Just a difference of opinion here. I have been doing my own yard and property for over 40 years and I recently had to replace my gas string trimmer. I heard over the years Stihl was the best. I bought a 55R (i believe it was) and from the first day I used it I noticed several irritating things about it, i.e., jerky compression pull start (developed elbow soreness from it), idled crappy, short string length when fed and cut by the shield, and when i turned it upside down to edge along my curbs the string guard was way too big and I couldn't see the actual trim work being done, and the so called automatic string head was supposed to be worry free. Well it got to the point I had to return it after 30 days and explained about the head not feeding and I had to manually turn it off and remove the string and restring..i suggested a refund, they asked that I try a new string head and I did. same issues occurred, not to mention the lousy features i think stihl has mentioned above (but no fault of the dealer).
i took it back and got a full refund (good dealer) and went and bought an Echo 255I "easy start" with the latest self feed string head. it was like going from a toy trimmer with the stihl to a commercial model....the idle is smooth, guard is about 1/3 size, unbelievably easy to start, feed line is about 2 inches longer and feeds great, etc. Best return/refund/repurchase i have had in a very long time!
thanks for reading