The same engine model is the same on all brands - they design the mowers around the engine. Still, all mowers are not created equal - there are good and not so good. You left out a number of brands with Honda engines, not the least of which are some Toros and Lawn-Boys - these would be my favorite non-Hondas. However, mower performance has little to do with the engine brand. Briggs and Stratton is the predominant engine, being pushed hard by Honda engines. You also find Kawasaki engines, but the most important feature of a mower is how it cuts/mulches/bags grass. Honda, Toro/Lawn-Boy, Snapper and a few others make their own mowers and have commercial models for serious use. I think you will have the greatest performance and satisfaction from most any of their offerings. A price leader is the Lawn-Boy rear wheel drive you find at Home Depot with B&S engine and simple, dependable drive.

Ditto what saxman said. I'll add that, if you go with Snapper, choose one of the Ninja mulching models sold only at Snapper dealers. They're better designed and made with more robust components than the entry-level Snapper units sold at Sears (and Snapper dealers).

Ditto above but for all brands. The dealers generally have better quality units. Pop has a $700 Snapper from a dealer, a solid, well built machine but it is the worst mulcher I haveever used. Try a Personal Pace or Harmony...

The engine are all GCV160, no difference. But the rest of the mower can be very different. My Troybilt is Craftsman. I have it for less than 2 years, now one of the wheel is dangling, the deck was out of shape from hitting something and I have to hammer it back. About the only thing that hold up is the crappy B&S Quantum engine.

What is a "Troy Bilt made by Craftsman"? I have one of those Honda 160 GCV's on my current Craftsman mower, which I purchased back in 2000. I have an hour meter on it, and it just passed the 500 hour mark. The engine has been just fine; I change the oil once a year, at about 60 hours, and it has yet to use a drop of oil in this 60 hour OCI. I have used Mobil One 5W30 in previous years, when I had a small stash of the SL Mobil One, but I have now changed to the Mobil One 10W30 High Mileage oil, which is still SL.

I am an old man, shortly to be 73. I have usually had Craftsmen mowers, and gotten very good service out of them. I have only been in a high end mower shop twice in my life. First time,back in about 1986, I bought a Toro with the Suzuki 4 cycle engine. It lasted about two years and then the wheel adjusters just seemed to fall apart. I immediately gave it away and went back to my old Sears mower. I bought a new Craftsman in 1995, and by 2000 it needed a new carb. I gave it to my son who got it fixed and is still using it now.

That's when I purchased my current mower. Just prior to this purchase, I really wanted a Honda so I went to the Honda dealer. I wanted one of the models with the 160 GCV engine, which ran about $500. They were very contemptuos of me for wanting this mower instead of one of their $800 or $900 models. I left there as fast as I could, went to Sears and got my present Craftsman with the Honda engine for about $290.

In the last 9 years, I have had to make a couple of repairs. The transmission gave out after 5 years, and I replaced it myself for $75. The new one came already made onto a new axle, and it has worked perfectly for the last 4 years. Around that same time, over a period of a couple of years, I replaced all four wheels, at a cost of $58. They may have made a mistake on the cost of the drive wheels, as I paid $11 each about 4 years ago, and I notice that they are now $28 each. I replaced them because they had worn smooth and lost traction. I replaced the rear wheels because they split apart about a year apart.

So, counting repairs, I have put about $430 into this mower. No problems with the chassis bending, handle bending, or rusting out. There is a small hole that has worn in one corner of the grassbag. I use this mower year 'round, cleaning up leaves and such all thru the winter. That's how I put 60 hours a year on it.