Spent a lot of time researching mowers and had a budget of $5k, this machine has the better transmission and the Kawasaki engine but still uses the same chassis as the D series. I always used with the mulching plug and it did a really good job, nice ride and a nice cut on a flat surface. Managed slight gradients no problem but struggled on my property which has upto 30% slopes. Overall I was impressed although it wasn't the one for me as I couldn't cut all my grass due to the gradients. I only owned for 6 months and racked up only 10hrs use so ...Read more