SB

As far cross referencing for the OP, let’s do it. As others know here with the I/O’s i’m orety good at that.

Any parts look up yet for the 450’s ?

Interceptor

Another part of the equation is "just in time " manufacturing. They don't have bins of parts waiting for assembly at the plant.

Baja Rooster

I thought the beauty of going with outboards was the shift into reliable power over trying to make a truck engine work. I guess at the head of the performance envelope there will always be issues.

Hopefully this flu thing has exposed how vulnerable we are when outsourcing needed supplies. The fact that we’re able to just be upset about missing a boating season is a good thing if we don’t have larger issues to deal with.

Best of luck to the op. It sucks when you shell out massive money and can’t even use the product.

Nuke427

I feel your pain. My NT has been in the shop since late March, getting new engines built and rigged along with new transom assemblies among other things. We have repeatedly been "on hold" waiting on parts deliveries. One of the biggest obstacles was a lot of the engine parts were coming from Michigan, who runs Michigan?.... The liberal governor that wants to keep Michigan closed until election day.... So in short, I'm hoping to be on the water for a nice 6 week boating year in about a month.

SB

So, how many other 450’s are waiting for fuel control units 02 sensors ? How many where earlier and repaired ? 1,5,10,100 ? How amall was stock of these parts ?

GatorMD

Im sharing my personal factual experience with Mercury, if it comes across as bad mouthing well then at least I’m not the only person that perceives this as being a problem. My intent isn’t to bad mouth rather to raise awareness in the Powerboating community that despite actually choosing to fork out a truly astronomical amount of money per 450R you run into these issues. It’s bad business. You shouldn’t as a business build such a high end motor if you can’t service it with parts. There has to be foresight, we just built 1000 motors, each those motors will need their service, we should have at least 1000 of part “x” in stock, etc.

And yes, the more frequent my motor goes down and the parts requires to fix it are on backorder the more frustrating it becomes.


Update: I have since spoke to Merc and they are trying to locate parts needed. Which I appreciate. But, there are many others out there waiting too.

Slippery

1st - Having a broken boat truly sucks & if parts aren't available that definitely adds to the suckage. We've all been there, and saying that doesn't make it any better because while my favorite boater is me, I'm sure your favorite boater is you.

I don't know how the big M works exactly in terms of production and allocation, but I've grown up in the automotive industry so don't shoot the messenger, but let me provide a bit of perspective that's being overlooked.

1st - As previously mentioned, "Just in time" manufacturing is a reality and means as the last "widget" in the bin is being installed on a vehicle, a rail car is unloading more "widgets" and re-supplying the inventory in the plant. Most "widget" suppliers have their business model in tune and have production to match orders and don't overproduce, because it's money on the shelf instead of in the bank account. Now add a pandemic/earthquake/tsunami/fire into the mix and break not only the supply chain, but also interrupt production and you have not only unhappy customers, but also unhappy shareholders. Now, have a few "widget" suppliers close their doors, and you truly have a Charlie Foxtrot as manufacturers scramble to find replacements. As far as the automotive industry goes, I'm not sure the auto manufacturers have even figured out which of all their suppliers are still in business. The more complex the supply chain, the more "Charlie Foxtrotted" the situation is. I've got a buddy in the footwear industry and we were drinking and solving problems and he said "I've got a plant full of vibram over here, a plant full of leather over there, and the plant that puts them together is closed and we've got dealers screaming for product".

2nd - as far as stealing parts from production - here's something to think about, and it's not pretty:

As an oversimplification, the manufacturer sells vehicles to the dealer. Dealers have vehicles they've earned through the sales & allocation process which aren't produced yet. (We've got trucks scheduled right now with targeted production weeks into September, and I believe October). Some of those vehicles are ordered specifically for a customer (special order) and it's also common on high demand stuff (everything right now) to "sell" an inbound unit before it gets here (we have several un-produced vehicles spoken for right now).

At this point you can probably see the issue with robbing parts off the production line, at least as it pertains to the auto industry: Every Single Vehicle is sold to a dealer prior to it even getting to the plant and going down the assembly line.

Stealing a part from production means taking a widget off the assy line to give to a dealer to fix "customer Smith", and is literally stealing the part from a dealer who's been waiting for the vehicle and may have it sold to "customer Jones". Those parts you want to steal from the assembly line aren't theirs to give, especially if the part is robbed from a vehicle waiting for transport...when the tires hit the ground off the assembly line, the dealer is billed for the vehicle...up until that point the vehicle is merely "spoken for" but as soon as it falls (sometimes I think literally, but that's another story) off the line belongs to the dealer because we've paid for it.

