Well, I am going to give a slightly different perspective - I have just over 3 acres, with 1 ac that I cut. Yard is primarily hills, many between 20-30 degrees. I moved in 8 years ago and bought my first lawn tractor (previous yard did not warrant one). My co-worker, that also maintains a large family farm (big AG equip), suggested that I just get a "throw-away" - with biggest engine I could find but a moderate deck. So I went to Wally World, picked up a Murray 20hp, 42" deck, HST - for $1100. It had a 3 year warranty, so I figured if it made it 3-4 years, I would be happy
It is very basically designed, deck leveling mechinism is crude, but functional - no bells and whistles (not even a cup holder) - cuts well - not for a golf course lawn, but for my K31 fescue - it does just fine
I am a stickler on the routine maint. The thing still runs like new (with easliy over 1000 hours) - and it has been abused. The only failure was the starter solenoid (just went this year). I hauled about 4 cords of oak out of the woods and up the hills - same with loads of dirt, stone, brick, etc. I have used it to drag the chain harrow on hills where the BX is not safe - Have overheated the tranny a couple of times where I had to change out the fluid - but still runs fine.
All that said - if I was in the market again - I would do the same thing. It does not ride and cut as nice and the Brand name machines - but since it is so basic - there is not much on it that can go wrong
Using the car analogy - my daily driver is a Chevy Cobalt - base model (no power windows locks - no frills) - a basic car - not as nice a ride as the Intrepid and Taurus I had before it - bit it is easy to maintain and parts are cheap. Five years and 85K miles in - same thing - no failures, just routine maintenance.
