Boatlesss

Whirlygig, any accountant worth his paycheck would shoot down your theory about “its just payroll” as the cost accountants will point out to you that the engine will cost more with the higher wage earners than it would with the lower wage earners.

You should be able to see this.

If you need a visual, an average engine takes some 40 hours to assemble. Now your allocation of the expensive labor and not charging more for it works out this way.

Assume a 30% union scale difference between the journeymen experienced laborer and non so experienced laborer.

So assume (someone mentioned $25/hr) $25/hr journeymen wage and $17.50/hr non top level guy.

40 * $25/hr = $1,000 labor to assemble the engine.
40 * 17.50/hr = $700 labor to assemble the engine.

$300 more in fixed cost per engine. Now multiply this by the numbers that will be required to qualify for a “mass production facility” and the losses build quickly in just one area.

Throw in the additional cost of quality parts that the companies would have to use to be able to stand behind the engines warranty and things get costlier again

Yet you think the company should eat this higher cost, not once but on a continual basis and still maintain the business payroll and overhead expenses.

Your argument about mass production for economies of scale doesn’t apply as the performance boat market is far too segmented to have a mass produced engine. Not everyone wants the exact same engine, built, accessorized and dressed the same, not to mention the constraints that each boat manufacturer places upon exhaust and engine mounts makes each engine just a bit different from one another.

The closest you are going to get to a mass produced “large” engine manufacturer is Mercury. If their prices are out of your range then your SOL with a mass production company aren’t you?

Everyone has champagne taste on a beer budget and seems to wine why people/companies don’t make things at the price they want to pay.

Good things aren’t cheap and cheap things aren’t good is the argument that everyone has stated here. Face it, accept it and move on.

Economics 101, you must be willing and able to make the purchase not just willing.

cobra marty

And maybe they are willing to make very little on this 632 engine and use it as their 'loss leader' and are able to brag about it. I wonder just how many they build and sell a year?