As I said it all comes down to who is working on the machine. I am a collector of them these days but i did 6 years in a mower shop. while there are some things that can take longer on the greenfield, the overall build quality is far superior to anything imported.
Unfortunately now you cannot buy an Australian made ride on any more, since greenfield finished up and now Cox are 100% imported.
I do see where you are coming from, but hydro machines do come with their own set of problems.
Being that the drive was sticky from new that should have been a warranty issue. sounds like something was missing or done wrong when it was assembled, as usually sticky drive only happens much later in the life of the machine.
