[crash519]

They are both good outdrives as long as everything has been maintained properly. Bad or no maintainance will cost you lots down the road. I bought a 1995 boat back in August that had been garaged for several years. I ended up making one trip before I pulled the outdrive and replaced the gimbal bearing, seal, u-joints and bellows. The original owner had a new bellows kit installed not long before he quit using it, but evidently they didn't get it sealed good and lots of old water just sat in there rusting everything. I did all the work myself for around $200 in parts including an engine alignment tool I had to order since all the mechanics around here are thieves in my opinion.

Point is, take it and get it looked at by a good mechanic. They normally have a flat fee they charge for inspections and it's well worth it in my opinion.

As to Volvo Penta vs. Mercruiser, either is fine. Neither is perfect, but ones not better than the other. They actually have a lot of interchangable parts between them. If it's a really old boat, they both had some issues but probably won't have the original outdrive anymore. Most of those have been rebuilt unless it's a really low hour boat.