"Greg O" wrote in message
...

"Robert11" wrote in message
...
Hello:

Was thinking of getting a gift for a friend of a Homelite gas string
trimmer.

Home Depot seems to sell them in the price range I'm in ($ 100 or so)

I have a 5 year old one, and it's worked pretty well.

But, i've heard that Homelite is (essentially) no longer in business, or
viable, and that
parts and repair are no longer available.

How true is this, and how concerned should I be about buying one ?

Thanks,
Bob


They are in business, pretty much in name only. They are owned by the same
Chinese conglomerate that owns Ryobi and others. Parts and service will
suck down the road. I would consider them to be a throw away trimmer, once
it breaks, toss it. Most any piece of lawn equipment sold at large chain
stores will have poor parts and service availability, there are some
exceptions.

Why not break out some more cash and buy something you can get parts for,
and also help out a local retailer? Stihl for example makes great
trimmers. A low end Stihl can be bought for around $150, and parts are
easy to find.
Greg

Why not "break out some cash and help a local retailer?" Because they suck,
their help are a bunch of high school drop outs, charge way too much to
"fix" things, try to sell me a new Stihl when they can't, and because my
"throw-away" Ryobi hasn't needed anything but trimmer line in 3 years, and
my Murray (!) riding mower hasn't needed anything in 6 years of mowing just
under an acre (compare that with my dads John Deere that needed two
transaxles in the same amount of time the first less than 3 months after he
bought it - not covered under warranty due to "abuse").
Maybe I get lucky.
tad