Im aware that Toro,Lawnboy,and Troy-bilt make cheaper versions of they're mowers for the big box stores,
Where's the proof of that? The Toro I bought this year at HD looked exactly like the one I inspected at Ace Hardware.
+1. If you have proof of that, I'd like to see it.
"In 2007, the low-end lawn and garden tractor products were outsourced to be manufactured by MTD and sold at Home Depot stores"-Wiki Toro Page
"2007 - Began building the low-end lawn & garden tractors for Toro (company)
2008 - Began having a third-party company (located in China) manufacture a new line of engines for the Craftsman 2008 line of Snowthrowers. They are no longer building them with Tecumseh engines."Troy-Bilt Wiki
Ive heard that if you buy a John Deere tractor from a Big Box it comes with a Briggs, but if you buy it from a Autorized dealer it comes with a Commercial grade Kawasaki...
Its a fact that That Toro and L.B make Home Depot exclusive mowers, the L.B. comes with smaller deck then other versions...
Im not claiming to be any athourity on mowers, perhaps its bad assumptions to think versions made for retailers are of a lesser quality then if you were to buy from a authorized dealer. Ive read allot on this topic on a lawn and garden forum. But we all know how forums work, everyone claims to know everything.