04 X- Star vs 04 Malibu LSV

Just looking for a general opinion. I was at the boat show last night and took a long hard look at both of these boats. I will be mostly wakeboarding, and during the week it is only 3 to 4 of us, but on weekends, I am usually looking at having 10 to 12 people, the weekend is more of the hanging out and drinking time, during the week we are all business. Anyway It seemed to me that the X star did not have as much room for peeps like the LSV did. I wanted to ask people who own and X-Star (03-04) or have been in one, how comfortable was it? I really like the LSV, it just felt like a Cadillac and seemed very solid, yeah I guess I am pretty much sold on it, but I just would like to hear any opinions. I know the wakes on both these boats are a little wide.

I own the X-Star and wouldn't trade it for any other boat. I cannot imagine how the LSV has more room. I think it would be fair to say the X-Star has more room in the bow, easily sit 3 adults. The main sitting area must be very similiar seeing that wrap around seating is the best way to maximize room. You have to drive both fully weighted first before you purchase... Good luck!!

The X-Star is 22'3", with a beam of 100", the LSV is 23' with a 100" beam, so that could be a reason is seems like it has more room. That 9" is a lot in a boat that size.

Hmmm... thats a tough decision... Very different boats... test drive and buy the one you like the most on the water! And my other crazy suggestion... buy both... then you will have enough room on weekends for 24 friends... and probably alot of strangers too...

Never forget about the dealer... they will make the difference!

Kyle, you must think there are a lot of rich people on this board since you always suggest that they buy every boat they list!

LSV all the way it handles better and gets on plane faster, unless 80k is not an issue and you want to train for the Xgames i think the LSV is a better all around boat and is built better. there are many good points to both but having used both i would go LSV for the price

word dog

Nick, I must live my poverish life through those that have money. So that is why I say buy both.. or three.. or four.. I will take any of those unwanted boats of their hands... If he ends up buying both and likes LSC better... maybe he will give us the X-Star.... I will split it with you... deal?

Deal, maybe we could add a SAN to his list, and we wouldn't have to split it!

I have to say go the LSV, if you ever put them side by side (which I havce done) the room of the lsv is amazingly more, the x-stars interior room is more like that of the vlx. Maybe you can set up demos with the two dealers at one place around the same times so you can drive them back to back and see the boats side by side...

LSV. and if you aren't afraid of the wedge, you can get more wake with less ballast.

LSV, put em side by side, I really dont think their is a comparison, especially if you look at QPR. Besides the bu dealer in dallas rocks, the mc dealer is halfway to new mexico!

X-Star by a long shot. Built better. More room.

The LSV imo is just a ordinary 23 ft boat w/ 100" beam with an interesting looking tower. The X-Star turns heads!! And for good reason.. Pauls right on..

built better? the only comp boat i have been in that sank was a brand new x-30, and i've been in a bu when the wedge got torn off, i've never seen a boat in the dealership getting fixxed more than MC's,(worked at a dealer) im not tryin to upset people im just stating my experience, im not saying the Xstar isn't the coolest "looking" boat or a head turner cause it is, but for quality, reliability, wake, tuneability, ride, overall performance and coolness go for the 04 LSV.

Maverick,
Sine the Coolness is the important part which boat is cooler?

Maverick do I need to put my boots on?

paul, maybe if you really think MC is built better.

I don't think that Bu's are built any better than MC as Maverick stated. I was commenting on the 30 that "sank."

Let me preface this by saying that I own an X2 and have owned 2 MCs before that.

The fit and finish of both boats is top-notch and I don't think there will be an issue with either. I have personally ridden in a new XStar multiple times and know how much room it has in it. A lot of comments have been made about the pickle-fork nose but the cool part is that 2 full size guys can lounge in the front and watch the rider w/o any problem.

There is no doubt that the XStar's looks are either love it or hate it (as evidenced by the multiple posts on here). I personally love the look of them - the one I've been in turns heads every time. The wake is 1st rate though it def is different than any other wake out there. It took me several sets to get used to it.

I can make no comments about the LSV other than what I've seen at the boat show. I have not ridden behind it.

I dont think you'll go wrong with either boat.

dood you wanna knock boots thats gross...

NO. I just think you are full of Sh&^.

