"My Iseki was not a 'new' purchase, but it had a little less than 500 hours on it. I must say that while the engine, transmission and linkage departments have been trouble-free, it's the "add-ons" which have given trouble. The amount of 'stuff' packed into what is already a crowded chassis which, at first glance, would seem to be really good features, can prove to be a plain nuisance. I've written about my adaptation of the underneath mower deck to an 'out front', offset setup which works well. However, the underneath 'works' seem to be a whole lot of afterthoughts and a bit of improvisation. The 'let's hang a mower underneath' thinking seems to be the case. The driveline used splined shafting, transmitting by universal or cardan joints/shafts and this should be a good system. The whole drive broke in a big, expensive way, due in some measure, in my opinion, to the 20-or-so degree angles the shafting was being asked to drive through. A little research had me pretty well convinced that that's about 15 degrees more than should be allowed. I tripped over what is quite a good mower deck, once it came out from under the tractor, until finally scrapping the drive altogether. I kept the 'step-up' gearbox - and fitted a 13HP engine for blade drive. I push it 'out the front' of the tractor. The front deck is offset and coupled with a towed PTO-driven rear 5ft deck, the mowed swath is around seven feet. That wasn't the first problem with the deck. The deck wheels and axles needed 'proper' bearings and lots of attention to the caster swivels and they all needed serious attention to water and dirt resistance. The deck drive had vibrated itself to pieces, ruining the oil seals in the mid-PTO gearbox, which was removed and plated over. Before that, though, the wonderful 'air seat' self-destructed, taking with it the whole sheet-metal floor pan. The seat itself was retained, but it's suspension was scrapped. More than one or two of the welds had broken. The floor pan was scrapped, as was much of the 'fancy' cowling around the operating levers. The seat was remounted on a pair of slides, the seat position was also lowered and given much more room to slide, which suited me, as I'm 6'-3" and had always had trouble 'fitting' behind the wheel. Yes, the ride's a lot rougher than it was, but the lower seat feels a lot more secure and the extra legroom means I don't bump the ignition key switch with my knee: 'engine-off' in a sharp turn is something not really needed. The fuse box mounted under the steering binnacle fell off and had to be re-mounted. The hydraulic lines to the cooler tank---part of the radiator---were secured with bits of rubber hose, presumably to allow the lines to 'move'. The rubber perished and the lines were re-constructed without the bits of hose. The "lashup", and that's what the original seemed to me to be, could be a lot better. In general, all the 'bits' which add-on or hang off have steadily been eliminated and now the remaining, very basic tractor; is a as good as any. I reckon, if you're contemplating a 'compact' type tractor, you look vary carefully at the 'add-ons', as they'll set you back a lot of extra dollars. I don't confine this observation to Iseki alone. In thirteen years, I've looked at a few others and while the basic tractors are, in the main, very good, the add-ons let 'em down. A towed, PTO-powered deck is a lot easier maintenance proposition than an underneath type. "