It was my lucky day when I walked into Thunder Marine and was greeted by the "Head Honcho" Stephen Wacker . . . I was on the hunt for a Thunder Marine t-shirt for my man known as "Thunder". Stephen granted me my wish, a blue Thunder Marine t-shirt, and I was their happiest customer. Thank you Stephen for making my day! You're the BEST!!! read more

i've done business with Thunder Marine for 20 years. I purchased three new boats from them the owner Steve Wacker makes you feel like family his salesman Craig Jackson listens to all your needs and is a complete gentleman highly recommend doing business with them read more

Some of the best staff I have had the chance to work with. It's a family environment, and you feel that when you talk to any of the team. They put customers first and make sure to help you wherever you have questions. They make the boat buying process from "just-looking" to financing easy and hassle-free. They even provide training to ensure that you are a safe and responsible boater. They have their own Boat Service Facility and a Marina. When you're there, you won't feel pressured, and they give you the time and space to make your decision! I highly recommend them! read more

See all

Thunder Marine makes poor decisions, incompetent, careless & has untrained kids running sea trials, They had untrained kids running sea trials that failed to shut motor off when they heard noises. That in turn caused catastrophic failure and destroyed powerhead beyond repair. In addition, I never received a call from owner, just was brushed off and ignored. I was very open to handling this in a mature amicable manner, however their lack of response and reading other complaints here shoe me the fact that some family owned businesses act as the judge, jury & executioner without all the facts. Be careful when listing boats with them, heck be careful with their service as they utilize untrained kids to run sea trials that could destroy your boat. This is all in addition to all the new scratches from docking improperly & dents on trailer brake fluid cover & canister from trailering or hooking trailer to truck with fork lift. read more

See all

I bought a used boat from these guys and i knew there might be problems but the engine was rebuilt and was old... like i said i knew there might be problems but they told me that the boat was inspected and was 100% it could be for its age this was my first boat purchase so maybe i was a little gullible. 1st time on the boat the engine died and while i was waiting on a tow it was taking on lots of water i managed to get it to the ramp and back on the trailer by then the water level was at the starter when i took it home i discover that a seal was ripped in two and after working on the engine i discovered that the oil pan was full of water and that salt water caused the engine to seize.. do not buy anything from there!!! read more

I bought a boat and worked with Craig Jackson. He kept his eyes open for me and called when the perfect boat came in. He has a relaxed style and never exerted pressure during the process. He is very customer service focused and even encouraged me to call with any questions after the sale - including weekends (which I took him up on). Kelly Moore in their service department has also been very good and accommodating. Overall, I am 100% satisfied with the entire Thunder Marine team. read more

This review is for Thunder Marine International. Absolutely the worst experience I have ever had purchasing anything in my entire life. The vessel I purchased had been sitting at Thunder Marine International for over 9 months and never moved. You would think they would be happy someone purchased it to get it off their lot. Management called my lender a "low end mutt" because I did not use their in house financing on over a $225,000 purchase. They gouged a freshly painted hull on delivery and left the waste tank FULL of feces (which had been sitting in the tank for over 8 months). See attached pic of the bilge full of raw sewage - which they did not clean up. The boat was never cleaned from the time I looked at it up until delivery. In the contract they were supposed to have the motors serviced by a licensed Yamaha mechanic. The guy they hired worked out of the back of a rusted pickup truck and is no longer in business as of the date and time of this review. The center lower unit locked up a month after purchase after it was "re-sealed" by their mechanic. I took the lower unit to a reputable Yamaha dealer and what do you know, the lower unit locked up due to a seal failure. They also inspected the other motors and found all of the pickup zincs were installed BACKWARDS!! Thunder Marine international was also supposed to install or repair trim sensors per the contract - which they did not. I had to install them myself on my dock since their mechanic said they'd have to pull the boat out of the water in order to do this. The sensors should have been tested in the first place while the vessel was dry docked. The sales person I was working with quit after he got paid on my deal (based on the other names in the reviews I read it sounds like turnover of sales people here is very high). If they did not have the one boat I was looking for I would have walked away on day one. Lots and lots of promises but they try and skimp on the delivery to maximize their own profit. Once you sign a contract and they have your deposit, they flip from nice to nasty. Management is pushy and rude and they only care about making a profit, not about the customer. They will try and say they did all of these cosmetic repairs on their own dime and at their facilities - which they did not. I paid for them out of pocket which you can see by the attached invoice. I was not going to accept the boat the way it was since the gel coat was completely faded from a lack of care. The boat was painted in their parking lot by a sub contractor who had to bring a generator since he couldn't even use Thunder Marine's electric to run his air compressor. Even after getting a standard commission of 10% of over a $225,000 deal they still added markup and made more money off of their sub contractor. If you look at my other reviews, they are ALL positive. I thought long and hard about posting this review, it's well deserved by this place. I don't see how they can stay in business treating people like they do. read more

