good deal or not so good?
 

There is a Mariah for sale down where I live, would appreciate some insight on whether you think this is a good deal or not.

This is what the owner says about it:

Best deal you will find this year on a great open bow ski boat. The boat is a low hour 91 model but the stye changed in 91 and this boat has the same body as one made in the early 2000 range. The engine runs perfectly with very low hours. On a matching trailer with titles in hand. Some cash now would be nice. I'd want about twice this much in the summer. Phone calls would be best 559.801.4311 I won't respond to e-mails asking for pics without a call first. Thanks asking 3500

I called the guy and talked to him about it, he doesnt know a whole lot about the boat, he said the interior is pretty rough but he would have it replaced before he sold it to me. He use to own a boat shop so he has a friend who will do it for him relatively cheap so i have a feeling it wont look like the original interior. Thats not very many hours on that engine but he says it runs good and dosent have any problems. What model would this be? Hes out of town till the 12 so i wont be able to go see it till then, he didnt know what the model was he said he thought it was a sx19? I have a 1996 shabah 180 and dont really need this boat but it might be fun to clean, polish/wax, and play with it over the winter and sell it in the spring for a lil profit? Any insight would be extremely appreciated thanks!

It sounds to me like a waste of time. I would not do business with anyone like that.

An owner should provide *real* details on what they are selling and provide at least a half-dozen pictures at anyone's request.

Why not buy a nice Mariah from a reasonable seller?

Sounds a little fishy to me....:thumbdown:

btw...he may have meant an 'mx-19' which was a model back in '91.

The boat is on craigslist so I think he wrote that to prevent those common scamming emails you get on craigslist. What is a nice mx19 worth? Is 3500 a bad price? Thanks

I think i would want to see the interior job he promised along with putting the boat in the water for a test run before i considered handing over $3500. In good condition with no repairs needed, $3500 - $4000 would be about the max. As for the boat looking like ones from the early 2000 era, judging by the pic in our brochure it looks like a typical early-mid 90's Mariah design.

I'll second mikeyt's comments. Something just doesn't sound right. A 1991 boat doesn't have the same styling lines as the early 2000 models. There were massive changes in the design of the hulls, windshields, interior, etc over a that 9yr period. The lack of photos is a little suspicious too. And chances are, if he's willing to do the interior work before selling it, it'll be a shoddy cheap replacement job. If you were truly looking to turn and make a profit off a boat like this, you'd most likely want to restore it to OEM condition, which would end up costing more than the boat's worth. Even a mint condition MX19 is most likely only worth about 4-5k tops.

However I applaud your willingness to restore an old Mariah. :wink_thumbup:

Thanks so much for the input, if it would only be worth 4-5 max then your right its not worth messing with. Thanks again!