I think they're possibly quoting two different things/years... in I believe 1997 Grady White switched from standard marine grade plywood to a product called Greenwood XL. It's supposedly a far superior product compared to your standard marine grade plywood at resisting water/rot, though it obviously can still happen. Grady White used it I believe on all of their boats up until maybe 2015 or so? when they switched over to a fully composite hull. So, I'm guessing the boat you're looking at will have the Greenwood XL, which is what you want to have. The 2001 and up range number usually pertains to those who are looking for a four stroke motor, as it was I believe 2002 when they gave the option for power on whether you wanted a 2 or a 4 stroke outboard. In 2005, at least for the 208 Adventure, they also increased the weight of the hull. It's speculated that this was to "beef up" and/or add extra buoyancy to the stern of the boats for the additional weight of the 4 stroke motors that were fairly new at the time. I wouldn't discredit or exclude considering looking at the boat just because a surveyor or someone says so. If you're potentially interested, check out the boat yourself in person, if you think it's worth your while then have a surveyor inspect it for you. If you know a fair amount about cars, boats and are remotely mechanical, you can usually tell pretty quickly the condition of something after looking around for a few minutes. You can buy things like moisture meters/readers for boat hulls online and measure it yourself, or you could bring along a rubber/plastic mallet and tap the hull to see if there are any soft spots.
In regards to the Evinrude E-Tec's, I couldn't really tell you anything you probably haven't already heard before. I believe it was Bombardier that was manufacturing them up until around 2020 or so, and then they came out with a notice saying that they were stopping production. My buddy has a 25' Wooldridge aluminum boat with I believe they're twin 175 E-Tec's and he's had a few problems with the lower units over the years, but on top of that he's had a few issues with finding people that will work on them. Mercury is supposedly doing the maintenance on the E-Tec's, but my buddy was saying that his local Mercury dealer wouldn't touch them. As you mentioned, sure I imagine that parts and availability of other things are likely getting increasingly more difficult over the years, as it's been roughly 6 years now since they stopped producing the engines/parts. Whether you want to go into that project or not is up to you, the actual condition of the boat/motor, how much the seller wants for the boat, if you're able to source some parts and whatnot for it, etc. The 208 Adventure also has a bang cap/plate on it, which if it's broken or missing entirely can let water into the transom. I'd definitely check it, along with everything else if you do go through with a pre-purchase inspection as you don't want to spend say $10k+ on the boat/motor to then have a bad transom that needs to be replaced and spend another $10k+ doing so. Here's a couple of links to websites where you can look up accredited marine surveyors, if you're going to pay to have someone inspect the boat for you. Good luck.
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marinesurvey.org
NAMSGlobal members are marine surveyors who inspect, and provide a broad variety of consulting services for the maritime industry. Our members are certified based on their knowledge and experience, with designations for: Yachts and Small Craft, Cargo, and Hull and Machinery (including Fishing Vessel
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