See all

Our brand new $300,000+ boat turned into the worst buying experience of my life. I regret this daily as I look out back at my empty boat lift. Be careful who you purchase from. There are no boat lemon laws in Florida. After 6 trips back to Thunder Marine in the first 10 weeks of ownership, Mercury Marine sent a factory technician to our house to inspect our new boat. Mercury wrote a 24 page report on "critical safety issues" directly related to Thunder Marine's workmanship. Mercury deemed our boat "unsafe to operate" They further stated that none of it was covered under factory warranty because it was Thunder's fault because of the way they assembled the boat. Mercury found missing parts, steering not properly installed, wrong engine mounting hardware, loose engine bolts, engines hitting each other, etc. Thunder even installed the wrong batteries to save themselves a few hundred bucks. Then they left my boat in the water for 11 days and gave it back to me covered in barnacles and filthy. We ordered the boat over 13 months ago and took delivery over 9 months ago. It is still being worked on at different dealership. We have gotten to take one problem filled trip since we owned it. Brand new boat but no boating. Thunder and Jeanneau have done NOTHING to make it right. They could have given us a loaner, or bought the boat back or given us a new boat. But instead they lie and deny. Boat is now going thru a $25,000 plus rework to repair thunder's and Jeanneau's mistakes. The other dealer has found even more errors and are working with Mercury to get things "hopefully" straightened out. I have noticed that multiple 5 star reviews are written by their own employees. read more

I took some time before deciding to write a review here. First, I am a little surprised that there are not more reviews posted. With that said, however, I am writing now about my experience over the last 2 months with Thunder Marine. My wife and I recently moved to Apollo Beach to have water access and the desire to have a boat. We attended two Boat Shows and went back and forth between new and used. We met Seth at the Tampa show and he introduced us to the Nautic Star. We knew we wanted a deck boat but were also considering a pontoon. The Nautic Star looked to meet our needs but we had a lot of questions and a lot of specifics we wanted covered. The staff from ownership to financing and from service to sales all were very patient with us. We committed to a boat that would be transferred to Thunder Marine the day of the St. Pete Boat show since the inventory did not have exactly what we wanted. One of the important factors in buying was that Thunder Marine would do a delivery and a 20 hour service remotely in Apollo Beach. We have no way to trailer it back and forth so this would save us a ton of effort. They scheduled delivery at a convenient time and Seth took us for our sea trial. He went over all the features and made sure both my wife and I were comfortable with everything. There were several manufacture defects we noted and Seth assured us that they would be addressed at the 20 hour service. By May, we had exceeded our 20 hours and were more than satisfied but were still concerned about the warranty issues. However, the service team made sure to work with our schedule and committed to picking up our boat, returning it to Thunder Marine and delivering it back to us after the service and warranty repairs. The decision to do this rather than service at our house was made due to the details of some of the warranty issues - all minor. I was more than impressed at the courtesy of the driver on both the pick up from our house and the return after the repairs. He even met me at the dock to load and unload the boat. When we got it back, all defects were replaced and the service was completed on time. The service department even text me with updates for pick up, the service process and the return. All in all, the entire process and the continued customer service efforts made posting this review an easy decision. We may not be a returning customer for a few years but when we are ready to shop again, I will trust the Thunder Marine team. read more

I just completed the purchase of a new boat from this group and was extremely impressed with the entire process. My sale could have been difficult since I had to trade in my existing boat but they made that very easy. They were more than fair on the trade in value for my boat and still gave me a great deal on the new boat. The Nautic Star boat I bought has an incredible ride and offered a huge value for the price. I spent a lot of time researching different boat brands and always came back to Nautic Star. Additionally the financing offered was incredible and worth anyone's time to look into. Make sure to ask for Seth when you go in and he will help get you the deal you are looking for. read more

5 stars for thunder marine....ian Cox was our salesman......nothing was too much trouble. Helpful, knowledgeable, not pushy at all. We would highly recommend Ian and thunder marine read more

Met these guys while at the Tampa boat show. Immediately impressed with how down to earth they were and how much knowledge they had. Craig was my sales rep and he went above and beyond every step of the way. Very impressed with this locally owned business. read more

Thunder Marine - Boat Dealers Near Me - St. Petersburg, Florida

Thunder Marine is a horrible boat dealer recommend you bUy from Marine Maxx or other dealers. Thunder is quick to sell you a boat and take your money then it's all downhill. The service department delivers sub par work and boat comes back with more damage every time we take it for Service. With so many dealers in Florida save yourself they hassle and headaches SHOP SOMEWHERE ELSE!!!! read more

