I have a neighborhood hardware store that carries A.O.Smith and State water heaters and they are consistently 10% lower price than the local Lowes store. On top of that, the hardware offers free same day delivery for up to 10 miles from the store.

I just shopped it out, and ended up with Sears. During the process, I realized it would be less expensive for us to run a new 220 v line and go with electric - we had propane before which has gone way up in price. Check your operating costs on the gas unit before you decide.

Please do not buy an AO Smith or State (same company) water heater. Today we replaced our second State water heater in 7 years. The first one lasted about 2.5 years and the second lasted 4.5 Hardly what I call a decent quality product.
The first was replaced under warranty, BUT I had to pay for labor. This one was not covered at all as the warranty clock began with the first heater which totally screws the consumer.

Today we installed a Bradford White 75 gallon tank with a 6 (how crummy is that?) year warranty. Our plumber --who had nothing to do with the two State heaters--feels that the Bradford White is a much better quality product. Coincidently our neighbors replaced theirs about 3 months ago using a different plumber & chose a Bradford White too. I'm hopeful that it's the best product in our category. I certainly hope so, $2k is a hell of a price! For us installation is an issue as the heater is located in a niche at the top of the garage stairs plus we're in So.Cal. Good luck!

Obviously there is more to this story than what meets the eye.

I couldn't begin to count how many A.O. Smith water heaters I have installed and I find them to be very reliable, in fact I installed 160 A.O.Smith 60gal gas fired contractor grade water heaters in one apartment complex in the year 2000 and have not had a single failure yet.

You seem to be put out by the fact that the warranty clock began with the original water heater but that is common throughout the industry. The manufacturer sold you a water heater and warranted it for for parts or replacement for 6yrs and they honored that agreement, what more do you want?

I'm sorry that you have to live in S.California but that is a choice that you made, personally I would never make that mistake.