"chylimidia is a soup that is my opinion and i am entitled to that i don't care if you are a doctor"-The Ladies Man

i wasn't trying to piss anyone off by stating my opinion! paul people like you are what makes skiiers and fishermen pissed at all wakeboarders, i state my "Feeling" or "opinion" and all you can say is something to the effect of kicking ass. you can't even back up your ass kicking comment by saying " I do not agree because" or "i feel that your opinion is a little off based on" all you can say is that im full of sh&^ how about you rebutt my comment with something like " Having owned a picklefork and having looked at the new and improved 04' LSV i feel that the pickleforks interior is better laid out and has very..." they are both good boats but i like the LSV better. swamie was looking for opinions i stated mine.

(Message edited by maverick_gear on February 06, 2004)

Maverick... people like you piss everyone off by saying that the fit and finish of a boat that has been around for many years needs to be questioned because some idiot like you sank one. The boat obviously didnt sink itself...

Swamie stated that on weekends he would have 10-12 people in the boat. The LSV would be the better boat since it has more room behind the windshield. Not only would you have to put more people in the bow of the X-star making it hard to see for the driver. The bow would be even more susceptible to taking on water.

Maverick,
You contradicted yourself which is it?

There are many good points to both but having used both i would go LSV for the price

Having owned a picklefork and having looked at the new and improved 04' LSV.


(Message edited by john_d on February 06, 2004)

shane what do you mean by the MC dealer is Half way to mexico??

Theres a big MC dealer in FW which is closer to austin then dallas maybe by a few miles.TExas Mastercraft.

I personally have ridden in either enough to give a true oppinion but if theres a price difference of more then 5k then go with the LSV if its less money..the wedge rocks and the boat is huge..The 04 at the Dallas boat show was sweet..Not sure about the reverse looking tower but still a lot of the boat for money and Malibus have great wakes and are well laid out..

john i was telling paul: how about YOU rebutt my comment with something like " Having owned a picklefork and having looked at the new and improved 04' LSV i feel that the pickleforks interior is better laid out and has very..." and vic you never even heard the circumstances pertaining to the sinking. there was no alcahol or stupidity involved. it was strictly MC error. 1# the bilge pump was not hooked up from the factory
2# the deck was not sealed to the hull from the factory
3# the ballast tank fittings were not sealed from the factory
4# the ballast tank wiring was faulty
all these combined equalled a sinking to just below the dash by the time we got a tow in to the launch and got it on the trailor. it was a dealer boat so it got dealt with by them.
a good friend of mine baught a similar x-30 the next year against my advice and had it back to copes 12 times getting his bugs worked out. everything from messed up stereo, malfunctioning ballast, faulty battery, faulty ecm, misaligned windshield, on and on and on all of this happened before the boat had 60hours on it.

Sounds like a bad situation, although some of the problems may have pertained to dealer error.. IE ballast system malfuncution just a guess. Your comment sounded weary without some prior knowledge about your incident. My question is how were you taking on water if your boat sits above the joint betweed hull and deck anyway??? and if the ballast system was malfunctioning and pumping water into the boat why wouldnt you simply turn the pump off?? how did this boat get so full of water without a direct hole in the hull? You said you were in a BU which had taken a blow to the wedge and still stayed afloat... How does a malibu with a hole in the fiberglass not sink over a mastercraft with a poorly aligned hull/deck???

Go with the boat which has a bigger cooler. Personally I have fit 3 cases of beer in my VLX cooler along with 5 bags of ice. This is an important decision so dont leave out cooler space!!!

That's why I went with a VLX. The cooler is huge.

bill you know what I mean the dealer might as well be halfway to New Mexico as to the new location over on 820. The loc on 820 is far away and bad traffic for the dallas folks. If I was to buy anything but a Bu, it would not be a MC based on the location of the dealer alone. didn't tm ever hear of the words, location, location, location?

oh i just saw in his profile that travis was his home lake so i figured he was in austin a lot..

Besides everything cant be in Dallas plus most boats dont have so many problems that you should worry about maybe 1-3 trips to the dealer per year..we travel a lot to ride a little more wont hurt..

There are many boat owners and buyers in Fw, arlington,mid cities as well so im sure it wont hurt TXMC..

we do have the pros come into town every year to ride at Marine creek which is in FW

a good dealer is a good dealer not really location problem to consider..if it were a bad dealer,service, or salespersons then there would be a problem...

id get the Lsv anyway just to save a few bucks and get a great boat but he cant go wrong with either.

