internet presence needs work. Try getting specs or installation info off their website. It won't happen. I emailed them 2 days ago without a response. I called one of the guys at bass pro and he went upstairs and looked it up for me in 5 minutes.

 

[keninaz]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

Interesting. I know Minn Kota is slow to return email queries too but that may be because this is not a busy time of the year?
And Minn Kota manuals are not available online either. I don't know why.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

Something very weird happened. I got an email response including a pdf attachment of the owners manual and all diagrams. I checked it out on my phone and then went to check it on my desktop. It was gone from both. I then called them on the phone and spoke with the same guy who re-emailed it and I got it almost immediately.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Has Motorguide Improved?

Couple years ago I replaced an old motorguide with a new motorguide (both foot control bow mount). the old one gave reliable service for many years and the new one is just as good, except the mount is 100 times better.

But, it's just the basic old-school 5-speed, cable-control, not one a those fancy new models with remote control, auto-pilot, and variable speed. When they first came out with those, I noticed on my local fishing board, a whole lotta complaints about the circuitry in the newer models, seem to be burning out circuit boards like crazy, and it seemed about even, Minn-Kota & MG. Seems to me like MK improved faster than MG, but you don't see so many complaints about those any more.

I guess bottom line, in my opinion if it's a basic model, go with the better price; if it's got bells & whistles...maybe keep asking........

hope that helped.