Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

I took a good look at an Ariens with a LCT  engine today. Does Briggs  have something going on with LCT? I see original Briggs parts on  the Ariens 208cc engine built by LCT

blumonster wrote:

A lot of Japan products have only a perceived quality.    Toyota is a good example.      They have had many hidden recalls on their cars and trucks. A friend of mine had his 2011  Camry into the dealer to have an oil and filter change.   He wondered why the service took so long to do.   After waiting for several hours, he decided to go into the garage area of the servive department.  
 He found out that they had his car's engine partially dissassembled and the bottom off the automatic transmission. .  He went to the Service Manager and it was explained to him that there were several recalls that needed to be done on the Camry.   My friend was upset because he had never received a notice about his car being recalled.  The Service Manager finally explained that Toyota has had a lot of recalls but the dealer is told to hide them and to do them when the car is in for regular service.  The reason that these recalls on the Camry were caught  was because when they worked on his car, the correct parts had not been ordered in for this particular recall.

Yes, Toyota owners stand behind their Toyota vehicles,  It is not safe to stand in front of them.

I had a Tecumseh engine on my snowblower, It only ran  reliable  for 23 years.Then I could no longer get parts for it.

carlb wrote:

So they know people do not like seeing 'made in China' label on products. Designed in :D

royster wrote:

Recalls started because American government invented a different standard for Toyota than the standard it applied on GM,Chrysler and Ford. Secretary of Transportation went on record saying not to drive Toyotas.Can you believe that?

Also outsourcing parts production to America and China played a big role in reduction of quality in Toyotas.Most recalled areas have to do with American-made parts.They do it to lower the cost of parts and it lowers the quality also.Proof? Markedly less recalls in Japan since mostly Japan-made parts are used there.

He had to eat it later when it turned out that it was some stupid drivers who could not tell accelerator from brake.

I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon and diss American or Japanese made products, but,  I can tell you that since 1990 I have owned 3 Nissan Maxima's and 2 Infiniti G35 coups, all of these were purchased new.  These cars have been rock solid and other than one of the maximas needing a window regulator replaced when it was about 9 years old all of these Nissan/Infiniti products have performed flawlessly never having to go to the dealer for service except for an O2 sensor on one of the Maximas.  I have performed all standard normal service on these cars.  The 1990 Nissan Maxima had over 265,000 miles on it as it was passed down to my son then to my nephew before it was rear ended and sent to the junk yard.

You people can say what you want about Chinese products, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I will say that the American workforce is a disgrace. Sure there are some good workers but there are many that are lazy that don't care how well they do their job. They try to get out of doing many things. Take extra breaks, long breaks, avoid certain tasks and the list is too long to put everything in this post. The saddest part of all is the companies enable them. Always an excuse. Different people have different learning curves. Not everybody works the same. People take smoke breaks outside of normal breaks all day long and are allowed to. The bosses go to human resources and they always have an excuse why nothing can be done about it. One guy was caught sleeping in his car during work hours and the boss was told that is not enough to fire him. I am just scratching the surface here. I have talked to people in other states and other companies and they have similar problems. I have seen this for years in different departments. Different people have admitted they are lazy and they screw off as much as possible. Other people over here do almost nothing and to listen to them they are working their butts off. They whine about every little thing and end up with repetitive motion. Go to some of these other countries and see how attitudes and people are different. I have met people that worked for GM years ago at a local plant that closed many years ago and they used to laugh about how little they did and how much they got paid. I will repeat this. A large part of the American work force is a total disgrace and are allowed to be that way. I don't see it changing because nothing is done to make them change and it is not going to be. I am an American by the way. With a workforce like this and it will probably continue to get worse, how does this country expect to remain the greatest country in the world? I will answer that. By words not by deeds. Most of what you buy today is made in other countries. I think this made in USA is overrated.

Garth wrote:

Same laziness can also be observed in China, but not Japan.

Import brands built in North America (all of them) are not in the same class as the same brands built in their home countries.   Our industries have a bad habit of dragging quality products down to their manufacturing level.  Rather than domestic manufacturers stepping up to meet the challenge of superior products, our governments encourage/force foreign manufacturers to build plants here and hire our people to do the work.  The foreign companies see that we run loose ships and figure that they can do the same while still making money because the products they're competing against are usually worse than them.  They see that they don't need to keep up to their "home plant" standards and we end up getting inferior products.  

I have bought nothing but Toyotas for the last 30+ years.  I drive a 1996 Toyota T100 that I bought new in '96.  It has cost me nothing in repairs.  Not one dime.  All I've done to it in fifteen years is oil changes, tires, batteries, windshield wiper blades and air filters.   It's still got it's original timing belt.  Thinking of changing it but, the engine has non-interference valve train so if it breaks, the vehicle stops but no engine damage.  So, I'm flirting with the idea just letting it run to see how long it will last.  The other belts still look to be in great shape and they don't have the protection that the timing belt does. 

Bottom line is that even the best overseas brands are now being compromised due to domestic manufacturing.  If I buy another Toyota, I will pay a premium to ensure I get one that's built in Japan.  Even if I have to buy it in a foreign country, have it shipped and certified here.  I will never buy another domestically manufactured vehicle.  

The factory wheels on my Toyota have CHINA cast on the inside of the wheel. So even Toyota is using Chinese parts

Knee_Biter wrote:
After  WW1 Japan head such a bad name nobody wanted there stuff. They named one of  ther main factory cities usa  so they can sell more to the USA. Now Japan makes high quality . Perhaps we are giving China a bad rap now.  Who knows the future .Only time will tell. I know USA has some junk for sale too. What about Russia? God knows they have snow storms, Maybe Mersadies is building snow blowers

borat wrote:

As far as I know Yaris is imported directly from Japan.But I am sure Toyota uses parts sourced outside of Japan in building Yaris.What percentage I do not know.

T100 is like Hilux?You must have seen Top Gear torture scenes involving Hilux.