my dad was on his 7th mower when i sold my ford - about every 2 or 3 years he would buy a replacement - he would spend around 12 to 1500 on his power king, mtd, dynamark, murray, lawn chief, craftsman and the last one was green/yellow i think a yard man? i think most of those were probably made by mtd but anyhow, that was his choice until he was getting unable to work on them to keep them going for a couple yrs - he chose a kawasaki powered country clipper - 2006 - never looked back and its running great no issue - 5500 bucks and now they run around 7500 for the same unit - pay me now or pay me later is the deal pick your poison $$$$ either way they will break at some point
even on low end stuff if you have to replace it every 2-3 years your either doing it because you want to, or your not taking care of it.