I'm probably preaching to the choir Bob, but what counts is the design and design execution, not the price. If it has low-grade engineering like that roll pin in more critical places - like inside the drive-axle - it can be a piece of semi-mobile scrap whatever its list price.

A long time ago my grandfather on impulse bought me an old junk car (a 1937 Austin "Big Seven") for the equivalent of $10. My father told me that if I'd put a plastic body on it and make it into a sports car, he'd pay all the costs and help with the work. A couple of years later it was finished and very nearly useless, for three reasons. First, the original design was ill-suited to any kind of high performance outcome. Second, it was worn out in every imaginable respect and parts were not available. Third I got carried away and over-tuned it (engine pic attached).

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I told my father that for the same amount of money, work and time we could have restored an XK120 Jaguar and upgraded its engine to D type specification. He just shrugged - I'd had the learning experience he wanted while doing the conversion, and that was all he cared about.

If the whole of this mower has lousy engineering and has been hammered into the ground, like the height adjuster, you may be about to have a learning experience without any other point.