have had a ghost for two and a half years and had to fix one known prob with it. 20$ fix. it's powerful and quiet and the arrow issue isn't an issue if you're willing to spend 2 min cleaning it every month or so. people are as dogmatic about trolling motors and fishing reels as they are politics. every motor has and can have it's issues and fisherman are incredibly hard on their equipment.

I honestly would pick the motor where there is a service center nearby. if you live near a metro area, then I would pick the quest or ghost. having lowrance electronics, I went with the ghost.

on my 3rd year with my garmin force and couldn't be more happy. Had minn kota for years before the force and have no intentions of ever going back. Yes, the pedal was different at first, but after a little use, couldn't tell a difference and never think about it.

Interesting read. I may be about to make the jump into a new trolling motor. I run a Minn Kota Fortrex that's twelve years old. I needed batteries recently and this Fortrex has been popping a breaker and I just figured it was from low voltage. After I replaced the batteries I made a run to Twok and it popped the breaker on the new batteries late in the day. I'm going to change out both breakers and see what that does. If it continues to pop the breakers I guess I'll be shopping. I'm going to get all new electronics while I'm at it.

Not sure what area you live in, but I saw the
Moritz Chevrolet under your post, so if you live near Ft. Worth, I'd call Borris Marine and ask them if they are doing a lot of warranty work on new Ghost units or what problems their customers are having with them. I'm sure they would like to price out any unit your interested in as well. I have no affiliation with Lowrance. Good luck in your search.

I would call one of the trusted trolling motor (trusted) repair shops in the DFW area. My buddy has the ghost and the heading sensor board went out. The board was out of stock, and an extremely long wait. He found one from another business, and delivered it to the repair shop to get back on the water. The trusted tech (won't name names) said it was overengineered and had way too many things in the thing. I would ask the guys working on them for their opinion, if it were me.

I have had the force for about 4 years now. I love it. It does take a little getting used to the pedal. Spot lock is okay. I have Garmin graphs also. If you can go with graphs you use and you will be happy.