After having a gardener/lawn maintenance person for the past 10 years, I thought I'd start getting more involved with our home! Having said this, I just bought a new Honda HRX217VKA this morning! I had a Honda mowers years ago, when we bought our first home, and choosing Honda was automatic! Hope the quality is still them same! It seems the only drawback to the HRX217VKA is that it has a lightweight plastic/composite deck and, therefore, prone to mowing with a light front end when the bag fills up? I don't know if this is actually the case as I haven't even fired it up as yet so pardon me if I'm completely way off base! If this is the case, I'm thinking I can epoxy steel shot in the void in front of the blade area to add weight to the front of the mower. In any case, I hope to learn from you all regarding mowing!