Personal Watercraft Buying Guide (With Super-Shredding Video!)

• jet ski
• personal watercraft
• buyers guide
• Kawasaki
• Sea-Doo
• yamaha

The past decade has seen a radical change in the typical personal watercraft enthusiast—and the machine he or she rides. Once driven by athletic action-sport nuts looking for a challenge, PWCs are now a toy for the entire family. Comfort and stability have become just as important as performance. So it's not surprising that more versatile three-passenger models account for 80 percent of PWC sales, while sportier two-passenger models that dominated the market a decade ago have all but vanished from showrooms. Propulsion systems have changed too, switching from antisocial two-stroke engines (which were noisy, dirty and smelly) to high-tech four-strokers that are some of the quietest and cleanest powerplants on the water today. One thing that hasn't changed: A PWC costs a fraction of what a full-size runabout does. It's also easier to trailer and fits in a standard garage. To get a better understanding of the typical features of a modern PWC, we disassembled a 2008 WaveRunner FX Cruiser SHO, an all-new model from Yamaha that delivers power and style in the high-performance cruiser class.

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