Have been looking at this model for several months, good reviews, now discontinued(?). Any idea why discontinued? Found one but checking further before I buy
Husqvarna announced in the later part of 2018 that they were getting out of the consumer rider and push mower market and were going to concentrate on the Z turn market and handheld products in the Husqvarna name line. Agreed to fulfill contracts for the 2019 growing season.
Looks like a tough well built lawn tractor at a great price. But like ILENGINE replied they're getting out of market, which is sad to hear as they make reliable equipment for the residential & commercial markets.
When every one of their major customers like McCulloch, Craftsaman , Roper , Yard Pro etc can buy an identical looking ride on mower from China for $ 425 ex- wharf, or walk behinds from as low as $ 25 ex-wharf the writing is on the wall for their factory AYP.
Noma who made ride ons for Husqvarna & Murray who made both ride ons and walk behinds for Husqvarna are also gone
They either have to match that price by making their product even cheaper (almost impossible ) or make it substantially better and convince the cheapskate USA population that it is worth the $ 1500 more than an identical looking mower sitting on the floor of Walmart / Lowes / HF ,or similar too cheap for their or the countries own good retailers ( very risky ) .
ZTR's are substantially cheaper to make , just flat or rolled cheap Chinese steel cut & welded together with a bought in engine & two wheel motor units .
The steel can be cut with robots then welded by robots and with some cleaver design about the only thing a human is needed for is to run the wiring , so no problems churning out 1000 units a day in season & nothing in the off season , less land, less floor stock a lot more profit with less capital outlay & no long term liabilities , just what the dividend seekers demand.
If they sell enough of them they can force the engine & wheel unit suppliers to give them a better price, or just send some over to China to be pirated by Chinese factories.
Those not involved in manufacturing fail to understand that a set of press dies for a steel hood will go from $ 100,000 to $ 300,000 before a single sheet of steel is bent into shape.
The price for a set of "cheap" plastic moulds would run to double if not triple the press dies .
Thus you have to run a lot of hoods through them them just to amortise the cost of the tooling alone
So China has won another battle in the war to financially destroy the USA , done it with USA money and with the blessings of the flag waving patriots .
MTD the last volume mower manufacturer will be gone by the end of the decade for the same reason .
Looks like a tough well built lawn tractor at a great price. But like ILENGINE replied they're getting out of market, which is sad to hear as they make reliable equipment for the residential & commercial markets.
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