25 hp outboard; your opinion please

I'm pretty close to pulling the trigger on a new 25hp outboard.

In the past I had a 50hp Honda, 28hp Johnson 2 stroke, 25 hp Mercs on various boats over 20 years.

I'm trying to decide between  a Honda, Yamaha, Merc or Tohatsu.

Any opinions or knowledge will be greatly appreciated.

Tohatsu is the best value, but Honda is the way to go for performance/reliability. Either way you cant really go wrong. They are both good motors. I think Tohatsu actually makes the smaller Mercury's so if you bought a Merc you would be paying more for a name brand. As for Yamaha ive heard mixed results. Some people love them, some people hate them. They fall between Tohatsu and Honda in price

Lineside: I see you're in Napa.
I used to deal with Randy at Napa Rv & Marine. After he sold the place it went into a nosedive and I hear its out of business since the car dealer is building there.
Randy was the best.
One place gave me a real good price quote for a Honda, but I had slow troll issues with my 50hp Honda and the 25hp has  3 carbs.................
thanks for you input.

Yup thats right, Tohatsu makes Merc now.  I think they're all pretty frickin' reliable now, outboards have improved hugely over the years.

One other thing is whether you plan to wrench on the outboard yourself for maintenance.  if so, see which ones have the easiest and smartest maintenance procedures by looking up their manuals.  I F***** hated changing the oil on my 50 honda 4s, its just a huge mess due to the way they set up their drain plug.  same thing for my honda minivan - have to constantly find a new way to get the oil filter off because of its location.

If you plan to bring to a shop or dealer for maintenance, make sure the model you buy has a quality shop nearby.  Like tohatsus are excellent outboards now, but they don't have many authorized dealers/service centers.

Tohatsu makes SOME parts of the smaller mercs. I think the lowers are different.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I was a That's dealer for several years.  Motors might run SLIGHTLY rougher than other motors but they are tough as nails!  We sold mostly to commercial shrink & oyster harvesters in Florida & had guys with well over 1000 hours on them with little to no service done.  Hondas run like a top but are service hogs & require a PhD in small engine repair to navigate the repair procesd