Sylvan Boats (Smokercraft) quality and dealer network horrible!

I recently purchased a new Sylvan 2008 2258 Mirage Signature from Lake of the Wood Marine in Northern Virginia and I am disgusted with the numerous issues I've had and continue to have with the boat! I only took delivery a few months ago and I have spent considerably more time repairing it than I have using the boat. The list of issues is long and the majority of them appear to have been caused by the dealer, but at this point I dont care whose fault it is, all I know is I have a 3 month old Sylvan boat that Im ready to sell, and I would never recommend that anyone buy a Sylvan or SmokerCraft! I have attempted to contact or get some support from Sylvan directly but all my attempts have resulted in being referred back to the dealer! They do not publish or have any contact information available to customers, instead they hide behind there dealers! My list of problems is long so I will just list them, but I should mention that I bought the boat without a motor as I already had a 2007 Evinrude on my current boat. The terms of the sale for my new Sylvan included removing my 2007 Evinrude from my old boat and installing it on the new Sylvan. The list to date:

1. Oil tank installed in changing room leaving no room for porti-potty

2. Tachometer set incorrectly caused me to incorrectly pay to have prop re-pitched

3. Hydraulic steering mechanism improperly installed, does not give full steering deflection

4. Hydraulic steering not compatible with dealer installed jack-plate

5. Trailering motor with jack-plate in down position results in sheered hydraulic fittings

6. Running live well for more than 1 minute trips breaker

7. Numerous wiring issues caused by improperly crimping butt splices

a. Jack-plate gauge inoperative

b. Mood lights Inoperative

c. Burnt and loose wires

8. Depth finder wiring harness damaged (cut)

9. Missing screw in Captain seat floor base

10. Missing and loose screws on rear side railing

11. Buldging side panels

12. Scratch in paint, promised but never received touchup paint

13. Tongue jack installed so that crank handle passed with in 1/4�¢ï¿½ï¿½ of loading stairs caused gouge to bone in finger

14. Boat incorrectly rigged on trailer resulted in extremely high tongue weight

15. Numerous wires spliced with non-waterproof connectors

16. General engine wiring and plumbing unsightly (ugly and unprofessional)

I�¢ï¿½ï¿½m sure there are more but I�¢ï¿½ï¿½m tired of it!

Comment On This

its not my battle but you gotta be kidding me. buy a new boat less motor, talk the dealer into installing a used motor? you realize the factory has nothing to do with this so stop wining about them. everyone see the lesson here? sylvan boats are rigged with mercurys! that dealer probably cant even spell evinrude

Comment On This

I would like to say that all of these problems fall back to the dealer.I am a Smokercraft dealer in Alabama.We also carry several other brands.Smokercraft is one of the better to deal with.The problems with the wiring or anything wrong due to the boat builder will be covered under warranty.The dealer should fix these problems and Smokercraft will pay the dealer to do this work.It sounds like you have a dealer that does not like to do warranty work.You probably can get a Sylvan dealer to fix the wiring problems but I doubt if any will touch the problems with motor,steering,so forth.The problems with missing screws and so forth,when a dealer gets a boat he is supposed to check it over and if anything is missing call the company and get the missing parts.If a dealer gets three new boats in,one will probably have a few minor defects,this is true for any brand of boat.