My dad purchased a brand new '07 Stingray 19.5' I/O family bowrider this spring ($24K). We'd owned a 1995 Caravelle bowrider previous to this and HAD spent most of our time on the water tubing and kneeboarding. I've become hooked on wakeboarding since the new purchase and the rest of the family mainly skis. We haven't used the kneeboard or tube in the last 35 hrs on the boat (we've put on 75!). <BR> <BR>I've always heard that inboards are much more reliable than i/o's and cost substantially less to maintain. From my dad's perspective, he wants a boat that will be very reliable and will not cost a fortune to maintain. (He's not as interested in the size of my wake.) From a financial standpoint, would it be cheaper to sell our i/o for say $21K and buy a used wakeboard boat for the exact same amount? What brand/model/quality boat could $21Kish buy me? <BR> <BR>Thanks!

Look in the classified for sale section. Boats more than 5yrs old.

I'm not sure about your comment about reliability. There are problems with expensive Malibus and cheap Bayliners- just read some of the posts here for a while. <BR> <BR>Our I/O has been great so far (since '04), and I'm sure others with V-drive wake boats will tell you the same. <BR>Maintenence each season +/- winterizing can get up to $500-800 if the dealer does it for our I/O. Not sure what inboard costs are

Having owned a couple of I/Os and v-drives, I do not think there is much of a difference in maintenance cost. One thing that you may run into with inboards depending on your area though, is that many of the inboard mechanics tend to think more highly of themselves and charge more per hour. Generally, you just have more options of where get an I/O serviced. <BR> <BR>Now if you trade your '07 for something like an '00 inboard, maintenance cost will probably be more for the older boat because the starters, steering cables, gauges, alternators, etc. will start needing to be updated. Now a v-drive will depreciate a lot slower than your Stingray which is probably the only 'economic' advantage of an inboard.

Thanks for the replies. It's not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I'll just have to be really grateful for what I've already got and stop drooling over the wakeboard boats on craigslist...

"From my dad's perspective, he wants a boat that will be very reliable and will not cost a fortune to maintain." <BR> <BR>I'm not entirely sure these is such a thing <IMG SRC="http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=":-)" BORDER=0> <BR> <BR>Most of the things that cost more to maintain on an I/O aren't going to break down for another 5-10 years. Until then, I doubt you'd notice a maintenance difference. If it's a Mercruiser, the only nastiness I can think of that occurs on a regular basis is replacing that stupid impeller. It's in the drive leg and requires you to remove the lower unit to get at it. Volvo put it's impeller in a sane location and doesn't have that issue. Gimbal Bearings, U-Joints, drive bellows, and that sort of thing are hard to downright brutal to work on but like I mentioned earlier they don't break down often. Enjoy your dad's I/O.

^^^^^ <BR>I agree, be happy with what you got. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>But you could try to sell your dad on the safety of an inboard over an IO!