Well if your looking to buy a boat in the next few months, better buy a ranger now. Or buy a used ranger and you know you will have the best boat built before they change. lol
I had a 95 Bass Cat for 15 years with cable steering. Had no problems for the last 14 of them then the cables got tight. The thing that I would do once a month is shoot WD40 threw the ends of the cables by the motor. I think this helped them last longer