Swamie: Grab your 12 buddies, go to the dealer and pile in the boat, get all there opinions, and see whats its like, etc, etc. Then head over to the next dealer and do the same.

Why do we keep having these discussions? The only way to REALLY buy a boat is to test drive them and get a price on the options, then make your decision without all this partial opinions. I have seen both boats and they are equally cool. I have ridden in the LSV with 8.1 and it is a sweet boat. Every boat company puts out a lemon sometime and that is because of the components that must be assembled. I have been to the factory and watched these people work and they are very careful, but a minor distraction such as customer tours could cause a person to forget something. Drive both boats, get the price, wait a week, then buy! Good Luck!

I have a buddy who is looking at a new boat, MC is out because of loc he said when he found out. Your right a good dealer is a good dealer, and WSA is hard to beat period.

I don't see how TXMC is in any worse of a location than WSA. Ever try to go to WSA during rush hour? I35 and 635 is not the "ideal" location either. To me the only dealer in the "ideal" location is the Slalom Shop.

Maybe TXMC is a little furhter but the service they give and the way they treat people makes the drive worth it.

I agree to disagree Zack. TXMC is good people talked to them today at the boat show, but 820 is an additional 40 minutes further for me period. Never said WSA is ideally located but it is 40 minutes closer for almost anyone who lives east of I-35. I have already heard at least two people bitch about the drive. TXMC might have great service, but 80 minutes of my time compared to WSA's service hardly. For my company my time is worth $165 an hour, when I work for myself $100 an hour, all of sudden that 80 minutes becomes real money.

shane how about all those who live in Fw/arlington and bought boats from wsa,buxtons,ss,and WSBD??I know of at least 15 minimum that have to do the reverse of what your saying..you act like lewisville/dallas is the only residents who own boats ..we all have to drive one way or the other..

it may work for you that WSA is closer but wsbd dallas doesnt work for me being its a 40 monute drive to Lewisville...

IMO we need a few more dealerships this way ,specifically with a pro shop.we have no proshops in my area and need one !!

Oh wait we just got one TXMC

Maybe they all need two locations to please everyone ??

Just an opinion from a outsider (outside Texas), but all it takes is 1 bad experience with a service to make that extra 40 minutes worth it.

WAKE UP!!! dont care about the room ... were wakeboarding .... how about the wakes, the performance...I say LSV all the way. Malibu is wayyyyy better then MC in engeneering example ... I have a friend who had a MC and needed to add a hull upgrade kit (800$) because the boat didnt turn corrctly. unfortunatly i dont remember the year of the boat

i think you need to smack yourself a few times and wake yourself up.. the new x-star has a far better wake than the LSV, if anything the only boat that has a wake even close on the Malibu line to the new x-star is the VLX not the lsv... and what the hell is a hull upgrade?

Hahahahaha

I saw a Malibu with a wedge sink a couple of years ago. The X-star for wakeboarding is hands down the winner over the LSV. If you want a wakeboard boat built by Malibu get a VLX. The LSV isn't in the same class.

bill you have a point. jeff, all of the dealers for wakeboard boats in dallas have some good service, do not hear very many complaints at all. so the length of drive would be a decisive issue in my case. Besides I love my VLX

HAHA i say the sea-doo has better wake than x-star !!!! and by the way .... MC loaded whith problem anyway. I still go for malibu ! but a VLX this time

Pierre, your opinion is your own and you can buy whatever you want. Just be sure not to leave your house without your visor on.

i personally think that the new x-star's dash is overkill. Id go with the Malibu but not just because of the mc dash.

hehe im just kidding but i had sooo many complains about MC that i was brainwashed and didnt tried any of them for a while id be curious to try one ... sorry about any offence guys :P by the way go check this new towboat .... i had the chance to see it at the montreal boat show and it is amazing.... www.svfara.com check it out!

Pierre, the boat you are probably talking about with the 'hull upgrade', in which hull inserts were added to the back of the boat, was the '98 Pro Star, which had wake and turning problems.

