The Honda for sure. Their engines are legendary.

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New Honda. I have one, bought from mowers-direct. Excellent service and amazing machine.

which model?

Honda, just make sure there’s no excessive gimmicks that could break on it.

Honda won’t die til you do. And it might decide to keep living after that, too.

That said, the Toro prolly has a Briggs motor on it which are also quite reliable.

Honda HRX217VKA

I can tell you that the Toros are really good too. You easily take it apart, clean it and be good to go for a long time.

thank you

thats what ive been reading

entry level from home depot with 4.6/5 reviews

then im getting the toro cuz i will not die till the mower does mama aint raise no bitch lol

my dad bought an older one with the tecumesh engine or whatever its called easy as hell to work on but man its sensitive

I’m with ya my guy but don’t underestimate them Hondas 😂

I have a Honda my father in law gave me. It is now at least 25 years old. Starts on first pull, doesn't burn oil, and runs strong. I ran a lawn service and used Toro. They also are bullet- proof but the Honda is new so that wins.

So Honda or toro 😛

Cut lawns for 10 years. Both are great companies. Buy the toro, replace the spark plug, oil and fuel filter (should do this every year with any lawnmower you get) and it'll run forever

Can’t go wrong with a Honda engine. Just make sure to follow the maintenance schedule and I can almost promise it will outlast you.

Someone more versed than me in small engines may be able to pipe in, but I personally went with a Toro with a Briggs motor when it was time to replace my poor quality Husqvarna mower from Lowes. My research found that the newer Honda engines weren’t living up to their reputation, at least on the consumer grade products. Newer design for lower sound/lower emissions apparently isn’t as stout as the prior generation. Pretty much any sub-$800 Honda mower had this newer design, so I went with the $500ish Toro SuperRecycler. Add oil, change the air filter, and replace the spark plug, as long as you clean it up well after each use it’s pretty low maintenance. I forgot to add stabilizers to my fuel last winter and forgot to drain the tank, it started up on the 2nd crank this spring.

One thing I’ll say regarding the BIFL aspect, is from the tinkering I’ve done the Briggs motors have a lot more resources readily available for you to make repairs. The other thing other downside I found to the particular Honda you’re referencing is the composite deck. My particular yard has lots of stone/brick features that would probably crack the Honda deck (watched YouTube reviews that showed this happening on 1st/2nd use by unsuspecting owners) but with a steel or aluminum deck I can just hammer and dolly it back without worrying about structural integrity.

What motor is in the toro? This is obviously a huge factor in the decision. Some toros have Honda engines. Best to be clear on what model. I just finally laid to rest a 1972 Toro with weekly mows and terrible servicing on my families behalf and it still cut like butter.

Both brands are really good. The Toro is probably simpler to maintain. Those Briggs motors are very reliable. Most of the time, when an old Toro won't start, it's because someone was dumb about not draining the fuel, and even then, new carbs are cheap and easy.

Briggs & Stratton. It’s more of $100 used vs 450 new Honda

If it all looks clean and not too old I’d take the Briggs Toro man. 1/5th the price and they are known to last. Worst case it lasts many many years and you upgrade when it fails. What upside is there to buy a new one now? The Briggs might last a decade or more at 1/5 the price.

The only thing is Honda is gonna stop producing lawn mowers next year

Of course it matters what kind of financial position you are in but what does the extra 400 get you that the cash couldn’t go to something else to help your life? Briggs makes phenomenal engines. You prob won’t notice a difference for many years.

They are stopping producing the deck not the engines. It is the engine that is really what matters. Anyone can toss together a metal shell. That’s not the bifl failure point. You’ll still be able to buy a Honda engine toro for instance (best of both).

Honestly you can’t go wrong either way. I actually recently found a Toro in my neighbors shed when I was looking for a ladder. It was completely covered and hidden with s tarp. I asked him about it and he claimed it didn’t work. He’s in his mid 60s using a tiny push mower. So I thought I might try to get it working again. I watched a couple of YouTube videos on the Briggs and Stratton engines, I actually have a Honda. But I took it apart and cleaned the Carb and adjusted everything to get the self propelled function working right. Everything seemed a bit loose, so I just tightened it up. Changed the spark plug, filter and oil and she cranked right up. I pulled it back over to my neighbors and gave it back to him. He was really happy and sort of surprised. Said it was sitting in the for 5 years or so.

But it seemed really easy to work on. There are loads of YouTube videos for different things

I have a new one with the blade shut off feature. It’s a great machine so far just found a deal on marketplace for it in November new hardly used

Have you ever drove a toro

The Honda, but you still need to take care of it a bit. Toro isn't bad but you don't know if it was ever cared for or ran over a ton of wire lol.

Just get the toro, maintenance on them is cheap.

Yes with the tecumesh engine

Either will last if maintained. You'll have things that break and need repaired, eventually substantial repairs but both should still be solid.

However as someone who works in the turf grass industry I wouldn't get a Toro if I didn't need to. They're sometimes a pain in the ass to wrench on and the parts will probably cost more.

Fund a used Honda for $200?

Been looking used Hondas don’t go for 200, 350 min I’ve seen

Honda makes a damn good engine, I'll tell you that much. My '99 Honda drove 317,324 miles before the transmission died. I'm convinced the engine could have gone another few hundred grand.

Either one would probably last a long time, but you can't put off the maintenance. These engines have carburetors, and you should practice proper storage procedures if your'e going to not use them, and occasionally clean them. This is trivial and youtube makes it even easier than ever. But seriously, 90% of all lawnmowers that "break" are just because people treat them like shit and modern gas goes stale and starts gumming things up fast.

Growing up my parents had a like 20 year old toro they bought used. It worked great. I’m the one that killed it. I cut a sapling out and didn’t cut it close enough to the ground. It was big enough that when I hit it mowing it stopped the blade and bent the crank. That was probably 20 years ago. The replacement toro from that incident is still going strong.