I have a z8 2013 only complaint I have is the trailer is a piece. Wish I would have ponied up and bought the fiber glass trailer. I had a champion before this z8 is better in all areas except the champion was faster.

Buy whatever makes you happy! "If you take care of things they will last you forever," My idea of taking care of things is different from most people!

And I would not argue that point Tubby. I have not looked at a late model 2015 Z9 or 2016 Z21, so in fact I am not speaking from experience with those exact models and would love to take a ride in someone's Z21 and compare.

All ya'lls boats suck except mine!

My thought is this... I worked at BPS in grapevine for 4 years from 1999-2003 in the service dept. Then nitro was junk but the new ones are pretty much night and day different. I have ran champions, skeeters and my baby the Basscat... I'd be thrilled to run a new nitro any day, espically with a new Mercury on the back

Love to hear thoughts on what was junk on the 9 series of those years. Those were some good boats. But when you work for a company I guess u get to hear it all.

If I was in the market today, I would be looking for a used Ranger or a new or lightly used Nitro. I think those are the two best values on the market. I rarely hear bad things about Nitro from people who actually own them and fish out of them.

I've own a 2004 Nitro 898 and I couldn't complain about anything. Now if it wasn't paid for and/or I was in the market for a boat I would buy this one:
http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/11374413/1

Lots of issues on the first year of the 929... I think the best hull they had at that time was the 901...But if I had to choose one, I'd take the 896, that hull set up with a 200 Opti would fly...

I have the 97 model 896....and yes, it will fly.

What year did you own? You buy new or used?

well I fish out of a skeeter so mine is the best lol.

Ask any fiberglass man - like at Toledo bend Joe , lots of rough water to test a boat or Hector at Kilgore Premire fiberglass man for Skeeter and their Elite Team, about the hulls - that is where the money difference is suppose to be and as Joe told me at Toledo bend the Nitro made hull is as good as any except the Bass Cat which is the heaviest of all . All the gauges are the same and if you want a real problem on locks have a Skeeter who bids their hardware out annually and rarely keeps any replacements that go very far back. I have never had a Bass Cat but their carpet is also the heaviest from what the fiberglass boys say . Johnny Morris is already started the change and moved Stratos and Triton out of Flippin More changes on the way for sure, but don't take opinion's , take the hard truth about value , lots of smoke hard for the average person to know , but the fiberglass boys see through it every day

If Nitro's are so poorly made why do pros like KVD use them the obvious answer would be because they are free but you can't argue that KVD could have any boat he wanted for free

KVDs boat is tied to his BPS deal. The boat is not "free" for KVD. He is paid to use it. I doubt there is another boat company willing or capable of paying KVD the same or more $ than BPS.