"I bought this machine thinking that it would be a reliable machine for cutting my 1.7 acre lot. The first year, I had no problems at all. The second year, I noticed some slippage on hills that I thought was the drive belt. This year, I found out that the K46 hydrostatic transmission is an absolute piece of junk and a large number of John Deere customers are trying to launch a class action lawsuit against John Deere because of this problem with all of the John Deere riding lawn tractors up to the 300 series. Save your money and don't buy any lawn tractor with a Tuff Torq hydrostatic transmission."

"Bought the LA175 at Lowes. Worked well for the first summer. The deck is 54" wide and gives great rollover protection on hills-especially when set at 3" cutting height. BUT, I noticed oil on the floor of the garage in the transaxle area. After mowing one hot day I parked it and heard a 'gurgling' and saw oil boiling out the vent on the trans. I did a Google search and found people were having many problems with this set-up. In fact I was pretty fortunate that mine worked at all. It's now 2012 and I plan to drop the axle, change the oil and replace it with synthetic to see if that helps. If I can get a couple more years out of it I'll scrap the frame and body and use the deck with a smaller motor and pull it with a 4WD four wheeler. "

"Use this for mowing, aerating and general lawn care on a 4 acre property. Performance has generally been acceptable. Engine, comfort and turning radius are good. Deck has been an issue. Tends to sling the belt occasionally and the idler bracket is not reinforced at the bend. It broke and when I welded it back together, added additional reinforcement. There is not enough resistance in the throttle control so the engine won't maintain any mid-range throttle speed, only full RPM stays in place. So using a cart or just riding it around is a little annoying."