I think it is asking too much of a residential mower to lift flattened grass that has been run over by a car. I'm not a mower expert but my Honda couldn't do that, either. Maybe if the grass is real long laying down and you have the mower on a low setting it might help, but you don't want to do that.

I was talking about the blades of grass being flattened by being run over by the wheels on the mower :). Tire tracks probably wasn’t the best way to describe it!! Sorry about the confusion. The grass is honestly just laying down from walking and running the mower over it.

Last year I replaced the blade with the exact same one it came with. The Toro dealer didn’t have any suggestions to solve my issue.

The model number for your mower is above the right rear tire. You appear to be using the mulch plug. Have you tried varying the height of cut? Sometimes even just dropping the rear a notch may make a difference. This link will get you Toro parts. There will be a tab that will show accessories. Or under parts may list something other than the standard blade. https://lookup3.toro.com/partdex/index.cfm?xCaller=Toro

Got any pics of your lawn? If the grass lays down from a wheel and doesn't come up enough to be mowed it might be dehydrated... or wet grass.

It is common in the spring for grass to be like that when mowed. It will probably get better as the summer approaches.

Or if it lays down under the wheels, it might be too much time between mows and the grass is too long. It's easy to let the grass get away from you in spring (I did it this year myself!)

You can try mowing against the grain to lift it. I had to do that the one time I let it go a bit too long in a few areas where it simply wouldn't cut properly.

That'll also improve toward summer as growth slows, the grasses dry and lighten a bit, and the grass thins out a touch.

Thank you for the tips and troubleshooting ideas. I discovered the deck had quite a bit of buildup - which surprised me since I had cleaned it out recently. I think with the wet weather and the grass growing so quickly, I didn’t realize it had become a problem. Cleaning that out made a big difference but still not great.

Normally I like to mow the lawn pretty high, but maybe that is a bad idea when it’s wet. I decided to mow a little shorter and pick up the clippings - the lawn looks better. I live in the Pacific Northwest so it can be very wet in the spring.

I do think some of my trouble spots are an issue with the grass too - in some areas it seems to be growing sideways with reedy, type stems down low and only green blades at the ends. Not sure if it’s because I let it get to long OR the mower isn’t pulling it so it developed this sideways growth habit OR I have a weedy grass invading.