posted 02-17-2002 03:38 PM ET (US)            

The engines appear to be advanced technology designs, particularly with regard to 4-stroke engines, fuel injection, and tuned intake manifolds. These features were introduced by Suzuki several years ago and are now just beginning to be seen on other engines.

Suzuki has been very aggressive in marketing their new engines with long warranties, in some cases six-year warranties. This was another first in outboard power, and it seems to have led (or dragged) other manufacturers into also providing long warranty periods.

Suzuki also produced engines for Evinrude. Most (all?) of the Evinrude 4-stroke engines were made by Suzuki and rebadged with new colors and cowlings as Evinrude engines.

The Suzuki 70-HP 4-Stroke EFI engine was introduced several years ago, long before any other maker had EFI 4-stroke engines, and has been highly praised by everyone I have encountered that had that engine.

Suzuki technical representative David Greenwood has been seen on the Speedvision network, where he hosts a segment in a popular boating show. He offers tips on outboard engine operation and maintenance, with a tilt toward the Suzuki engine. These segments are available on-line, too. This seems like very smart marketing. I find it much more interesting than hearing about how many bass fishing tournaments a particular engine has won.

The Suzuki website is well organized and easy to navigate, and it provides the visitor with simple access to information about their products. That is quite a contrast from some other outboard maker websites which seem like they want to hide and bury all the info in a deeply nested hierarchy of obscure links. On the down side, the Suzuki website uses "frames", a particularly awful and confusing method of presentation, but inspite of that it is decent. See http://www.suzukimarine.com/sr02/show.htm for more on their product line.

In judging whether or not to buy a Suzuki engine I would place great emphasis on the calibre of the local dealer. Often the larger and more established dealerships have existing relationships with larger engine makers which prevent them from adding more engine lines, and this causes the small-fry makers like Suzuki to become represented by smaller, newer dealers who may not have much history.

If there were a strong Suzuki dealer near to me and he appeared to be someone I could do business with, I don't think I would hesitate to consider Suzuki.

If the nearest dealer were 200 miles away, I would probably have to have a strong incentive to go with Suzuki over more dominant brands. A strong incentive could be price, features, warranty, etc., or the combination of them all.

There are anecdotal reports of lousy repair situations with all brands, so I do not place too much emphasis on any one person's report of their experience. Such tales are often told from a slanted point of view, even if all the details are factual.

In summary, I see Suzuki as an innovative new engine maker with attractive products and warranties, struggling to gain a foot hold in a difficult market and hampered most by lack of a strong dealer network.

--jimh