4502 Runs a short while and dies

bertsmobile1

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....and apparently operating it required you to dress formally. In other words, the clothes had to match the high price of the mower.

“Honey, did you starch my shirt and press my pants? I have to go and mow the yard right now.”

At least it did not feature a very well endowed "mum" who mows almost naked wearing high heeled sling backs.
The mower was not "high priced" it was reasonably priced for the amount of work that went into designing & making it.
Todays mowers are too cheap in more ways than just the price tag.
 

Got-to-be-old

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At least it did not feature a very well endowed "mum" who mows almost naked wearing high heeled sling backs.
The mower was not "high priced" it was reasonably priced for the amount of work that went into designing & making it.
Todays mowers are too cheap in more ways than just the price tag.

I hope with Trump's new tariffs, here in the US can go back to the well endowed mum and build them here. And get back to some quality. Hope so.
 

bertsmobile1

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Getting a bit off topic, but the import duties have nothing to do with it.
What is needed is a durability tax so that the longer the service life, the less tax is paid.
This levels the price disparity between junk & quality and provides the makers with an incentive to make better quality products.
Europe has one but it is called something different, from memory it is a disposal or recycling tax or something along that line.
In any case it would mean that Briggs / AYP / MTD could continue making junk and provide the government with a lot of money or make good stuff at a higher profit.

The real criminals are the Lowes / harbour Freight / Wallmart types of shops who demand cheaper prices from the factories than they can produce for.
The factories have no choice but to supply for that price because the retailers can just replace the local product with a fully imported cheaper product .
As the market sales volume is fairly well fixed every imported mower sold is one less local mower sold and right now the margins at the bottom end are so fine that a few thousand lost sales could push the factories into bankruptcy.

The problem is free market theory is based on some very highly flawed assumptions which is why it needs the government to step in with some moderations.
If you troll through these posts you will notice that Joe Public has less than no idea about how to compare & make a product selection on quality & durability grounds.
Thus the foundation premise of free market theory , "The market is well informed " is not true s "the market" does not have the understanding to be "well Informed"
Hence the only comparrison left to the market to base their decisions on is price & colour.
Thus whoever brings out the cheapest mower every season will outsell all others , so they get the volume production discounts and the others make a loss.
 
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