I'm not a fan of HST tractors because you have to keep the engine RPM's at the same, near full throttle level the entire time that you are operating your tractor. I don't own one and don't want one, but I've been around them and I've found them to be very loud. I'm told that they are also very thirsty. I guess it's because they are always at full throttle. The only advantage to them is how easy it is to change directions. If you do a lot of loading dirt into a dump truck type of work, that makes sense. If you are mowing, or hauling dirt with the loader anywhere, it doesn't make sense to me.