Yamaha 250 HPDI vs The New Evinrude 250

[Capt Dan-JT2]

In a quest to upgrade my boat to a new larger Center Console with twin 250's I had assumed that the Yamaha 250 HPDI's would be my best option until I found out that alot of dealers are starting to seem more confident in the new Evinrude 250's. They claim that I'll get 1/3 better fuel savings, more speed, faster out of the hole and a 7year warranty.
None of the dealers are pushing the Evinrude line, they just thought that I should seriously take a second look at the new product.
What are your thoughts.

Dan

[ClassicGuy]

If you got 1/3 better fuel economy with the Evinrude, it would have greater efficiency than a Diesel, so I wouldn't ascribe much weight to those comments. Perhaps they are comparing it to the old OX66 EFI Yamaha 250. I would guess the performance of the 250 HPDI and the Evinrude are very similar since both are direct-injected two strokes.

I don't think there is enough experience with either engine to make a judgment about reliability, but of course Yamaha has a much better track record overall for the past 5-10 years and typically does a very thorough job of quality control on its new products. The same could not be said of the "old" Evinrude.

If you get a 250 HPDI before 3/31, you get a 3 year extended warranty for free, so it would have a 5 year factory warranty. I believe the Evinrude extended warranty is a third party insurance company.

Yamahas hanging off the back are a big plus in the resale market, since regardless of what your dealers say, the buying public in general thinks a used Yamaha is a much more reliable motor than a used Evinrude. Those kinds of attitudes take years to change, so you migt want to think about whether that is likely to be important to you -- will you be trading or selling the boat within 3-5 years?

[grouper dog]

i had same choice to make- i went with the rude 250hp.

[Capt Dan-JT2]

Any regrets yet ?

[danielb]

I'm having a 2002 Evinrude 250 installed this week, sold a 12 year old yammi off the boat. You get three year warrantee, rebate is $1750. If you role the rebate into an extended warrantee you get another 4 years (total of 7 years). The external company that handles the extra 4 years has been around a long time and is reputalbe.
From what i have been reading on the commercial boating web sites the Rude is great. I'm putting it on a heavy boat, a Parker 25 pilot house.
Hope this is helful.

[SCAngler]

both are good engines...the evinrude will idle smoother than the yammie & get a little better gas milage but not much & certainly not the % mentioned by the previous poster.The rude will also be some better on the oil also.yamaha's are reliable but so is the rude...i beg to differ somewhat with the previous poster on evinrudes not being reliableover the last 5-10 years they have been very reliable with the exception of the 98,99 fichts most of the problems were worked out by 2000 although you do hear some complaints about those my.Bottom line is you cannot go wrong on either the evinrude 250 di has been out longer than the 250 hpdi & has been very reliable.i say this being a yamaha owner(4 of the including 2 hpdi 200's)but i have alot of freinds with 2002 & later my rudes and they have performed without a problem. good luck

[theoldwizard]

The Yamaha HPDI is a much newer system than the Evinrude Ficht. HPDI is a much more expen$ive system than Ficht. If you blow the High Pressure pump, you are talking big $,$$$. Blow an injector on a Fict and it is $$$.

Yamaha and Evinrdue (now Bombardier) make good stuff. Stuff breaks.

Also the current Envinrude warranty and rebates are hard to pass up.

[Saltdog]

This is amazing -- a solidly pro-Evinrude thread. I thought this was a Yamaha-Scout operation.

But I have to say that if it were up to me, I would first be sure there is no difference in the quality of the local service available. If you have access to good mechanics for both products, you have a real choice. But if you know there is a good Yamaha or Evinrude guy where you are most likely to go for service, that should be an important factor.

I have had such good experiences with Yamahas that it would be an easy choice for me. We all have stories -- a good friend with an Evinrude Ocean Runner had it at the dealer every month for three years until it burst into flames one day with his two little kids on board. But I'm sure someone has a similar Yamaha story. Can't make thousands of something without the occasional big problem.

[AC]

For the last two years you couldn't give away a Rude,the early ficht's had ZERO trade in or resale value,and they were bad mouthed to no end.

Now everybody seems to be jumping on the Rude bandwagon.

I asked my Yamaha/Rude dealer why he doesn't push the Rude anymore and he said "cause when I sell the Yamaha it don't come back".And that was before the Ficht technology.I'm not taking any chances,I'll stick with the Yamaha or Honda.

[danielb]

I've had my share of problems with Evinerude carbed engines, 1989, 1996 to numerous to mention and the dealers but when I looked at Yammis (I just sold the 1990 250 that was on my boat) the attitude there was not nice, they said this is the price take it or leave it.
I found a 2002 rude 250 leftover and the dealer has been very cooperative and shipped it to my marina who will install and is a Bomb service center. The closest Yammi dealer is 14 miles by boat, the other Yammi dealer I have had problems with in the past and he is a thief as a business man.

I know about the OMC Ficht problems, at our marina we had a guy blow 4 power heads (fitch) but how come no one knows about the Yammi recall in 2000 for the motors that had fuel management systems, fitting crack and caused fires, today: oiling problems (oiling shaft to long) and some other serivce issues I've seen on this web.
I think OMC screwed the public so they got what they deserved-bad press-but Yammi is on many, many boats and there is a tremendous market investment so no bad press, no even Power Boat Reports says anything bad about Yammi.

The reason I picked the rude is I have heard very good things about the inprovements in QC of parts and in my yard there are alot of happy owners of 2002 rudes. I too hope I made the right decision, it arrived today and will be installed this week and I will be on the water next week breaking it and and checking out which 4 blade prop to order.

FYI: in 1998 I spent $7400 for a 200 HP carbed rude. This leftover with installation, prop, gauges, controls etc. $15-16K.

[Capt Dan-JT2]

Thanks for all your opinions. It sounds as though it's about 50/50 on what to buy.