Who is the Toyota of small outboards 9.9-15 HP 4 stroke?

[Fartrell Cluggins]

mentioned several times already:

My understanding is Tohatsu, Nissan and Mercury, are all owned by Brunswick and the small outboards are all literally the same engine, just branded differently—like a Chevy and a GMC are the same truck, a few trim differences but the functional parts from a reliability perspective are the same—parts interchange, etc. Does anyone have actual insider knowledge of this with regard to the outboards to confirm or add nuance to this?

No insider information, but do have some knowledge from being a boat nut for many years. Tohatsu is a subsidiary of Brunswick. Their outboards up to and including 30 HP are identical to Mercs. At the 40-60 HP mark, Merc branches out on their own and has the motors produced in China. Beyond that they come back to the USA where the rest of the Merc HP range is made.

It gets even more interesting. Honda makes Tohatsu outboards from 60HP on up.

Nissan was nothing more than a rebadged Tohatsu. To my knowledge, the Nissan branding was dropped 6-7 years ago.

When the old OMC conglomerate still existed, their 4 strokes were made by Suzuki.

In the 2000s Merc and Yamaha did some parts sharing on their 4 stroke motors.

I suspect there is some other cross pollination that I am not aware of.

As it relates to the OPs question, it doesn't matter. I'd trust any modern small outboard, and I'd very likely buy it here: https://onlineoutboards.com/?gad_so...AEo9rsjibN_9jgo_IBHYl9z8rwiPTx8hoCebsQAvD_BwE

They are legit and can often save enough money to make a difference.