Thats a toughy ,the only advice I can give is to weigh all the options and standard features and then look at the quality and build of the vessel, check all holes you can get into too see the quality and finish of the vessel,really good builders will label everything, one of the builders I know for sure who does this is Cruisers Yachts, have you thought of this manufacturer, I have worked on these and they are top notch for labels,quality,fit ,and finish,and the diesels with the pod drives and real fuel sippers, and they don't smell, my advice as far as engines goes is go big or go home, don't skimp here in this department, and as far as fuel goes you don't buy a boat to save fuel, so have fun and good luck :-)

The other thing to think of is where you are going to boat, now the pods limit your depth as they do hang under the boat, where as drives you can tuck them up and go into shallower water, also think of fuel, not all places sell diesel and if some of them don't sell enough then the diesel goes BAD ,and if you don't use enough then you have to be careful of the fuel in the tank, diesels only love CLEAN fuel and trust me I have worked on enough where the boat owners got a bad tank of fuel, and fuel filters are expensive and so is the labour to get rid of the bad fuel,i'm trying not to scare you but to inform of some of the things to look for and think of, as a new boat is a big purchase and you hate to get one you don't like good luck and have fun :-)

No problem Kevin, in my experience I think you are going to see manufacturers start to offer them in the 30+ ft range ,as soon as people who boat in deeper water see the fuel savings they can get with pods it will soon take off, when you have a 35+ft cruiser you really are pushing the reliablilty of the stern drive, that is a lot of weight to push, and with a fully loaded boat then look out weight wise,fuel,water,gear,people,and then you have other factors like wind,current,that all takes a toll on stern drives, thats why they invented shafts, for the bigger heavy cruisers, and I find the pods are the best of both worlds, and with fuel going through the roof pods offer greater savings without breaking the bank at the fuel dock, I have people who ask how come they don't have them in smaller boats I say it's the cost, people just need to start demanding them then manufactures will start offering them, it's like anything else ASK and you shall recieve, anyways hope this helps out Cheers Myles :-)