And yet I see 10, 20, 30 plus year old riding mowers from John Deere, and many other brands every month. Still running, and chugging along. In my area John Deere is 25 plus % of the market for homeowners. There is nothing special about big box store John Deere mowers. They have just done a great job of marketing and branding their products.
JD, Cub Cadet, Husqvarna, and Toro are very popular in the residential riding mower market. In may area, I would say JD is #1 in the traditional residential rider market, followed by Husqvarna and Cub Cadet. They are readily available at Lowe's, Home, and Tractor Supply. JD also has a many dealerships around that sell the premium residential tractor style riders. The dealer only residential riders (tractor style) are pretty expensive and consumers can buy other brands of dealer sold residential zero turns for less money