[chachee52]

My dad had a Toro 524 that we bought in 1986 (I remember because he bought it at the end of the worst snow fall in years and I had to shovel the entire winter). this is still running so I went and bought the Toro 526. Works great!! One pull start also has the electric start if you want to use it, but I've never needed to on either machine.
I looked at the Simplicity when I was looking. Basically if you are doing a TON of snow removal they said that that was the machine to get, it was also a little more expensive than the Toro. If I were to get another, I'd opt for the next bigger Toro because I redid my driveway and have retaining walls around it and it's three plus cars wide. The 5 series doesn't throw as far as I'd like, but it does a great job with heavy and wet snow!!!!