small lawn tractor/mower recommendations?

[forgop]

Originally Posted by wayner123

A note about John Deere, while great machines, they are usually more costly to repair. YMMV, but if you plan to do maintenance or repair yourself it can play into overall costs.

One other thing-the John Deere tractors you see at Home Depot (and for the most part, even at JD dealerships) is that they don't make them like they used to. I grew up mowing with a JD 318 and loved it. It was a HEAVY garden tractor, which I think was somewhere around 900 lbs give or take. Try finding an actual garden tractor like that nowadays period, let alone in a low price point. What you'll most likely end up with is MTD/Cub Cadet type of stuff with green paint on it.