People's opinions on any specific brand will always run the gamut from love to hate. I happen to fall into the category of "love 'em."
I have toured the factory and had lengthy discussions with their customer service reps. The employees there seem to be genuinely happy and proud of their work. In fact, most teams sign the inside of the boat when they finish their work. You can't see it and likely couldn't find it if you were looking for it but the signatures are probably there. The company is also multigenerational, meaning there are fathers, mothers, aunts, uncles, sons, daughters, cousins etc that work there.
One big factor is that the company is still in business. Let's say you bought a 53' Voyager and had a question about how best to access something or trace the wiring or plumbing on the boat. You can call Carver and they'll email you the owner's manual, sometimes they'll even send you the actual CAD-CAM drawings of the boat's design. They have all of the original purchase orders and can tell you exactly what was and was not on the boat when it was originally ordered, based on the HIN. One time, I even called to ask about about some details of the engine wiring on a 2001 506 owned by one of my clients. After discussing the specifics with the customer service rep, he put me on hold for a few minutes. The next voice on the line was one of the actual technicians that installed the engines on that particular boat back in 2001. He still worked for the company and was able to provide invaluable insight. That kind of service is really hard to beat.
Out of the 255 slips in our marina, at least 12 of the boats are Carvers or Marquis.
Carver builds a lot of attention to detail into their models and there are pretty much no unused spaces. If there was an empty space, they put a door on it so you can use it for storage.
They do have some drawbacks and design quirks. The cabin space is roomy but they did that by building tall boats with high side decks so they could maximize interior space. The drawback is windage. On my client's 506, the sliding screen door could not be removed to clean the wheels without removing the entire bridge (customer service's words). But overall, great boats that you will likely enjoy for years.
We would likely have a Carver right now if we hadn't lucked into a boat that was already kitted out exactly like we wanted and was owned by a friend of ours.
Go for the Cummins engine models if you can find them. But don't be afraid of a well-maintained Volvo engine, either. We have Volvos in our boat and they're rock solid. Just stay on top of the maintenance... but that's the same with any engine.
Let me know if you have any additional questions.
John
