Hry Guys,

I want to be a first time boat owner for this coming season. I'm shooting for a new, not a used one and was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Just to let you know, I do have boating experience. Anyways, I'm trying to stay under $12000 if possible. I've been doing some research and saw that aluminum boats seem to be the cheapest to go with. I've been looking at Trackers, G3s, Alumacrafts, and Fishers. Anyone have experience with any of these? Or does anyone have any better ideas for a new bass boat that won't be too hard on the pockets? Thanks for any advice!

You left out Monark, but any of them will make you a good boat.  G3 only comes with a Yama motor since that is their line.  Find one that fits your budget and don't down size the motor more than 10%-15% to help get the cost down. Get a smaller boat if needed to keep a reasonable size motor for the rated hp.  If they are still making the things, don't get a Force motor to cut cost or buy a used boat with a Force.  It takes about a 90 hp Force to give you the same power as a 60 hp Merc, JohnnyRude, or Yama.

Aluminum: Xpress

Fiberglass: Stratos

Both offer complete packages in that price range  

For 12K you can get the new FIBERGLASS STRATOS 176XT. OR if you get any $12K Brand New Boat GET AN XPRESS!!!!!!!!! Way better than any Aluminium brand out there.

Thanks boys, much appreciated! I'm going to start looking into this Xpress right now. I don't know when this will go down for sure, but if it happnes soon I'll let you know. Thanks again!

Sorry guys, one more question. Do these come with the motors already in the price or is that separate? For example, it just says "Maximum H.P.: 75 H.P." So are they saying "Here's the boat, we think you should buy this motor with it."?

That would be correct, motor included   8-)

Like I mentioned though, watch out for the sales pitch.  It's very common for them to slap a 40hp motor on the back of a 75 hp boat so it looks like they are selling you a lot of boat at a cheap price.   However that's just it, they are selling you a lot of "boat" but with a motor that's too small to get much of any kind of a load up on plane with ease.  Tracker's are the world champs at doing this.

Tracker's are the world champs at doing this.

That does not mean tracker is a bad boat. they are great boats. Just when you look at boats, they will aways have opional motor packages. Just get the most motor you can afford. Try to get a motor as close to the max HP rateing.

Yes tracker does this, but so do many other companies. They put a boat deal together that sell the most boat for the money, but the motor is to small.

When looking at used boats you see this alot. People buy a good priced boat package just to find out the boat doesn't preform the way they wanted it to, and for a llittle bit more $$ when the bought it they would have had a better boat experience if they would have bought a bigger motor.

If the boat package deal is a great price and it comes with a 40hp, but the boats max hp is 90hp, see how much $$ it would be to upgrade to a 75hp or 90hp. It would be well worth it to upgrade.

Thanks HPBB, I'll take all of this stuff into consideration when I start looking.