From a build quality stand-point the LSV is superior to the X-Star. You can easily notice the difference between the 2 after you have been in and driven each one. Comfort is another area where Malibu shines over pretty much all others in the ski-boat market. Their boats are MUCH more plush and comfortable. As far as wakes go, both can be built to pro-level standars and are more than what 95.243% of the general wakeboarding public will ever need. Looks........well that is completely subjective to the individual. I'd believe that the Wakesetter LSV is a MUCH better over all value when you weigh in all the factors (cost, performance, comfort, interior room, etc..).

Ok vandal, I'll bite, even as a Malibu fan, I can't agree that the Malibu is MUCH more plush and comfortable than the MC. The interior is very nice in the Malibu and the textures, looks, etc. are different, but I don't think either is more or less comfortable than the other, but as a Malibu dealer I guess you would have to state that.

Settle down mmavrick.

I will have to say that the X-Star is growing on me. I thought I would never say that. But I did, LOL oh well. Not that I would buy one. But if I saw one go by I would think cool, before I would have laughed.

I was cruising on Hotboats.net uggghhh I mean rednecks.net and they had a hilarous thread trying to figure out what the hell the X-Star was. They could not figure it out LOL they had a picture of one and all. The title of the thread "What the hell is this?!?"

I can't wait to check one out up close at the Orange County boat show. I guess if someone offered me a choice of the two boats for free, I would probably take the X-Star. But again I have not done much research on either.

I will finally make a boat preference decision here, I carefully examined the MC line for a second model year. I am not impressed with the graphics, colors, or fit and finish. Just a personal opinion, but that's how I feel. Do I have bu ownership goggles, maybe. I would buy a bu, supra, or cc before mc.everyone has there preferences.

Shane I'm interested in your comments about the fit and finish on MCs. I will give you that it's personal opinion about colors & graphics (though I personally hate the new CC graphics and lines that don't flow but that's another story).

Is there anything in particular on the new MCs fit and finish wise that you saw that was that big of a difference? I looked very closely at all the major models at the boat show and thought all were first rate finish wise. I'm interested in exactly what the differences were.

BTW - Interesting that at the Malibu site they had several girls walking around helping with sales that had no clue about boats. I asked several questions about the LSV and just received blank looks. They were doing a fine job of looking good though.

It's nice to see Sasser has stepped it up in the equipment department.

I think my graphics is more based on what TXMC had at the show, the graphics and colors they displayed did not do them any favors, imho. The booth girls at WSA probably could not spell Malibu. Sasser has stepped it up 10fold, got the chick a pair of temets along with a bonus thrown in. Although the tint like yours was done well along with the LCD display. Not so much a finish issue, I have never liked how the back seats in the x-2 fit, they seem a little short and little hard compared to the vlx and lsv, I always thought the zero-flex rattles alot in rough water compared to others (supra and BU). I do like the gauges on the x-star, I also like the keyless ignition on the CC. I still think overall fit, feel, and finish on the CC is the best. I think the lack of interior room and storage, additional jack without that much added quality, is just a few of the reasons i did not go with cc the first time, the service and staff at Waterski America is why I will be buying my next new VLX from WSA. Probably another reason for the bias is that I spent a lot of time in the early 90's on towboats, ski team had a bu, roommate was a bu dealer, had access to a nautique, and another friend had a MC. The MC was always a rattle trap, always was having problems, those memories probably just stuck with me when I went looking for a boat last year. I ride behind my buddies X-2 all the time, I love the wake. I think your right about the major models, everything is pretty close on quality, it's just what jumps out at each individual buyer, and the built in bias that the buyer has from previous experience.

I wasn't a huge fan of the flame graphics on the X2 but overall the boat looked sweet. If you got a chance to check out the amp rack on the boat it's a really innovative idea.

Interesting about the rattling issue on the 0Flex. I've never had any problems with mine vs. SSVs or VLXs. Maybe your buddy's is loose at one of the points?

I agree with the keyless iginition on the CC. I actually asked the service manager at MC about that and MC did keyless on the their 35th Anniversary PS190. I'd like to see it on all the boats.

Cool!!! I'm a Malibu dealer now!!! Sweet! Nick Heckerson (kstateskier), where's my dealership so I can go and get my boats? what the hell R U talking about?

Zach, I have a 35th anniversary MC and it does not have keyless ignition. Lots of other stuff but that is not one of them.

Vandal, I apologize, I thought your profile said Marine Sales.

No worries kstateskier