"Yes, kinda...
In 1984 Bayl
"Yes, kinda...
In 1984 Bayliner bought what was left the the mostly bankrupt Chrysler outboard division.
They began producing Force outboards as part of their U.S. Marine division. Their plan was to build their own motors to package on their boats at a "value price".
In 1986 Brunswick (who owns half the boating industry) bought out Bayliner. Since they already owned Merc, they gave the Force division to them.
Merc continued to cobble together Force outboards until the late 90's. They were a very inexpensive motor, however, were treated as "disposable".
Merc turned out roughly 3 types of Force motors.
Ones that were mostly old Chrysler parts, some that were a kinda hybrid between whatever Chrysler and old Merc parts would fit together and yet others that were mostly just old Merc parts. It was a great way to get rid of stuff sitting in warehouses that they had not hung on their own motors since the 1970's in some cases.
As an example, in the late 90's they produced 47 different models of the 125 Force. Whatever would bolt on went out the door and if the parts were significantly different, they gave it new model number (47 times)....
So while Force was built by Merc, you can not compare either the quality or the technology. A 1990 Force model had all the technical advancements of a 1975 Merc...."