Sorry for the long post to follow: I would agree that Bombardier has enhanced the external styling of Johnson and Evinrude motors. But, I don't know whether or not they have spent money on to enhance internal parts. I would like to think that over the last few years, that engineering improvements have been made as part of a quality improvement program for both engines. OMC was in trouble financially, which usually means a reduction in such improvement activity. When my crankshaft broke in two on my 115 HP Evinrude, I was idling my Ranger into a cove on Lake Okeechobee. My Evinrude was 2 years old and that represented the final straw in a string of breakdowns. The local Evinrude dealer said it was out of warranty so it was my problem, so I took the engine to an independent mechanic who removed the crankshaft and gave it to me. A friend who was working in a world class aircraft engine materials lab, took a bunch of 10X-20X type of photos and identified a number of inclusions in the cast crankshaft. These were casting defects. The crankshaft was not forged, it was a casting. I worked my way up the Evinrude and OMC food chains, trying to at least get them to pay for parts. All I got was the basic "go pound sand" reaction in written responses back to me, even from Charles Strang, the then CEO of OMC. They wanted me to send them the crankshaft as it was obvious the photos were displaying minimum material properties only presenting up to 3% of the crankshafts. If I bought another crankshaft, they were confident that it would have normal material properties and I would not have a problem. However, since the engine was out of warranty, they would not pay for any of the repairs. I felt that their reaction was from a purely short term financial perspective, not from a customer satisfaction (sales/marketing) perspective. Since I worked with 3,000 aerospace engineers in Florida, I passed the pictures and letters around to make them aware of the Evinrude/OMC stance. After all I did to get through to them, I really thought they would come through and at least pay for the parts, which they refused. So I did not send them the crankshaft, only the pictures, and I swore off buying Evinrudes and Johnsons in the future. I guess that means my comments are biased. Hopefully, all the Evinrude and Johnson owners are enjoying good service out of their outboards today. Just my 2¢. 8)