Suzuki Marine

DO NOT buy a suzuki outboard from eli's marine 831 S Central Ave, Umatilla, FL 32784. In short and trust me this is short, things missing I had to ask back and didn't get back.

3 times to his shop to get right. The second time, we ran back-and-forth to a Lake and his shop 3 times. Had enough took boat to Clermont boat dealership and Suzuki sent rep to work on and still not right.

All my gauges were working when we took it for a new engine install and after all of this had to pay quility marine on edgewater drive 850 to Straighten out and installed a prop to where my high rev light wouldn't go off on high rpms. Look at elis review if you want to see most of the headaches.

My 2.5 year old 20 hp Suzuki stopped running. The Authorized Sukuki repair dealer in Nassau Bahamas took three and a half months to effect a repair.

I was told the problem was due to "salt build up in cooling passages in block and head". They cleaned it out and are billing me $ 1,900 (in addition to the $ 337 they already took from me to lift my 12 foot inflatable dinghy out of the water).

This repair should be covered under Suzuki's three year warranty. The engine has (estimated) ~ 100 hours running time and received all scheduled maintenance service.

Suzuki customer relations (via phone) say that it won't be covered under warranty because it was used in salt water and not flushed after EVERY use. However, this 'flushing after every use' is not specified as an operational requirement in the manual.

In fact the 73 page manual only includes two sentences about this subject in which they advise that "If you do not flush the water passages, salt can corrode the motor and shorten its life."

Therefore I dispute the conception that failure to flush with fresh water after every use constitutes a breach of warranty. Yet, the two Suzuki customer relations staff offer me no pathway in which my position can be heard and addressed. They only say that they'll put my concerns into their daily report . .

. and I am provided zero feedback.

I maintain that if Suzuki intends to withhold warranty service for any motor that is used in salt water (and not flushed after every use) then this should be made clear in the manual and/or the warranty documentation . . .

which it is not. Frankly, holding to this position would be unreasonable because it's effectively impossible for anyone to do this for an engine that is used on a daily basis as a tender to a cruising boat.

My story begins with a call to the Suzuki Customer service line to request goodwill assistance with bad factory paint on a 2-year-old outboard engine.

During my very first conversation with the CR rep, we all understood that paint issues were only covered under the warranty for one year (which is surprising in itself, and illustrates a lack of confidence in their paint quality). I then requested goodwill consideration for the needed paint repairs.

After that, I was asked on two separate occasions to provide various photos of the condition, with the second time being "photos of the boat sitting in my slip".

They did not tell my why, and I still have no idea what that was all about, or what difference that would have made.

Soon after I sent the second set of photos, I received an email back asking who my local dealer was. While trying to find a local dealer, I discovered that multiple dealers shown as "active" on their website had dropped Suzuki as a product line (related to this, one dealer confidentially told me they dropped Suzuki because legitimate warranty claims were not being paid.)

The next day, I received an email from the Suzuki CR rep suggesting I should call my one last remaining local dealer for follow-up details on the issue, and that the Field Service Rep had been made aware of my concern.

But, before I could talk to someone at the dealer, I then received yet another email from Suzuki declining warranty coverage "because the engine was out of the 1-year paint warranty." Well, no duh. We all had agreed to that in the very first conversation.

All along the way, each email response from the CR rep at HQ was vague and evasive, almost as if I was conversing directly with an attorney trying to bob-and-weave a path around my questions.

When I pointed out that they had responded to me regarding something I had never asked for (warranty coverage), and then requested something in writing regarding my ACTUAL request (for goodwill consideration) they ghosted me.

Bottom Line: Suzuki excels at playing legalistic games, but they are not at all interested in building loyalty or making customers happy.

It is actually kind of sad. I was a fan of Suzuki, but no more.

This will be my last Suzuki outboard engine. After that strange and disappointing experience, I have serious doubts that any future warranty concerns would actually be covered.