our curent riding mower a yard machine by mtd apears to hav blew up after 5-6 years. from what i am reading this is prety common for this brand if your lucky. i have heared of them blowing up within a few weeks of being bought new. from the looks of it home depot where we got it no longer sells yard machine riders i'm thinking this is why. we saw a fairly nice looking 0 turn today it was made by bad boy. from the looks of reviews, looking at there site and at the actual thing it loooks pretty good. any body heared anything about this brand? also wondering about price range to look for better mowers in. from this experiance i know $1000 is ok but have problems not very long life. so i'm thinking 2k-4k is the good range. think 1500ish may be ok but only slightly beter than the 1000. i saw a john deer at home depot for 1599 however this seems prety low for a JD afraid it may bejust like the yard machine that died.
if you can recomend any brands to consider this would be helpfull too. wondering about engines brand also i have always knowen briggs&straton to be prety good up until now.( but i'm thinking this may have just been a low end one for a rider. don't know much about kawlasaki, kohler, techumsha. our old rider was a 1 cylinder the bad boy we looked at i beleve was a 2. i know 2 would be more power probly but alsopo more gas. other that that is there any reason to go with a 2 over a 1.
i also saw a toro 0 turn at home depot for 2500 but i beleve mtd also makes toro if possible i'd just like to avoid anything mtd now( except maybe cub cadet they seem ok).
thanks

 

The John Deere LA115 was the top most popular model with the reviewers last year. Price was about 1700

 

The Yard Machines and John Deere are both made by MTD, as well as Cub Kadet and many more brands.

 

It depends on how much grass you have to cut and how much time you have.
The best machine has two handles to your right and left arms,used to turn.
Two foot pedal s for forward and backwards,if you don't have a Loosewire
you can do 360's-180's in record time. If you don't how to maintain a mower,
get a mowing service.A rookie can ruin a good machine pretty quick.
I think Toro makes a machine like this.