Talk to commercial guys and see what they think of all these new outboards...my old boss who has supervised many fleets of boats really dislikes the Evinrudes....he was the largest subcontractor for cleanup at the gulf BP spill under the NRC....so he has a pretty good fleetwide knowledge of reliability. He also owns 2 marinas that service all the outboards.
Of course he doesn't speak highly of Hondas, Mercs or Yamies either.
inboard gas for small boats...all outboards seem to have some issue....
25hp and less...are just the opposite...seems like you can't kill them unless you have no clue...