Sportsman- You're actually talking about three decisions:iPilot, Terrova, or both. If you have a PD2, you could add iP without buying a new motor. Likewise, you could get a Terrova w/o iP.

The 3 options are listed in the order of their cost. By asking the question, you're saying that the cost is doable. By focussing on SpotLock, you're probably telling us that you're a spider rigger, dock shooter, BP jigger, or you drift corks. (If your favorite crappie fishing technique is towing cranks or longline trolling, you would have asked about Track Record/Playback, CruiseControl, and Autopilot.)

Terrova is a tough well-built motor. Tomorrow will be my TM's 169th trip. It is a 24v, 80# Terrova w/ iP. Most of my trips (up to 12 miles per day) are TMO lakes, so my motor works hard from pre-dawn until dark. The MK warranty has replaced the rubber cover on the remote (several times) and I replaced one of the plastic side panels (carelessly ran it under the edge of a dock), but It has never been in the shop for repair and has required no maintenance. You will never regret buying a Terrova.

iPilot is a bundle of GPS-enabled controls. SpotLock, in particular, highlights the inherent inaccuracy of GPS. If you search the threads, you'll find many discussions of the "problem" of excessive drift. Unless I've missed something, the GPS used in iP does NOT have WAAS capability. That means that a "spot" is actually a circle with a diameter that can be several boat lengths. GPS precision varies from place to place and time to time, so the circle can be even larger. Weather conditions and cover (trees, bridges, and anything else between your boat and the position satellites) can degrade precision or shut down service entirely. Add all this together and you can see why SL will never be the perfect answer for precision BP jigging, dock shooting, or tight places. Nevertheless, there are times when spider-riggers and cork drifters LOVE it! All things considered, you will never regret buying iP.

If I had it to do all over again, would I buy a Terrova w/ iPilot? I've already done it! Recognizing the number of service hours on my TM, I bought a replacement at the end of last year when merchants were offering great prices to clear out the old models before the "new and improved" iP2 was released. It's sitting there in the floor ready to go whenever my old motor hiccups or I decide to retire it to back-up status!