dtmackey wrote:I just wanted to clarify on the statement that two strokes are no longer built.
That is not exactly what I said. What I said was:
--Evinrude is not making any two-stroke-power-cycle engines for sale as new engines; they might make a few for warranty replacement.
--Mercury is in a similar situation. I think they are still making replacement OptiMax power heads, but not new OptiMax engines for sale at retail.
I would not be surprised of Tohatsu or Yamaha were still making smaller two-stroke-power-cycle engines to sell into non-USA, non-European markets, but that does not really have an effect on the USA market.
Maybe new two-stroke-power-cycle engines are still popular in Indonesia or India or Africa or somewhere else, but they really are off the market in the USA now.
I am quite happy with the two-stroke-power-cycle direct-injection ultra-low-emission 225-HP engine I have on my boat, but I am a realist. If shopping for a new outboard engine in the USA now, the only choice is four-stroke-power-cycle. To throw out old bromides that want to dismiss all four-stroke-power-cycle engines as lacking the power of two-stroke-power-cycle engines is just that: out of date information no longer applicable.
Thanks to enhanced engine designs with refinements like variable valve timing, multiple intake and exhaust valves per cylinder, large displacement, tuned intake runners, computer control, and so on, the four-stroke-power-cycle engines are satisfying boaters quite nicely with their power output.
Even with the market all to their own, Evinrude was unable to grow their market share against four-stroke-power-cycle competitors. That is the reality of the new outboard engine market in the USA. Evinrude folded and have moved on. Exactly what they have moved on to is still unknown, but they were the last outboard engine manufacturer to make two-stroke-power-cycle engines able to be sold in the USA, Canada, and Europe, and they have stopped making them.