Drove near 3 hours to view a Jenneau 9.0 WA after being told we could test drive a Jenneau boat that was similar to the one we were interested in. The boat of choice was actually in the water and the techs took it out for a test run, but we weren't allowed unless we put down a non-refundable deposit. This was infuriating after being told otherwise. In reviewing buying a new boat without a test drive, I was then encouraged by the sales manager to buy my boat on my company and expense it. Anyone remotely aware of the tax laws knows that this is now illegal. The confidence of some sales people is always so inspiring. NOT! I sent the language around the tax laws to the sales rep and spoke about integrity and heard nothing but crickets. As a result of our experience, we purchased a new Jenneau out of the area to avoid this dealer. Read all the 1 star reviews first, before proceeding with this dealer. read more

Your team is warm, knowledgable, and very concerned with matching the correct boat with the right customer. Delivery is as promised, with the bonus of extra care to indoctrinate boaters new to the area. Buying our boat from Thunder Marine has been a joyful retirement experience! read more

I purchased a Nautic Star Deck boat from Thunder Marine while at a boat show. We knew what we wanted and they had the exact boat we wanted there. Sales person was excellent and everything seemed great till we signed the dotted line and then they were done with us. We opened the top for the first time and there was several holes in our new top. I called my sales person and he told me I was to deal with the maintenance manager now and they are no longer the people to deal with? Thunder Marine took pics of the holes on two different occasions and a year later we still haven't gotten the new top we were told was on order. We waited to fix other problems that we found (GPS was cutting off, gauges worked intermittently, Blue Tooth radio wouldn't work) at our free 20 hour maintenance appointment. We scheduled our 20 hr appointment and dropped the boat off the afternoon before the appointment (1 hr. drive there and a 2 hr. drive to get back home) and never heard back days after the scheduled appointment. I drove back to Thunder Marine to find my boat sitting and no oil change etc had been done. Manager at Thunder Marine advised that they would get to the oil change in about a month because they were busy? My top was on order as was parts to fix the short on the GPS etc. I told the manager to contact me when the parts were in and we would reschedule. As I attempted to hook up the trailer to my truck I noticed parts missing off my trailer and when I asked the manager if he had parts to replace what was missing he said "no". I had to pull my boat to the nearest hardware store to replace nuts and bolts and cotter pin in order to get home. It would be different if I were an ass and complained all the time but I'm not. We paid another dealer (Phiilip Tomko's Marine in Crystal River who is awesome) to fix some of our problems and change our oil. We had to replace the whole front of the trailer (Mike's Trailers in Homosassa who is awesome as well) because the emergency brake system kept malfunctioning and we couldn't wait any longer.... We love our boat and we still wait a year later to hear when our top and parts are coming in..... Ike read more

Nothing but great things to say about Seth, Scott and Rusty at Thunder Marine. Second boat I have purchased form their company and looking forward to the third in a few years. read more

Well to start off with we purchased a consignment boat from Thunder Marine and that was our first mistake. Never purchased a boat before but been around them growing up. We were promised that the boats go through a 15 or 20 point inspection or some BS and that Thunder unlike other dealers are the only people that do that. The boat was in perfect condition and ran great. Our salesperson Craig was a typical used car salesman and wanted to brush off any concerns we might have had..like the scag for example was bent and we questioned whether or not that would affect the mobility of the boat...oh no it won't make any difference is what we were told...LIE..it certainly did and we could tell the first time we took the boat out....also we were concerned about the trailer because it seemed rusted through..again we were told that wasn't a problem...to be fair..the service department did correct the scag for us at no cost to the best of their ability and also reinforced the trailer, after some major insistence on our part, when we took it in to have the 700.00 GPS that was supposed to be user friendly installed...NOT.....they didn't take the time to explain anything about it to us....again first time boat buyer here so it would have been nice ..also we had a battery switch put in which was recommended by the service department and that is great except they left a bunch of fiberglass shavings all over and a little grease on the vinyl seats...we were happy to have the boat back to enjoy and appreciative that they fixed our concerns which our salesperson showed no concern about...I guess as long as they make commission it's okay to screw over the consumer. Now to the good part.....we only took the boat out a total of 3 times and couldn't understand why it was bogging down and backfiring. So we had a mechanic come to look at it and after a few minutes was able to tell us that the spark plugs were fouled, 1 was completely melted on the inside and there were pieces in the motor...he said he could tell by his years of experience that these plugs were never looked at or gone over and they had been in there for years...we had only been running on 3 cylinders the entire time....ALSO the blower flex hose was torn in half!!!!! Meaning the boat could have blown up with us in it at any given time because we were unknowingly blowing the gas fumes back into the boat.....ALSO he said there was a hose not connected that was meant to deliver water to the motor...so my question is what does this 15 point inspection cover exactly?...OBVIOUSLY not the safety of the boat or it's occupants. So upon calling Thunder Marine to express our concerns and see if the family company cares about anyone else family and has the morality to do the right thing we get told, FROM THE MANAGER it was operator error and we just have to deal with it. That's real nice...you could have blown up someone's family with your negligence and eagerness to earn a buck and that's the answer we get....BUYER BEWARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! USED or NEW I wouldn't go near Thunder Marine because obviously you get struck by lightning. read more