[Insp.Clouseau]

Afraid I'm a bit of a long distance newby but I am entiring a new and exciting world.

As a 38 year old avowed adrenaline junkie who is having a sizable mid-life crisis, I have reached the conclusion that I can no longer bear to live in a city surrounded by water (Auckland) without tearing up as much of it as possible.

After quite a bit of research I have come to the following conclusions.
A. Buy New! They don't lose value in NZ at all
B. Buy mid-range! I have always regretted buying anything at entry level
C. I want it to scare me stupid for me BUT I want control, range, comfort and convenience when handling the "non-teenage" kids

All this has landed me on two specific models which I was planning to test out in the coming monthes.
1 - 2010 Sea-doo RXT-X 260RS with the fancy braking system, or
2 - 2010 Yamaha FX Cruiser SHO which looks gorgeous

So is this a sound conclusion? Have I missed something? Are 2011 models worth holding out for? Has anyone got either of these? Did you regret it? Has anyone tested both? How do they stack up side by side? What should I look out for when testing? I expect to be totally blown away by both!

 

[jsdeprey]

It seems that most people will tell you the yamaha is better for realiability, but the seadoo is funner to ride. I have owned a 2002 yamaha FX140 since 2002 when I bought it new, and have had no issues at all, it starts every time, I don't live on the water or have lots of friends with skis so I am no real expert, but I do love my yamaha. I Recently bought a new 2009 FXHO, I choose the FXHO because it was a ok deal (10k) and the SHO does not get as good of gas mileage, gas is getting more and more expensive and too me it's worth the savings, I am hoping because the tank is 18 gallons on the 2009 it will get almost as good of mileage as the 2002's smaller engine. The yamaha's run on regular gas also, which saves money. I almost wish I had just went with the 2010 FXHO crusier though now, just because you get extra gauges on the console, and you get tie down cleats on the side of the ski, that I might have added to my regular FXHO. I did not originally get the crusier because I am tall (6' 4") and the crusier seats seemed to limited, but I wonder now if I could have got the dealer to swap the seats at no charge.
I saw some on here recently complain that the FXSHO is a stock ski posing as a race ski or something, to me I understand some people have lots of money and love to modify their skis, but to me even the FXHO is super fast enough for me, I was very surprised at how much faster the FXHO was on take off that my old FX140, I had always thought my FX140 was pretty fast, boy was I wrong, so I am sure I will be happy with my new FXHO.

To me everything you change I am sure has a cost, you can get a supercharger but everything you change will cost you fuel mileage, some people go for as fast as you can get, I am happy with a happy medium, and want to keep things stock, I am sure yamaha compares all changes and try's to give people the most bang for you buck, you can swap out things I am sure, and get more HP but, it's going to cost you somewhere.