Mowers are a big part of my job so thought I would give some advice.
I work for John Deere so I will be seen to be a bit bias towards them,
They're are many different brands now available in Ride on and Walk Behind, some walk behind victa type mowers are self propelled, JD and Honda do a great self propelled walk behind but you can pay up to $1700 for a Honda and $1500 for a JD, sounds expensive for a mower but I know with the JD a customer had one for 20 years and only changed the blades and oil, when a wheel finally gave way he decided to buy another JD, his original one cost $1000, still a lot 20 years ago, but in real terms $50 per year, in 5 years I am on my 2nd Victa type mower as first was dearer to fix, (started here after the broke) both cost me $400 so if this lats as long as the first it will be about $100 per year, The JD and Honda have one big blade that lasts for a couple of years or more on normal mowing, the victa type have 2 small blades that are always blunt every time you need to use it, replacement blade for a JD type is about $30 and in the same time that blade lasts you would probably spend double that on blades on a standard mower.
As for Ride on's you can get many different kinds, some have ability attach catchers and or Mulchers, for a good quality 5 speed manual you should expect to pay $3500 or an automatic (forward and reverse pedal) just under $4000, with the JD you can get a bagger that holds about 6 standard lawn mower catchers of grass, again much cheaper are available, people come here for a quote and say "bugger that they're a grand cheaper down the road" when they come back to trade it after a couple of months we won't take them, they try and sell in quokka etc and loose well over half what they paid for it.
Same story, you get what you pay for, if you are buying a ride on look out for where it was made, Chinese ones are well priced but they are made from cheap components, they generally have a good name motor, but no use having a motor and the rest in bits, also with these cheaper ones, generally parts are extremely hard to get, Check how much warranty is offered, if only 3 months or 1 year generally that's when they will fail, also check what hours is in warranty, some will offer a 2 or 3 year warranty or 10 hours whichever comes first, 10 hours is not a good warranty period, and is really poor and misleading promoting.
Another thing to look for is the mowing deck and cutting width, JD comes standard with 42" cutting width, have seen some of the cheapies with 28" which is not much better than a push mower, also what material the deck is made out of, again JD has what is called a 7 iron Deck which is made of 7 pieces of steel pressed together, one cheapie sold locally had a very thin deck a small pebble hit the side and put a hole as big as a cricket ball in the side, same brand the deck twisted, possibly due to heat and the blades went through the side sending metal flying everywhere, very dangerous, in both cases 6 months waiting to get them repaired
Other styles of ride on are 4 wheel steer which are great if you have a lot of tree's but you start at $8,000 and also zero steer which you control by similar levers to a bobcat and literally turn on the spot, they start at $7500.
Seriously if your in the market hold off until you can by a name brand that has been in the game for many years, I refer to JD because it is what I know best, but there are a couple of other reputable brands, some makers offer finance packages again JD do an 18 month interest free or other terms up to 4 years, the longer the term the higher the interest, but still much better than bank loans, I am sure any good quality supplier would do the same.
But in summary read the fine print, check the warranty terms, compare construction and materials, make sure the dealer has parts like filters and blades readily available, check the quality and size of the deck and blades, some blades are that thin they are stuffed after 1 or 2 mows, good quality blades should last 30-50 hours or more which is a lot of mowing, if buying a ride on get at least a 19hp motor, these are good for home and blocks and up to 10 acres, and if you want advise PM me, I'm not posting to boost sales I know most brands and will advise accordingly, I don't like posting brand names of rubbish(although I did elsewhere in the forum) but in reality there is only around 3 brands of ride on mower worth buying, generally if newer mowers are in the quokka they are selling them because no one will trade it, if buying from classifieds still look for the name brands, but 8/10 the ones in classy's have a problem, best buy even used ones from a dealer as reputable dealers don't trade crap, maybe others can post there experiences as well.
Joel if you think this is one big ad then please delete, but it isn't intended to be
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