Sorry it has been a while since I have participated here. I do have an excuse in that I have been busy boating.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with the MarineMax Certified pre-owned system. I am looking fo any info, good or bad.

I've only purchased new S/R's from MM, so I don't have any experience with their "certified" boats.

I do wish that we had a S/R dealer here that wasn't a MM dealership though. Competition can be a GOOD thing...

Which model are you interested in?

We are looking at 36 and 38 foot express cruisers. Probably about 6 months to 1 year from now.

I really like the layout and versatility of the Sundancers. But I am not opposed to looking at other brands either.

In terms of bang for your buck, Four Winns does a really nice job on their cruisers. Have you looked at them yet? You mentioned buying used, and I'm no expert when it comes to those purchases, but I think that there would probably be parity in pricing between Sea Ray and Four Winns, too.

Those are really nice boats.

After having a few S/R cruisers, I can say that I much prefer a head with a seperate shower over the "all-in-one" heads that seem to be popular with builders.

Hopefully someone here can chime in about their "certified" program.

Best of luck!

I don't know if I would really suggest a four winns unless they have stepped up their quality quite a bit in the past years. I am only speaking from b/r stand point which wasn't too impressive but I have never been in a cruiser. I would look at Chaparral very nice quality but im not sure what their price range is but it has to be at least competitive with sea ray if not cheaper. my .02.

John, I hope none of the guy's that I know at mm are on this site. MM sold me a new bow-rider and after 6 months allowed me to return it for full refund towards a used larger cruiser and have provided great after care except the service department at the one that I frequent has had a few issues that seem to be being resolved. I tend to attend all of the west coast boat shows along with traveling allot and I visit the different MM dealers in salt lake, grand junction, Oakland, phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Diego and all the salesman are very friendly and helpful. I have even been able to call my salesman at home on a Sunday when I tripped my windlass breaker and did not know were it was and he helped over the phone. I say all this to say that you are close enough to Newport boats to give them a look also. As they are smaller so they don't have the overhead and many people I have talked too say that they have gotten great deals from them also. This is not to steer you away from mm but saying to take a look at another dealer in ca. As far as the certified boats, I bought my 260 da and is was extremely clean and they did go through it, but how much can they do in the shop... I took the boat for the weekend and brought right back with a list of little things (nothing big) and they went through it and touched up the little issues and even took care a problem at a get-away a few months later at no cost. One thing about MM that I have seen is that the understand that most first time boat buyers will upgrade and that seems to be there core business.

Thanks for the comments so far everyone. I am looking at more than one brand. Like I said we are in the beginning stages of looking. We met with a salesperson at MarineMax in Sacrmento who took us through three separate styles of boats. An aft cabin Silverton, 380 Sea Ray Express cruiser and a 36 Sedan Bridge. Of the three we decided real quick that the express was what we are looking for. Although we have not ruled out a sedan bridge if the price was right. We are far more interested in Deck space than salon space. But we also realize we need something large enough to spend a few weeks at a time on.

Eventually we will be moving to FL and plan to cruise to the islands on a regular basis. That was supposed to happen within 1-2 years but will likely take us 3-4 now.

I have a Four Winns bowrider now. While I have no complaints with the craftmanship the service leaves a lot to be desired. The other thing we are looking for is the separate shower as mentioned above. Most everything that I have looked at so far has been on line. We did go to the show at Jack London Square and see quite a few there styles there also. But it was a 39' Sundancer that really bit the SO and made us start looking in earnest.

Anyway thanks again for the responses. More are welcome also. As my journey progresses I am sure I will have a ton of questions.