We're looking to replace our 2000 Sundance Altamar, which gave up the ghost a couple of months ago, and have narrowed it down to the Jacuzzi J-355. We looked long and hard at another Altamar or the Sundance Marin, but the new Sundance dealer in our area raised their prices $1000 across the board from when we started looking.
We probably could negotiate a bit on that, but after looking around at the D1 and some other dealers, we think we like the Jacuzzi better. But the Jacuzzi dealer isn't including a cover lifter in the deal, which might not be a bad thing because he sells the CoverMate. We thought our original cover lifter was going bad a few years ago, and so we bought a new CoverMate III. It lasted about 2 months before it started to warp, and we reinstalled our old lifter. We decided to use bungee cords to secure it when it was open...
So what's a good cover lifter? Looking at Amazon, the CoverMate III has only three reviews, and all bad - and sound like my experience.