In my opinion the Honda HRU194 is about as good as rotary mowers get, flatlinerz. Bought new it is severely over-priced, but an excellent product.
Quite a high proportion of Honda mowers are bought by contractors, who tend to get rid of them when they are starting to show signs of wear. There is something of an industry among certain mower repairers, tidying them up well enough to make them salable. I suspect this may have happened to yours. If the mower is ex-contractor, it may be in the early stages of burning oil (emitting a little bit of blue smoke, especially in the first seconds when cold-started). Ex-contractor Hondas also often have cracks in the aluminium bases.
