Finally got to pick up my 2016 Ranger z521c with Mercury 250 ProXS.
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Thanks to CAW for color inspiration - I shamelessly borrowed his color scheme.
It took me many years of "thinking" about getting a true bass boat (my 1st one), and then few months of research, and about a month of waiting...
It's pretty loaded ($88K out-of-door price in CA - yeah, I know). I did try to compare to Pheonix 921, BassCat Jaguar, and Nitro Z21.
BassCat has very limited dealer network in CA and one boat I drove in (Puma FTD) didn't impress me to search further. Fit and finish was worse than Ranger and overall layout was rather unusual. Forward pedal looked uncomfortable to me. Whole boat felt too different for no apparent reason. It's one of those boats you either love or hate.
Nitro Z21 (didn't ride - but looked at BassPro out of state). It does cost ~$15K less than a comparable z521c and it *shows*. Fit and finish, overal estethics of the boat is way below Ranger. Yet, I do believe that Nitro is a good value if you must save ~$10-15K on $80K+ boat.
Phoenix was a real contender for me at the beginning. I rode in two, sat in another one. What really threw me off is... price. It's almost the same as Ranger (!). Yet, the unknown resale value, unknown long terms reliability, almost no dealers, and decidedly lower quality on fit and finish made it a hard choice to make. If Phoenix was ~$15K-20K less it would be a fair deal (Phoenix did look and feel better than Nitro Z21 to me).
I've ridden in all three boats (Ranger, BassCat and Phoenix) and didn't feel any significant differences (more or less the same calm weather - but different drivers). I know the difference exists - but at these conditions I didn't feel much at all. Ranger z521c that I tested "felt" bigger upfront (but it was a bigger boat than others).
At the end, I've pulled the trigger on Ranger. Yes, the most expensive but it felt like a right investment. Ranger feels like the most common sense boat, something that doesn't have any quirks, very traditional in its layout, and exceptionally well put together in terms of fit and finish. My GL550 pulls it perfectly with all its electronics and special trailing support.
