"My new John Deere is awesome lots of power & the turning radius is great. The down side was the sales people (useless)."

"I finally replaced my 24 year old John Deere 160, which was had a Kawasaki 12 hp engine, and a 5 gear manual transmission. Other that always replacing starter solenoids for some reason, the little 160 gave me 24 years of cutting my half acre lot. In fact, it will continue to do so, because I sold it to my neighbor for $400.00. Anyway, back to the review of my latest purchase. I decided that seeing all I needed was a tractor to cut grass, and do the odd little job hauling a garden trailer, I really wasn't looking for anything too elaborate or overkill for my needs. Let's face it, times are hard, and we need to scrimp where we can. So I was shopping at Home Depot a while back, and came across this 2011 John Deere D-120, which boasts a 21 hp Briggs & Stratton self lubricating engine with oil filter. It has a hydrostatic transmission, and even comes with cruise control, which I don't need for the size of my cutting area, but there none the less. So far, this tractor sips gas compared to my old tractor, which is almost half the size in engine. It starts beautifully each time, hot or cold, and so far proven to be a solid tractor, considering it is an entry level lawn tractor. Remember, I only need a machine to cut grass and do small utility work, so if you need something to cut a couple of acres or more, as well as do some heavier work, you would do much better with something like the John Deere X300 or bigger, which are really commercially made, but at 3 to 4 times the price of the D120. It comes with a 2 year warranty, but so far, I've had no problems with it at all. However, when I did bring it home from HD, I tried it right away, and noticed the on uneven areas, it would scalp the grass. So I read the manual, and it explained on how to level the deck properly, which I did, because mine was really off. Took me about 10 minutes, and now it cuts the grass great, and I can't believe how great the grass looks now when I'm finished. One annoying thing though, is that you have to hit this little yellow button on the dash (RIO) if you want to mow going backwards (for safety reasons), but you get use to it fairly quickly. You just have to hold it for a second as you hit the reverse pedal, and away you go....still a pain though. So if your looking for a good reliable lawn tractor, and you have less than an acre or two, as well as for light duty work, this may be what you've been looking for. In these hard times, sometimes less is.....well, more."