Those engines seem to have a bad reputation in the U.S. They are seen as
cheapo engines for people who can't afford "real" engines from cont or
lyc. One flight school I know of had diamond katanas with Rotax engines
and only got 900 hours out of them despite regular use. I don't know how
typical that is, but you often hear stories like that. Maybe it's the
Avgas we use over here (it certainly isn't good for small continentals
either, but like you said those can be fixed by just about anyone). Not
having owned or maintained an engine myself I don't know but I do know
their reputation is not good here. For example one of the new companies
(I think it was Liberty) was initially going to use a Rotax and got no
interest, changed to a Continental and now are taken more seriously.


I am fairly familiar with the Diamond/Rotax issues. The engines are not
bad. Whoever said that there are support issues was spot on. Whether this
will change with Sport Pilot remains to be seen.

There are several aspects of the Rotax engines that the average Lyc/con AP
will set precisely backwards without proper training and support. Neither
of which has been forthcoming from Bombardier.