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How does Yamaha compare?

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rdfish1

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I know this is a Seadoo forum so the view will be biased (and I am a seadoo owner too) but I am curious, what makes you favor a seadoo over a Yamaha or some other brand? I know little about any of them but at my age, I have a lot of experience with Honda and Yamaha products. Generators, outboard motors, ATV,s , motorcycles, and a few other products. Generally, the Yamaha and Honda brands are superior to many competing products. Based on my experience, I would be tempted to think the Yamaha skis would be superior to other brands but clearly there is a huge seadoo following. Just makes me wonder what your thoughts are regarding reliability, performance...and how Yamaha compares. Honda doesn't really seem to have much of a presence in the ski market
 
The only reason you liked those bad ass yammys at the meet up was cause they had nasty seadoo motors in them :cheers:
 
I have never liked any of the yamaha skis and I've ridden several different ones including the wicked ones we saw except with their stock 2 strokes. The first ski we had when I was a kid was the 94 gts and it was pretty lame, then we got a 96 GTX and for its day it was a wicked 3 seater handling wise and rolled out at pretty good speed and would spank all my friends yammys and kawis, and polaris turds too. The newer 4 stroke yamahas have a good rap, mostly from the rental market wich to me is just because they are cost effective, not why I would pick something I was buying to be a peformance machine in my fleet. Sure do see alot of Yamaha outboards out there too, ours burst into flames on the back of our pontoon one day, but all 3 of my step dads boats have them 5 engines in total and he hasnt had trouble with them. All the yamaha dirt bikes and quads I have ridden just dont feel right to me, and I personally think they are put together basackwerds compaired to kawasakis and hondas but not quite as stupid as the suzukis. Yeah I'm biased, but for good reason. I like seadoos and ski nautiques on the water, mercurys for outboards, kawasakis for 2 wheels, hondas for utility atvs, audis for cars and fords for trucks and work vans so l feel like I have a dirverse pallet of machines, but we all have our own pallet. Your ski has one of the most relibale engines ever put in a jet ski and is a base for some of the most vicious skis on the water so any way thats my 2 cents on yamaha:rant: :leaving:
 
Interesting feedback snik..., part of my curiousity came from the fact that I bought my ski out of convenience. I did virtually no research and have only ridden a ski once or twice in my life before buying my gtx from a friend, and fairly impulsively. Normally, I would have studied the different brands and formed my opinion but he offered me a great ski at a great price so I grabbed it. Has been more fun than I expected. Now that I've been on the water for the past few months, I have noticed a ton of yam skis and it made me wonder about competing brands and reliability. However, I think this topic is prob like a ford and chevy debate and suspect both are great skis and one perhaps not that better than the other, just depends on what you like.
 
Well ford is better so...(had to) Spim had no problems with his honda ski and I have been fighting my stepdads since he sed hey can you fix this, his were mantained mine weren't. Part of me says it doesnt matter what it is if you dont take care of it it will bute you in the ass. My audi is about to get its 300,000 mile service and it has been pushing 15 psi of boost for 20 years original head gasket and turbo, its had every scheduled service and will continue to get them and I bet it has a nother 300k in it.
 
I just bought a Yamaha SX230 from 2008, to replace my Seadoo Sportster 1800. The boat weights twice as much which translates in a much more comfortable ride. There are a few things that seem better made, others where it seems Yamaha tried to reuse existing parts from other products to fit, and it shows. (Throttle Lever Assembly for example, is a total compromise).

It's a unfair comparison mechanically, because the Yamaha is a 4 cycle, Fuel Injected machine, so start up is a piece of cake, and smoke is none existent. I have found that Yamaha owners truly believe Yamaha offers higher quality. My seadoo was very well built, so I have not seen something yet to point to seadoo and compare to how much yamaha did that better in term of quality. On the contrary, I found a few things I wish Yahama did like seadoo (bigger entry ladder, better throttle controls come to mind as "given and expected" in my seadoo that are lacking in the yamaha.

The new (to me) boat is bigger and faster, and seats more people in greater comfort, so for that we are excited.

So far only these 2 things are not favorable. We only have a few hours on it, I thought it was an end of season deal for me, but the weather was good and we have gotten it out quite a few times in the last month or so since we got it.

If you have any specific questions, I'll be happy to answer. I have both boats at the moment and hope to sell the seadoo in the spring.

As a kid my dad has a boat with Twin Yamaha two cycle outboards, and they were quite trouble-free, and it was the brand used by the fishermen in their fishing and tour boats (Enduro 78 and 90 everywhere, pull string) It was then I had some exposure to them and their reputation for quality. (Bikes is also an area they are reputable on)
 
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I have experience with Yamaha jet skis and motocross bikes. With the exception of my dad's GP1200 (blew up but due to some work that was done), everything else has been very good quality, reliable, and thoughtful design.........arguably better than sea-doo. GP/XL 1200/1300 are the fastest jet skis I've been on, though somewhat boring to ride.

I should say that the sea-doo SPX in my avatar has many hundreds of hours and amazingly keeps going every year with only a replacing a driveshaft and ignition in its 23 year life. Best money I ever spent.
 
I had Yamaha ski, old Polaris Fuji skis, Kawasaki standup, and sea doos. I like the 2 stoke sea doos since part are plentiful. I have owned Yamaha and Kawasaki motorcycles. I like the Yamaha one I had more. I have owned yamaha, polaris, and Kawasaki atvs and to me they all seem about the same but I think the Polaris have more issues.
 
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