All this doesn't lessen the suck factor, but it is why it's very difficult to rob from production. Your dealer is no doubt screaming at Merc to rob one from production because "I can't get the part for a customer but you're building and shipping new motors every day". However, the dealer that owns the motor Merc wants to rob the part from is saying "Not a frickin' chance you're stealing MY part because I have a customer waiting on this motor". It s a bad situation.

Here's the ugly truth in terms of "bad business model to not rob parts for a customer off an engine in a crate"...let me add the rest of the sentence for you..."...off a DEALER's engine in a crate which has already been paid for (and who may have a customer waiting on that engine for his boat). How pissed are you likely to be if you bought a boat at the boat show, have been waiting for months for you dealer to get the engine from Merc so they can rig your boat, and your dealer calls you and tells you "Uh, it's gonna be another couple weeks because we found out they robbed parts from your engine, so you're probably going to have to make different vacation plans because there's no way your boat is going to be ready like we promised. Sorry 'bout that".

Yeah, it sucks, and all I've done is piss you off further, but we have the same issues and arguments with parts in the automotive industry. "Backordered" is a reality and GM/Ford/Ram is making vehicles everyday with the parts we're waiting on to fix a customers vehicle. And I think sometimes the definition of "backorder" is "We're planting the trees to make the boxes to ship your parts in". ****.

If there's any good news at all - at least in my opinion - is that your issue is with an OB, and Merc is smart enough to know they have competition in that market and you can vote with your $$ the next time you're shopping.

I would think your dealer would be encouraging you to politely be the squeaky wheel on the Merc customer assistance line, and they should be burning up the parts locator and phone trying to beg borrow or steal a part from some other dealer. Or rob the part off an inventory motor, (also a tough decision if demand is high and supply is low) if there is such a thing. And they should be communicating with Merc daily..the squeaky wheel does tend to get greased.

The problem as I see it is the manufacturer must balance having a supply of parts they know are going to break and be available to service customers against answering to shareholders who want every last part to go on a high demand product they can't produce enough of.

It's like airlines deliberately over-booking a flight; I think it's a bad biz decision but every airline does it, so I must be missing something.

In my opinion, the bad biz decision isn't Merc not robbing a part off someone's spoken for engine, but rather in Mercury not requiring the supplier to be able to produce - and Mercury purchase and provide to dealers - sufficient parts to service their product.

I'm really not trying to be "Richard Cranium"...it's just my $ .02 based on what we see in the automotive industry & I'm sure it doesn't help because at the end of the day, you've got a new boat you can't use and summer is short. That sucks.

I hope you're in the water soon.

d

GatorMD

SLIPPERY- your points are all very valid and I have absolutely considered them during this. Thank you for taking the time to draw parallels with the auto industry. This kind of thing unfortunately happens all the time in many industries, a balance between supply and demand and Mercury's Inventory vs COGS should be better handled considering the demand for motors in general. More specifically, essentially a $70,000 high performance motor (which is the equivalent of an ENTIRE well equipped luxury or even high performance vehicle (GT350s, M4's etc) that has an issue with it should have accessible parts. I totally agree, and would be equally upset by my motor being dismantled at the expense of divy'ing parts for someone else's motor and their plans. However, the same concept should be applied to existing owners and their motors/plans.

Perhaps I am fresh in this arena and have higher expectations for the response/repair of a high dollar piece of equipment. When it boils down to it, no matter the boat manufacturer/model you have these bad boys on (because they truly are great motors!) I have three of them sitting on my transom and that's a huge investment and hard earned money sitting back there and being told some parts are on backorder just burns especially when you invest and look forward to a fun trip! Of course there are variables we all face which ruin our plans, namely weather, and in this case proper/safe functioning of the vessels.

Update: After calling Mercury Racing and candidly discussing with them what the situation was, they have responded in a very professional manner and are working to track down some parts for the 450R which I sincerely appreciated. I'm glad this forum allows an outlet to the community to vent and seek assistance. At the end of the day, we're all here to enjoy the fruits of our labor and get out to disconnect on the water...especially given the current state of the world. Mercury is a giant in Marine power applications, and I hope they can "catch up" to the all the motors they are putting out.

hoodoo

[QUOTE=GatorMD;4751761]It’s bad business. You shouldn’t as a business build such a high end motor if you can’t service it with parts.


Bingo.
Everything else is just noise.

davidwademarine

Good to hear. Hopefully they can make something happen for you. Keep us updated. I’m here to help in any way possible.

Just a head’s up for everyone. This isn’t specific to Mercury. The other major brands have experienced backorder shortages and shipping delays much worse as most of their parts are manufactured in China. Our local Yamaha and Suzuki dealers can’t even get many basic maintenance items as the supply has all but dried up.