"aemeijers" wrote in message
...
wrote:
(long and educational explanation snipped)

Wow- you folks up north sure do have a lot more choices than we do down
here, leastways if we don't want to take a weekday off to shop. I am
curious, what price does a typical 24" 2-stage run up there?

BTW, I didn't buy mine at the Borg. I bought it off Craig'sList,
essentially brand new, from a small-framed fellow who was pretty clearly
scared of it. 100 bucks cheaper than new, which was around 600 at the
time. I did do a lot of shopping around though, at least at the places
that were open on Saturday around here. Only difference between brands
seemed to be color and decals. The 'Fisher-Price' rubber-auger singles,
the 24", and the 26", all had a single model available. I'm sure that if I
was doing driveways for a living, it wouldn't hold up as well as a
thousand-dollar machine, but for my little 20x60 driveway, it seems to be
holding up fine. And my back feels a whole lot better in winter.

--
aem sends....

For $600 Cdn you get a "power broom." A decent machine is going to cost
$1600 or more. The toy machines are about $900 to $1100.