This is an excellent saw. The detents are accurate. Unlike the Dewalt saw, you cannot alter the detents, but that's only really needed with sliding mitre saws. Mine was assembled in Japan, I think. The sliding Makita mitres saws are Chinese products — stay away from them (I took mine back because the angles were out).

To make my saw better, I swapped out the stock blade for a "Bluemak" 64 toothed blade, for finer cuts (I make picture frames).

Very easy to use even for someone with no real skills like me. Makes all my previous mitres & cuts (before buying this saw) look quite bad.
No adjustment needed out of the box, plugged it in and started cutting.
Clamp system is good, nice positive stops on the angle adjustments.
Soft start would be nice but can live without that.
Standard blade is quite wide & coarse but done a nice job on hardwood so far with little splintering, will change to a thinner higher tooth count blade once this one starts to wear.
Stores away in a compact space on a shelf & light enough to pull out & use without any hassle.
Wish I'd bought this a few years ago.

Two days of use and the button for the safety switch fell out!
The Makita LS1017 sliding compound saw has the same design.
Both models on display in my local Bunnings were also missing these bottoms so obviously poor design.
This design defect is disappointing for a $400 product. Shame!

I was putting up a wall. Had a cheap Ryobi that died, the wife said get a new one, read some reviews, spoke to some friends, bit the bullet and bought it. Words fail me, the cuts were perfect. Put up architraves around 3 windows that afternoon. So pleased! Makita makes great tools, dependable, rugged and do the job. I am no brilliant carpenter but the Makita drop saw makes building so easy.

Very happy with this saw, the laser helps greatly with cutting where you want to cut and I saved my self a lot of money on the one job I initially purchased this saw for. My confidence has grown as a result and the saw will see more use which will again see me save even more money, and so on! Very happy with this purchase so far. A portable saw stand would be nice to have, but not necessary for infrequent use.

Borrowed a mate's to use it on some fixes I had to do around the house, it worked a treat. Makes a jigsaw look like a pair of scissors, my jigsaw anyway, and everything is cut smoothly and directly.
Bought one and haven't looked back since, a bit pricey but definitely worth it.
Reliable, Time efficient (get work done quicker)
Bit Loud, Scary if you've never used saws before but it has a guard.

enjoying my new purchase from total tools...
1 month old.....my button in the hand piece/trigger for safety start...has taken off.
where has it gone ?
made in china makita....says it all !
where do i get the button /release pin from.
no back up service.....

TOTAL TOOL.....TOTAL LOSS....IT WON'T GO !

Safety start pin pops off and disappears....goes back to china an you can't use the saw....

This was purchased because I was sick of using a hand saw. I wanted a quality product that would last.
Makes my wife impressed when I build stuff now, my home renos don't look like homer simpson's spice rack.
Is very loud and can be scary if you're not used to power tools

I considered all the compound saws on the market ranging from your 99 dollars bunnigns special through to the 2000 dollar rippers. I made a decision to go for the makita at $899. I'm glad I did cos it's been great. Go the Makita!
Without a doubt one of the best compound mitres saws on the market today. The angles are precise and the quality of the build is fantastic. The blade that comes standard is sharp and stays sharp for a long time.
Nothing apart from the high price of them. They do hold their value well though