2001 Mariah 202z Shabah-First boat purchase help

awkardboater · 03-07-2011, 03:04 PM

Hello all,

I'm happy to be a part of the forum. I'm hoping to make my first boat purchase soon and wanted to see if I could ask for some advice from Mariah owners. I have a young family and live next to the lake and have serious boat fever. I've read about Mariah and haven't found a boat close to the value of the Mariah I'm looking to purchase. She's a 2001 Mariah 202z Shabah, here's the info from craigslist. They are asking $9500. I'm going to have a mechanic take a look at the boat to see his thoughts.

01 Mariah 20' Bowrider with trailer. This is the Mariah made by the "good" mariah boat company. Heavy, overbuilt quality boat. Not like they sold after 03.
5.0 Mercruiser EFI engine (220 hp) Alpha one drive. 150 hours on engine.
Fm-Cd player
Mooring cover
full gauges
Depth finder
Comes with safety equipment and tube, wakeboard.
Cockpit seats and sunpad will need some attention on this boat. Unfortunatley the reat seats were cleaned with bleach and runied the seams on the seats and sunpad. Repair is app. $1500. Owner willing to negotiate repair off price.
Tandem axle trailer in good shape. Good tires, good bunks and bearings.

Thanks for the help and any thoughts are welcome,

Awkward Boater

Dredd · 03-07-2011, 04:29 PM

Welcome to the site.
Looks like a nice find to me. The vinyl makes me cringe but I really don't think the price is too far off. As the ad states and you've noticed, original Mariahs are very well built, high quality boats. The Z means that it's fully loaded. I would try to take advantage of his willingness to negotiate because of the cost of repairs. Some members here can probably say if that $1500 repair estimate is on the optimistic or realistic side.
Good luck with your decision!

awkardboater · 03-07-2011, 04:52 PM

Thanks! The deal looks sweet and if it all checks out with the mechanic, I'm all in as long as it's just the vinyl. Should I have any concerns about it being the last year before Mariah filed chapter 11?

***ShabahZ280*** · 03-07-2011, 05:56 PM

That's a great looking boat, I love that color combo. The vinyl deterioration does suck a bit. Just don't cheap out on replacing it. It will cost a bit more to get it replaced with the original Nautolex with Prefixx material, but it's worth it. It looks so much better than any replacement product, and it'll last forever if you take care of it. Many of our members still have the original upholstery in their boats! The original stitching was done with Gore-Tex, which is the same material that NASA used on their spacesuits. They didn't spare any expense on making the interiors as nice as possible.

Don't worry about buying a 2001 Mariah. Chances are it was made well before May 23, 2001, the day the factory was closed down.

Good luck with it, and hope you'll become a member of the Mariah family soon!

awkardboater · 03-07-2011, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShabahZ250

That's a great looking boat, I love that color combo. The vinyl deterioration does suck a bit. Just don't cheap out on replacing it. It will cost a bit more to get it replaced with the original Nautolex with Prefixx material, but it's worth it. It looks so much better than any replacement product, and it'll last forever if you take care of it. Many of our members still have the original upholstery in their boats! The original stitching was done with Gore-Tex, which is the same material that NASA used on their spacesuits. They didn't spare any expense on making the interiors as nice as possible.

Don't worry about buying a 2001 Mariah. Chances are it was made well before May 23, 2001, the day the factory was closed down.

Good luck with it, and hope you'll become a member of the Mariah family soon!

Thanks, I'm really excited about the chance of buying this boat. It seems like the original material will be much more expensive than I originally thought to get it replaced. I'll take a look around the site to see where I can purchase that in the future.

theeasynine · 03-08-2011, 01:10 AM

Looks like a good boat! The decals and gel coat look excellent in the pics. As for the sun deck they all get re upholstered eventually.

***indykoch*** · 03-08-2011, 04:12 AM

Yes, nice find indeed!! I replaced the vinyl on the sunpad and rear bench myself (well, I had a place do the vinyl, I did the labor of removing and replacing) and I believe it was about $500. So it may actually cost a bit more than $1500 to do all of it. I'd ask for his estimate, then definitely use it as negotiation. The trailer doesn't look original (I believe Mariah only used Prestige and Heritage, not Hustler), but doesn't sound like a bad deal at all (even at the asking price). You may want to check over the trailer really well, it's obviously sat outside for quite some time, but if the bearings are good and it's structurally sound, should be good to go. If it is in fact 5.0 EFI, it's actually 260 HP, carburated models were 220 HP. Looks like a great boat, and as stated above, great color combo! Good luck and welcome!

***mikeyt*** · 03-08-2011, 02:12 PM

Welcome aboard & i agree with the others. That is a nice colour combo. As for the trailer, Indy is right. They only came with Prestige, Chariot or Heritage trailers. As for the upholstery, I'm going to suggest closer to $2500 to do the repairs right with the original material, not the cheap aftermarket crap. And, going with the original is the only way to go!