Funny you should mention boats. My impatient dumb ass apparently bought a China made jon boat last week thinking I was buying one made in Canada (the company selling it is based in Canada) because I didn't bother doing my research ahead of time.
Anyway backing up a little, AlaskaTRX and I sold our remote cabin 4 years ago (long story, doesn't matter anymore), and I had been looking halfheartedly for a replacement property since then. I finally found something that I could get excited about recently, which I think will be the right compromise between being off the beaten path somewhat, but still practical to access. 4.5 acres of lakefront, off the road system but still accessible by boat FROM the road system (or by snowmachine in winter). Closed on it a few weeks ago. Compared to the old place, I have traded a 6-8 hour drive and a yearly fee for access across privately owned bridges, for about a 3 hour drive followed by a 15 mile boat ride.
Only issue is my fleet until recently consisted of two fiberglass canoes, an 8' plywood and epoxy-glass sailing pram (which is probably going to live out at the new property), and a single person kayak, so I needed a boat with longer legs. Luckily, my brother and I still have our dad's mid 80s 15hp Johnson outboard. In 2002, I paid a shop to winterize it, and then I packed it up in a crate. Finally took it out of the crate a couple of weeks ago, changed the spark plugs, and test ran it in a 55 gallon drum filled with water. It fired right up, but there wasn't any cooling water exiting out of the tell-tale. It's working fine now after rebuilding the water pump and putting new gear oil in the lower unit.
Propulsion sorted, I needed a new boat since the inflatable that we used to use with the motor was long since worn out and discarded. Mainly just something to get us out there for the first year or three, and give me time to figure out what I really need. Originally I wanted to buy a 14' Lund and I first went to the Lund dealer, but they didn't have the more basic model I wanted, and I wasn't interested in paying the premium for the model they did have in stock. Went to Bass Pro only to find they only sell a complete package (boat, trailer, motor, etc) starting at $18K. Stopped at a third place not expecting to find what I was after, and was offered a 14' Marlon at a discount in the ballpark of what I was looking to spend. The boats looked good, and given that I just wanted to get my equipment sorted out and be done with it, I didn't look beyond the fact of the company being based in Canada. Only just now saw a random comment to a video mentioning China, actually looked into it a little, and sure enough. Oops.