2004 Nautique 206 Sale Price

[dkimball]

I am on my way to Texas to test drive and hopefully pick up a 2004 Nautique 206 TE with the ZR6 engine on Thursday. I have seen pictures and the interior is in good condition and watched a video of it driving around. It has 505 hours on it and all of the gauges, except for the analog oil pressure gauge work (digital works fine). I know there are issues with the pitot tubes causing havoc on the gateways and since I am in Iowa (long periods of freezing weather) I may remove these anyway since it has perfect pass. My question is what do you guys think of $26,000 for the price? I originally thought it only had 450 hours but found out it is 505 hours. Not a huge deal but I liked the fact that it was under 500. Does this seem like a decent price? The guy selling it boat it from a dealer when it had 450 hours on it and has put roughly 50 hours on it in 4 years. I talked with the marina he winterizes/summerizes it with and they indicated it hasn't been in for any repairs other than that. I will probably be averaging around 60-80 hours a year on it.

[charlesml3]

Check the steering and make sure it's not all stiffened up. It's not a dealbreaker if it is, just some work on your part to figure out if the rudder needs to be greased (easy) or the steering cable needs to be replaced (not so easy). Check the tracking fins, strut, prop. Check the oil (it should NOT be milky). Check all the lights, buttons, etc.

If it's all good and the boat runs and drives like a Nautique, then $26K is about where this boat should be.

[Bevostein]

Whereabouts in Texas? If the boat is in the Houston area you might want to inquire where it has been used. Houston has a lot of freshwater but there are some areas around Houston that are brackish.

[Quinner]

Vinyl around that time was garbage, something with EPA standards resulted in an inferior product, vinyl in my 05' was the worst of any Nautique I have owned as has been the case with a few ski buds 05's as well, see if it feels brittle and look for cracks. Gateway should be in the trunk mounted to the rod for the lift ring, may also be a zirk fitting just above the gateway which is for the rudder should steering feel tight as mentioned above. If you want to cross check the hours go to the perfect pass website and print out the instructions to display them on the PP gauge, GM's ecm holds hours so I believe the display is only registering what is in the ecm. On the tach and speedo press the "M" buttons to scroll thru the various displays.

[vanhanbr]

Price seems good considering the upgraded engine,but it never hurts to ask to bump off $500 to $1000. Although you probably should have negotiated that before you left.

[dkimball]

I have negotiated a bit. It is basically what is owed on the loan that we are looking at. It is in the Fort Worth area and I was told not used in salt water or brackish water. It was originally sold by Buxton Marine when new and then sold again by them to the current owner as a used boat. It has since been serviced at Eagle marine. I am upgrading from a 91 with 907 hours on it and haven't had any issues. Just trying to make sure I am not buying a problem. I have heard the zr6 is a good engine so I would think 500 hours isn't out of the ordinary for a 13 year old boat. If anyone in Iowa is looking for a 91 let me know.

[dkimball]

Has anyone every just removed the Pitot tubes and capped them? I was thinking of doing this if I pick the boat up. What would you use for a cap? I don't want to have to complete the gauge conversion kit if I don't have too since it is pretty pricey. It looks like I may have to change the sending unit for the analog oil pressure gauge that hasn't worked since he has owned it. The digital oil pressure gauge works.

[Quinner]

To test all the buttons on the keypad, belly ballast button will be for trick tank if it has one, press once (solid light) to fill, press and hold (blinking light) to empty, other 2 ballast buttons not used, shower on/off, heater each press is low-med-high-off, aux lights under gunnels & dash on/off, nav lights press on (solid light) press hold (blinking light) anchor light only, blige and blower on/off.

[sfjakey]

Manifolds look like it was run in saltwater. Plan to replace those and risers also. Look at the rust stains where the manifold and riser meet. ZR6 has aluminum heads, so if the leaky manifolds happened for a while, you may have much bigger issues. Trailer should tell the story as well. Salt use isnt bad, unless it wasnt cared for properly. 26k is not a great deal from what I see.

[Quinner]

Jakey may be on to something, u will want to inspect closely for signs of salt use.
Regarding price if the boat is clean and everything works it's a fair price imo. Direct drives sell for more money in the Midwest and east that they do on the west coast

[dkimball]

I was told it wasn't run in salt water. Obviously this is coming from the seller. The trailer doesn't appear to have a bunch or rust or anything like that on it. I am a little concerned now I don't want to have to replace the manifolds and riser for around $1000. What other things should I look for to determine if it was in salt water? I was planning on checking to see if anything was leaking etc. during the test drive.

[dkimball]

Wouldn't you think you would see more rust on the bolts of the manifolds and elsewhere on the engine? I have never seen a boat used in salt water so I don't know for sure but I would think you would see more signs throughout the boat such as a white film on trim pieces, maybe some rust on the tower etc?

[Quinner]

Also as a midwest guy pretty clueless on what a salty boat really looks like, looked at those pics again and the port side looks much better then the starboard which would lead one to believe just a leaky gasket. Hopefully someone with salt experience will chime in, the obvious would be look for corrosion wherever the salt water exposure could have occurred including underwater gear, if an anode is present on the rudder also. Trailer corrosion is hit or miss if the boat was always hoisted in/out.

[swc5150]

We have an older MC that has never been out of WI, and the manifolds look about the same. I would think if it's a salty, the owner would/should have the engine doused in DW40 or similar? CQ makes a good point to look for an anode on the rudder. I can only guess from the pics, but from them I tend to lean towards believing the owner. I've only seen a couple of salt water boats in my day, but that crap gets everywhere. It also destroys non-galvanized trailers quickly, but again to CQ's point, the boat could live on a lift? Good luck!

[dkimball]

The current owner has owned in for 4 years and I know he trailers it for each use. It would be the previous owner that had it for about 8 years that would have used it in salt water. I will be able to tell I suppose when I can get down and look more at the manifold to engine connection. If there is significant rust at this point I will be concerned. If it is just changing the riser gasket this is a pretty simple job and I am not to worried about that. Thanks for the input.