I am shopping for a replacment kicker motor and am having a hard time deciding to buy a used one or a brand new one. Also I would like to get some opinions on different makes in the 8-15HP range motors.

my advice would be go buy a brand new 8hp 2 stroke Mercury, it has shift in the handle and will putt around forever, call Three Rivers I think they have best price going...

I'd go brand new if you can afford it,and also go with a yamaha 4 stroke if possible.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

love my 8hp 4 stroke Honda! Go new if you can, you never know how well a used has been maintained.

Definately get a 4 stroke. Yamaha or Honda would be my first and second choices.

I'd go new, definitely four stroke, probably Yamaha. My justification is: 1) It is probably the most used item on the boat. Why not buy the best for something you use so much? 2) Generally a new four stroke Yamaha will give you ZERO problems and make fishing even more enjoyable because it is whisper quiet. 3) Resale on kickers is incredible...buy a new kicker, use it for 10 years and you can probably sell it and still get half of the new price for it. In this scenario, I'm going to pay for the first 10 years and let someone else pay for the next 10 years!

Convinced?

I love my Yamaha 4 stroke. Very happy with it, oil changes are a snap, and it sips gas.

Definitely go with the Yamaha 4 stroke. Get either the 8 or 9.9 high thrust model. I've had both and they're fabulous. Troll all day on a gallon of gas. I push a 30' boat with my current 8hp high thrust Yami.

Even though I tend to have to rebuild/clean the carb every year on my old Honda 4 stroke it is very dependable once the carb has been cleaned. I would go with what you can afford. As others stated the kicker gets used A LOT! So get the best you can and then enjoy it. I would go with a 4 stroke as I don't like the idea of 2 strokes adding oil via the exhaust into the water. If I were to buy new I would probably go with the one I got the best deal on and not really worry about the brand. Yamaha, Honda, Mercury, Suzuki, Evinrude, and Johnson all make great motors. This is like asking do you want a Ford, Dodge, or Chev Pick up!

I do have to say that I really like the throttle/shift linkage that Mercury uses. It is very convenient to simply twist the throttle to shift from neutral, forward, and reverse. However on my next boat I'm going to put remote control on my kicker so that I can control it from the helm just like the main motor. With that I don't need to invest in a TR-1 although I would certainly love to have it!