The $10,000 lawn mower

[midnight armadillo]

Anyone ever think that America deserves its fate when oil supplies someday go into decline?.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704575304575296833523847028.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read
Cutting-edge designs start at around $3,000 and go for more than $10,000—or roughly the cost of a 2010 Nissan Versa.

Hustler Turf Equipment offers the $10,000-plus commercial "Super Z" mower, which can jet along at 15 mph and has enough mechanical brawn to cut grass 40 hours a week. The price tag hasn't deterred residential customers, who "simply want the biggest, baddest mower on the block," says marketing director Adam Mullet.
...
For others, a mower upgrade is tinged with a little neighborly competition. "Most of us are guilty of trying to get the yard to look better than our neighbors. That goes right along with equipment having to be cooler than the neighbors," says Jim Bednar, a senior marketing manager for MTD Products Inc.'s Cub Cadet brand.

[brewens]

1. It's amazing the people that use a yard service that really can't

afford it. My girlfriends daughter lives in a lower middle class neighborhood and I can't believe the people there that pay to have their yards mowed. My dad and the guys on our block when I were kids, would never have done that. Even the dentist next door, by far the richest guy on the block, mowed his own yard.
Of course the yard duties were turned over to the kids when we were old enough. It was a great day, or so I thought, when I was promoted from picking up the dog doo, to mowing. My dad thought it was too no doubt. He cheerfully picked up after the dog and let me do the two hours worth of mowing.
I'm totally disgusted with my girlfriends son in law. The state pays to help feed his kids and he goes and plays golf and pays to have his yard mowed.

[PJPhreak]

2. Most of my neighborhood...

Uses one of these,



I use this...



The idea of "Keeping up with the Jones" on a lawnmower is Stupid!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. I lived in rural area where a lawn tractor with additional attachments was required

I had a snow blower and a plow blade on mine in addition to the mower. It came with the house and I sold it with the house.

Today I have none of the above.

[mitchum]

11. You will have to pry my father's Deere ftom his cold, dead, sunburned hands

[BlueJazz]

3. I have TWO large Lawn mowers and am damn proud of it.

[Selatius]

4. When did competition for competition's sake replace competiton to advance humanity?

I'm all for people having the freedom to choose and buy whatever they want, and I believe people should be free from unfair competition and monopolies, but at the same time, competition and functioning markets should be encapsulated in a broader framework that puts humanity and decency and progress first, not competition for ego's sake and certainly not for profit's sake alone.

[Lisa0825]

5. I just mowed my yard today... took me 3 hours to recover...

Here in Texas, mowing a large yard can easily give you heat stroke. I had to mow in 20 minute intervals, and then rest for 20 minutes at a time.

I have often thought of paying a service, but 2 things stop me... 1) I am cheap. 2) The reason I hate it is because it is such hard work, but then I pay to belong to a gym I rarely use. So I made the deal that I could start paying a service when I actually start going to the gym regularly. It hasn't happened yet.

I have a relatively cheap mower... cost about $235 a few years ago. It is electric, and I like it much better than my previous gas models.

[midnight armadillo]

6. I have an electric one

It was a gift from friends. Their yard was too big for it. Works perfectly on my half grass/half clover lawn.

[rucky]

7. Ridiculous for private ownership, but

that could be a turnkey business investment for an enterprising person.

[devilgrrl]

8. Get an Acoustic!

[Scurrilous]

12. Bought one a year ago.

Now I don't have to worry about gas, oil, spark plugs, etc.

And it never breaks down. :thumbsup:

[Warren DeMontague]

9. For that much money, it better double as a blower

and I don't mean leaves and snow.

[Obamanaut]

13. I have a Snapper zero turn mower for my four acres. I would not

consider a Beaver Cleaver type push mower or a 22" cut mower.

[MadHound]

14. Frankly I would love to have a $10,000 mower,

Preferably a 700 series Grasshopper zero turn with a five or six foot deck, and a diesel engine so that I can burn biodiesel. Of course what I want is around thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars, but it would make short work out of my five acres that I have to mow.

I understand that too many people are getting too much mower for their yard. But there are people like myself who actually need mowers like this, so don't rip on everybody for owning a big mower.

[midnight armadillo]

15. Well that raises the question...

Why maintain 5 acres of yard? Get some sheep instead of a mower if that much grass is somehow so important to look at.