A little miffed

[hodge]

Read it again. The low end Country Clipper uses Kawasaki, the low end Exmark uses a Chinese engine, and the low end Bad Boy uses Briggs & Stratton.

Country Clipper also uses Kohler engines. Exmark also uses Kawasaki and Kohler on their higher end models.

When Briggs & Stratton purchased Snapper and most of the box store mower manufacturers the quality mower manufacturers dropped B&S. Bad Boy is a pretty good mower competing with box store prices so for the low end they can not afford not to use the inexpensive B&S engine.

In 2014 I trusted Snapper to put a quality engine on my $700+ 21" self-propelled Ninja (the mulching version). Quite a disappointment. Could not mow my 0.3 acres on one tank of gas (about 70 minutes). The gas cap was in the wake of grass clippings blowing out from under the mower and designed in such a way as to let grass clippings accumulate under the gas cap around the ridge so when the cap was removed the clippings were lifted and dropped into the gas tank. Furthermore it had an "automatic choke" which prevented a hot engine from restarting if left 10 minutes. Had to wait 30 minutes to start, or restart very soon after turning the engine off.

My Country Clipper 18 HP Kawasaki zero-turn mows the lawn in 25 minutes for the same amount of fuel as the Snapper.

I did. You said, "Bad Boy uses Briggs & Stratton". Your words, you didn't specify in that sentence.

 

[mikester]

It's a double edged sword. On the flip side when you are selling stuff you run into a LOT of time wasters and tire kickers. Between irrational buyers wanting the moon and free delivery and top and low conversion numbers I can see sales guys getting discouraged trying to flip low volume and low profit items.

Big box stores like The Borg fill that niche market people are looking for...low dollar value, low quality, no service.

 

[Grumpycat]

I did. You said, "Bad Boy uses Briggs & Stratton". Your words, you didn't specify in that sentence.

Read it yet again. We have paragraphs for a reason:

"The bottom end Country Clipper Avenue comes with a Kawasaki FR600V engine. Exmark uses an Exmark branded Chinese engine. Bad Boy uses Briggs & Stratton."

 

[rScotty]

It's about people basically not knowing what they're talking about the current industry as it applies to outdoor equipment and tractor sales or uttering something they knew from many years ago.
We jump at warranty work as well...

I'm glad to hear that some dealers still like warranty work. I'm from "many years ago" and always liked warranty work. It didn't pay the hourly that other work did, but at least it did pay.
Warranty work was more likely to be newer and clean and lubed with parts available, instead of old, dirty, abused, and parts a hassle.
That all made warranty work more interesting than dealing with worn out stuff.

USA motors were pretty good, Japanese rarely needed warranty work, British almost always.