The few of you guys who are OBSESSED with which tranny is in what model seem like geeks who know all the stats but cant play the sports to save your hides. I am not talking about a guy like the OP who just wants to know to try to compare things accurately. Maintenance, and repair costs are influenced more by prudent operation and proactive maintenance than what tranny is in what LAWN TRACTOR. If you need to work it more than a little bit, get a GT not an LT. Or go slow and be careful and even a POJ like my 86 LT 12/38 will do just fine. The clerks are tought to steer ground engagers to GTs, as they should be. Would it be better if they could rap with you all about what tranny is in what model? OF COURSE!! Did all you all know even more than what they taught you about the stuff for your first job? I have stood inside the lawn and garden dept at Sears 1438 for several hours several times over the last couple of decades, and while an occasional commnet is so glaring in its inaccuracy I MUST intervene, most of the clerks (all the careerists)get almost all of what they say RIGHT. Just MHO but the smug tone a few here use to describe these clerks shows the critics to be impertinent prissy, nitpicky, condescending snobs. Retail may induce vacuum, and Sears may induce bigger vacuum, but no need to Lord it over retail clerks! If they are not lowly, the criticism is unjustified. If the clerk is lowly, what does it prove to get off criticizinf them. Save that smack for private chats with your homeboys you hosers.

I bought a 1995 Acura Legend in 1998 with 32,000 miles on it. It was a 36-month lease turn-in and was literally in PERFECT condition. It sat unsold on the Acura dealerâs used lot because it was the least expensive model, the L 4-door, with cloth interior and 5-speed manual transmission. But it was exactly what I wanted, White with Taupe interior, Bose stereo, Power seats with memory and (the best part) the sweetest 200hp 3.2L V6 Iâve ever experienced! I paid $26,000 out-the-door, which felt like a fortune at the time (I was 23). I drove it 40-50k miles per year until I was t-boned by a commercial truck in August 2005. It had just turned 329,000 miles at the time and didnât burn a drop of oil (synthetic), the clutch had only been replaced once and the transmission shifted like new. Other than scheduled maintenance, the only thing I ever had to replace was the A/C compressor and two ABS sensors. The impact was so hard the passenger-side door panel ended up breaking my right hand and forearm (it was in the middle of the car). The rearview mirror broke loose during the crash and hit me in the head just above my right ear. It left most of the glass mirror fragments in my head and took 38 staples to close the wound! I also had damage to two discs in my cervical spine that required a 3-level c-spine fusion the following year. But I was able to recover from all of those injuries, which was pretty amazing considering how bad my poor Legend looked. I bought a 2006 Mazda3 Hatchback to replace it in December 2005. Eight years later, Iâm just past 190,000 miles and going strong!

Pricing an appliance is way more complex than the stuff cost me X, the labor was X, overhead was X, marketing is X, and I want X margin and profit. Antss: Why? Spacecraft and rocket bids are priced that way. What makes an appliance more complex than a space vehicle? (I could speculate on an answer since you say it is, but I'd like to know what precisely you believe makes appliance pricing so complex.) And, chipshot, Mercedes is trying to overcome the "damage" they did to their profile when they proferred versions to cater to the large mid-range market. Across the board they're now doing things to reverse that impression that this is anything but a top-dollar exclusive brand. Now, not all of their advertised efforts are anything more than mere market-mouthing rather than real engineering enhancements but the fact remains that this correction is something Merc is actively engaged in. Not, mind you, that I decry them either their lower end lines nor their marketing attempts to re-establish their exclusivity - after all, the Merc-McLaren (okay, so it is now defunct but whatever) or the engines they make for Pagani Zonda should absolve them of all crimes. No? ;-)

I need 2 or 3 boxes of American Olean "Earthscapes Rainforest" tile-18"x18" in the "green family". kandee2blake@gmail.com Thanks!!!!