Unhappy new member

[BBO]

This thread seems to be more about our "China-Made/Wal-Mart/Big-Store" economy that is a problem.
We all look at prices of clothes, lawn mowers, whatever and without real experience it's hard to know what to buy.

But for sure when Home Depot & Lowes made deals with John Deere & Cub Cadet they found ways to offer the name with lower prices and some hidden quality reductions. And the deals are often hard to pass up for consumers.
Lawn care is expensive I think no matter what you do.
You do hear about folks that bought a $800 mower that lasted for 15 years, but I suspect that these are the exception.

The $5000 and up John Deere mowers are generally the better ones, and if you cannot afford this you may need to look for a used one, being prepared to spend some money on it.
And adding to this I actually think the new $6000 mowers may not be as well built as the older ones that used to sell for $3500.

Whatever you buy to whack weeds, rocks & grass with has too many bearings, ball joints, belts, gears & bushings to not require expenditures for maintenance. They all tear up...

 

[Markcuda]

I am so glad I was able to be able to buy this beauty of a mower.

 

[Threepoint]

You get what you pay for. My neighbor has one of those LA1xx. It is serving him well. I think he's had it about 8 years now. He mows about 3/4 of acre and pulls light loads on a garden cart. Not a minutes trouble with it. I had to borrow it one day when my 425 went down. It cut the grass, but I hated it. Certainly not what my 425 is (and cost about 5x less too). So you get what you pay for. The OP is expecting too much out of that little mower.

Late to this thread, but I have a slightly different take. All of us use the expression "You get what you pay for," and I generally agree in the sense that quality often tracks with price. But there are certainly exceptions, and I suspect the OP's feels his experience is one of them. A few here have been pretty rough on him for lack of due diligence and buying the wrong machine. When a top-of-the-line manufacturer trades on it's well-earned reputation to grab market share in the homeowner/consumer retail market, is it unreasonable for someone in the target market to be taken in? "Nothing runs like a Deere." A fair claim for their commercial and high-end consumer products. I can certainly understand someone putting weight on that in paying a premium over MTD. Doesn't mean they necessarily have gotten what they paid for.

 

[beenthere]

IMO, the lower end green Deere at the box stores compete in price with the other "box" store lawn tractors.
But don't see expecting the same low-end model to run like the high end models. More likely, expect them to run like the MTD's and the Craftsmen that sell at roughly the same cheaper price.

People are going to buy the cheapest regardless of color or brand, but may pick green just because of the Deere name (status in the neighborhood maybe?). Deere knows this and therefore goes after that end of the market. A business decision.

 

[sd455dan]

Have not been very happy with my L118 overall, but it does still run. Paid a fair amount more for it and it's JD name than a comparable Craftsman at the time, but to be quite honest, I should have kept my old Craftsman because it was a better lawn machine in pretty much every way. The only thing that my "trading up" did for me was give me HST, but it is weak and really always has been. I'm assuming the others would have been similar with their HST trannies too. I realize that it is just a lawn mower, but the hype over the name did lead me to believe it would be better than anyone else's lawn mower. My FIL had one from the 1970's that was still running fine, so I kind of expected that kind of quality when I bought mine.

I think you're on to something with the early hydrostats- still running our early 1980s MTD 18 hp , and have pulled full size cars and trucks around with it to get them in the garage for repair along with fire wood trailers and such.
Back then they didn't use plastic gears and were actually pretty well built at least the M-11 Techumseh/ Peerless built hydrostats and it doesn't jerk like our high priced Honda hydro. JMO

 

[uglyboywith11fingers]

All this discussion about 'you get what you pay for' reminds me of a saying a friend often uses...
It may pertain more to buying a service than a product, but as he says...

"You can have it GOOD, FAST or CHEAP...
if you want it GOOD and FAST, it will not be CHEAP.
if you want it GOOD and CHEAP, it will not be FAST.
if you want it FAST and CHEAP, it will not be GOOD."

Pete

 

[swines]

When a top-of-the-line manufacturer trades on it's well-earned reputation to grab market share in the homeowner/consumer retail market, is it unreasonable for someone in the target market to be taken in? "Nothing runs like a Deere." A fair claim for their commercial and high-end consumer products. I can certainly understand someone putting weight on that in paying a premium over MTD. Doesn't mean they necessarily have gotten what they paid for.

Then the OP hopefully has learned a valuable lesson in shopping for a product - don't buy something simply because of the name on it. When you go to college you pay tuition - it costs to learn something. Life is much the same way - sometimes it costs you money to learn something - that's just a fact.

I have a John Deere GT275 that I purchased in 1997. In 2012, I needed some lower trim panels for it. I went to the dealer with the part numbers on Monday and the parts guy said - "They'll be here Thursday" - and they were. Hard to beat that kind of parts availability on a 15 year old (at the time) garden tractor.

In the entire time I've owned it, it's needed two batteries and the voltage regulator replaced. I've certainly gotten my money's worth out it and I expect it will last at least another 10 years because I take very good care of it.

Sometimes, spending a lot of money for a quality product, and then taking care of what you've purchased, is the cheapest thing you can do over the long run.

 

[Threepoint]

[snip]

Sometimes, spending a lot of money for a quality product, and then taking care of what you've purchased, is the cheapest thing you can do over the long run.

Sound advice that I think most of us here would agree with. I suspect that's what the OP thought he was doing, mistaken though he was, and why he is so irritated. :2cents:

 

[Buggs67]

IMO, the lower end green Deere at the box stores compete in price with the other "box" store lawn tractors.
But don't see expecting the same low-end model to run like the high end models. More likely, expect them to run like the MTD's and the Craftsmen that sell at roughly the same cheaper price.

People are going to buy the cheapest regardless of color or brand, but may pick green just because of the Deere name (status in the neighborhood maybe?). Deere knows this and therefore goes after that end of the market. A business decision.

I think he's justified to now be suspicious of any Deere product. Perhaps when all things were weighed the brand recognition won out. I've had an MTD mower and wouldn't buy another. I've had push mowers with Tecumseh and Briggs engines and I've found the Briggs better. He thought the Deere name meant quality you can trust; I would've too. Same for Kubota.

I liken it to buying a Jaguar sedan and then finding out it's really a cross-branded Ford.

BTW I wouldn't buy any major product from HD or Lowes. They say one thing on the outside, but are cheaper on the inside. You want a Deere, buy it at a Deere Dealer. AND ... ask the question; who makes the engine. where is this produced.

I was looking to buy a Kubota. Name and quality recognition. I'm hoping my Kioti will have the same quality and in the future the Name recognition will catch up.

 

[Professor Marvel]

I am always amused when someone tells me that they saw this brand or that brand that has always had a quality name at a box store. And it is cheaper than the ones the dealer sells. DUH! I don't even waste my time explaining that they are looking at the special low end junk line of that brand. But it is Green or Orange.
Also, it looks like the OP left the discussion a while ago.