John Deere 318 - better than the new Deeres?

And Kohler engines aren't what they once were either. The best engines in mowers today are Honda and the high-end B&S. Kohler is a very distant third.

I agree Kawasaki makes good engines but there are very few of them in $2,500 mowers, which is what he was asking.

Additionally, I have 160 cedar trees in a developing "live fence" and I wanted to be able to mow between and around them and around shrubs and trees in the yard.

The 17.5 hp Kohler is plenty of power for this peppy machine. It is very comfortable to drive and handle. My wife even started mowing the yard (without asking) because it is so much fun to drive.

The undercarriage is simplistic yet well built and appears to be very reliable. Fuel is about 2 acres per gallon if you don't spend a lot of time fooling around. I even think the JD dealer lets you try a mower for 30 days with a 100% refund satisfaction guarantee. $1750.

The problem with mowers is that all their parts wear out. So if you rebuild the engine, the drive line is still old, and the deck is old, and the steering is old. You just keep forking out bucks and when it breaks, your lawn gets real tall real fast.

My 2c.

Mark

We have a new husquevarna backup for when our old JD is in need of repair.

Mark

The cup holder on the new one is a nice feature however ;>)

Why don't they put pull starts on these stupid little engines? This would make my life so much easier.

• 318 Web Site

The older deeres were built so much better than todays that people frequently consider the engine and transmission to be wear parts. In other words, if you wear out the engine it's worth it to replace it instead of getting a new tractor. Parts are readily available from any JD dealer.

Also, I didn't know you could get a new Deere for $2500.

There are a lot of opinions on this in this forum. I'm biased and have a jd dealer less than 4 miles away so parts are easy. If you want more biased opinions check here.