Advice on a new Cobalt

[dustinm]

It might be easier to find a large well taken care of Cobalt, but right now in my area the only boats for sale in the OPs size are junk that you would never sell to anyone you know. That is unless you already know someone with a boat you are targeting. Now I have seen a few decent boats (mostly on here) but most of the time they are 500 miles away and sold with in 3 days. Thats also hard to plan for.
For us wanting to keep a boat for 20 years its hard to buy one already 15 years old. Factor in pricing of boats, how much is a 15 year old 220? My wife was also seeing people (on Cobalt FB) coming up with what I consider normal maintenance issues around the 10 year old range and advised me its cheaper not to have a vacation ruined with a break down. And if we take very good care of our boat then we will be having people asking us to sell when its 20 years old instead of hoping someone will by a 35 year old boat. Now I do agree if you plan on trading up every other year or so it will cost you to do so. With that plan and with our budget we would need an older boat.

A 15 year old 220 value. Well everyone one is so different. What engine, tower no tower, wears been done to it? My 300 hrs are exact and can prove with ecu tune program. But they can go for 25k to 45k just saying. I turned down 40k twice for mine. But I'm still on the fence to let it go for a few grand more. I know what boat I want but it will cost me that much to get it like mine so that's my hesitation.

Pretty much proves my point, you have people making offers to buy your well taken care of boat. Using a selling price of 40k as example will cost me 1800 per year of ownership for the first 15-20 years, vs the same for the last 20 (actually the pervious owner of our old 220 put in 2k of maintenance parts every year with him doing most of the labor). Ill take a newer boat every time. Maybe I should buy 5 year old and sell at 15, but then again I cant find a 5 year old CS23 or 220 that hasnt been run like a rented mule.

[Krob1114]

Pretty much proves my point, you have people making offers to buy your well taken care of boat. Using a selling price of 40k as example will cost me 1800 per year of ownership for the first 15-20 years, vs the same for the last 20 (actually the pervious owner of our old 220 put in 2k of maintenance parts every year with him doing most of the labor). Ill take a newer boat every time. Maybe I should buy 5 year old and sell at 15, but then again I cant find a 5 year old CS23 or 220 that hasnt been run like a rented mule.

I guess we've been lucky. Second boat, 10 years of boating, all with VP, nothing I would consider a repair. Just oil, filters, and impellers.
First boat was 2006 Caravelle BR187 with 190 hp six cylinder. We bought our Cobalt with no trailer, so dealer charged $100 each way last winter, so bill was $700 for everything.

[Big Block Power]

Pretty much proves my point, you have people making offers to buy your well taken care of boat. Using a selling price of 40k as example will cost me 1800 per year of ownership for the first 15-20 years, vs the same for the last 20 (actually the pervious owner of our old 220 put in 2k of maintenance parts every year with him doing most of the labor). Ill take a newer boat every time. Maybe I should buy 5 year old and sell at 15, but then again I cant find a 5 year old CS23 or 220 that hasnt been run like a rented mule.

I guess we've been lucky. Second boat, 10 years of boating, all with VP, nothing I would consider a repair. Just oil, filters, and impellers.
First boat was 2006 Caravelle BR187 with 190 hp six cylinder. We bought our Cobalt with no trailer, so dealer charged $100 each way last winter, so bill was $700 for everything.

Right this boat I have 3rd season has really not cost me anything. Tires 1st year and normal maint. Last 5 boats haven't cost me anything either other than a shift cable years ago. I've been pretty fortunate. Just need to get lucky sometimes I guess.