Central Florida Marine, Maitland, Florida Warning, Do NOT do Business with this company. Can easily prove they have defrauded me. Maitland, Florida

I would not suggest you do any trpe of boat transaction with this disreputable company.

The following happened to me:

I became interested in a boat in their used inventory so I drove to Maitland to check out the boat. The hull was in fine shape but it had a Mercury engine, year 2002 on it.

I was told by the sales manager the boat was owned by a charter captain (tarpon) from the Florida Keys and even though the engine was a 2002..... He only managed to put 125 hours on the motor. I questioned how he knew this to be a fact and he assured me that it had been through their own shop and checked out in both engine hours by computer and compression tested fine.

I was also informed by the sales manager that the boat had been owned by a captain that have previously had some level of interest in the current company named Central Florida Marine. The implication here is that it of course be well maintained...........since he owned part of said boat dealership. This reason was also given as to why he would not come off his asking price.

Trying to be an informed consumer I went to some local charter captains here in Port Charlotte. PRE-PURCHASE.... I sought the advice of a local Mercury shop giving them all the engine data and asked their advice.

They informed me it was in the range of years when Mercury made some engines refered to as "Optipop's" due to single cylinder failures on certain years of Mercury motors. I repeted exactly what the sales manager had told me as I found it odd that a charter captain could run up such few hours in such a long time frame. They said IF THE MOTOR had a legitimate 125 hours then it was probably not going to "Optipop".

On one occasion I could not reach the sales manager and reached the "owner". When I for the 13 time questioned the realiability of the information he immediately became insulting and indignant, Claiming to have 35 years selling boats and his word was not to be questioned by a silly buyer like me. Just a totally rude individual.

So I considered the information and laid down 16,000.00 in hard cash. The sales contract listed the motor's value at 5,000.00

So I get the boat home and take her out for a spin in Port Charlotte. Within 45 min of some stop and go running of the boat the motor threw a overtemp alarm and was shut down. Just before the actual alarm the motor sounded like a car that had lost a lifter, a very ugly metal on metal sound.

I immediately (same day) to the local Mercury mechanic to have a look at it. I also called the sales manager of Central Florida Marine the very same day and informed him that the motor had failed before running up even an hour of use.

Now we get into the real details. Once my local mechanic checks the motor out he said "spark and compression on #5 cylinder no compression. Aluminum on spark plug. Computer shows 127 hours BUT IF YOU ADD UP RPM CHART IT SHOWS 16 hours.

So what we have here ladies and gentlemen is a clear case of a dealer who either knew OR SHOULD have KNOWN, since they professed to have used their own computer to give me the actual hour data that this math DID NOT add up.

Would you call this fraud? It is no different than turning the odometer back on a car to show the vehicle has less mileage on it.

In the end the owner was too busy fishing to ever contact me. He at no time offered to resolve this obvious redicilious situation and then only responded when I threatened him with legal action.........saying refer to the fine print. That is how much his 35 years in the business is worth. Zero. And his word as well. Zero

Do yourself a favor a buy from a dealer with a solid reputation.

Since I have the physical proof I will be following up with the Florida State's Attorneys office and the Better Business Bureau

Spread the word...........you money is hard earned, wat too hard to be outright cheated and ignored.