Unfortunately, there's a lot of businesses out there that do the same thing, and especially to women. One of my female customers came over with a Rover/Briggs mower one day to see if I had a replacement engine because she was told by a local mower service that the engine had seized. They tried selling her a new one, but she couldn't afford it. All it was, was the mesh on the flywheel had come loose, got chewed up by the flywheel, and had jammed. You could even see it! $20 later, and she left with a very big smile, and a severe hatred for the mower service.
As far as Honda's go, I have a high regard for them. I had a pressure cleaner with a GX160 a while back where the piston was rusted solid due to it being washed without the spark plug. I pulled the head off, and got almost a handfull of rust buildup from the bore. The bore was rather pitted as well. I gave it a bit of a hone, but couldn't get all the pitting out so I just put it back together. Believe it or not, I started it easily, and it blew next to no smoke!
That was 4 years ago, and it's still going strong!
