Cobaltchat.com

So I receive these monthly "Dockline" newsletters from Mercury as I'm sure many on here do as well.

I had notice a trend of pretty much constant outboard material with nothing regarding sterndrive setups (forward drive a few months ago excluded). Its been a tough few weeks and at the end of another tough day I find yet another outboard focused Dockline in my inbox. The combination flipped on my snarkerator and I shot back an email stating something to the effect that I thought Mercuty made inboards but I guess not. I'll have to check my boat to make sure.. I fully expected this to go into a black hole. In fact I figured it was one of those email engines that did not accept replies. If I thought someone would read it I don't think I would have been that bad.

I was shocked to receive not only a reply thanking me for my email, but one that sought my feedback. After a couple exchanges they stated the following (excerpt):

"We’re thankful that you reached out to share your feedback. We appreciate hearing from our Mercury family, to make sure we’re creating content that answers questions, resonates with consumers, provides perspective and speaks to the overall boating lifestyle. Our Marketing team met this morning, and we’re moving forward on several blogs regarding inboards. It may take a bit of time to actually get the blogs posted, as we need to create the content, but please know that your ideas made it through the team, and we’re acting on your feedback."

I work for a large company and hope we would be as responsive to a snarky jerk. I thought that was pretty cool.

Yea now you have to tell them you have a IO! Thanks. Lol

I see the same thing with the boating magazine I get every month. Nothing but egg beaters

Sad but I/Os are on the way out it seems...

Interesting. Just this morning we visited our local Cobalt dealer (West Palm Beach). He said IO's sell well in Miami, but not well up here - too much shallow water.

I grew up with outboards and grew to dislike them. Part of it was "grass is always greener" syndrome. I would watch the I/Os glide by without that loud smoking protrusion on the back and they seemed a class apart. I know today's outboards are a completely different animal (I get the Dockline afterall) but unless I was in saltwater all the time I doubt I will ever own one. In the size boat I will ever own, utilizing the space above the engine for lounging etc. makes inboard power the best choice and always will IMO.

Outboards offer something new. Mfg's like that. Unlike cars a boat doesn't change much over the years. I had a 2002 Cobalt and just jumped to a 2021 but only because of size. When I look at the major differences between the two I now have a glass dash and drive by wire controls. Not a whole lot of change in almost 20 years. I also do all my boating in saltwater. The thought that outboards hold up better in that environment is questionable. They both drink from the same faucet and use the same alloys in the drive train. In addition the new gen VP's (about the only option you can get from Cobalt these days) are closed cooled. Can't get that with an outboard, or dual prop drive, or a 4Star CARB rating. Above all having a fully open transom can't be beat.