We had been at the property for three weeks. We had been looking at quads, researching brands, scrolling through Marketplace trying to find something reliable that wasn't somebody else's problem waiting to happen. And somehow, through all of it, we forgot about the grass.
Ten hours of raking will do that to you
On our fourth weekend we spent the entire Saturday doing yard work. Raking out the dead leaves from abandoned garden beds, clearing around the trees, piling rocks. My wife and I moved load after load across the yard to an old fenced garden area we were using as a collection spot. Ten hours of it.
At the end of the day I stopped, looked at everything we had cleared, and said out loud: "Hey, after raking out all the dead stuff, the grass will probably pop up nice and green and tall."
Then it hit me.
We need to cut the grass.
We have a three to four acre yard around the house. Cut lines through the property. Trails. Forty acres of hay field. A push mower was not going to happen. An unreliable ride-on from Marketplace was not going to happen either — I do not have the time or energy to inherit someone else's mechanical problems right now. The quad research went on hold. Lawn tractor research started immediately.
What I looked at
John Deere S180 at Home Depot — $4,999
No 0% financing available at the time. Home Depot occasionally runs deferred payment promotions through credit card offers, but nothing was on the table when I needed it. Comes with a two year, 100 hour warranty — but since Home Depot is not an authorized John Deere dealership, you are last in line when it needs service work. That matters when the closest dealer is an hour and a half away.
John Deere S180 at the dealership — $5,200
Same machine, more money, though they were willing to match the Home Depot price. They offered 0% financing for nine months, then 17.9% after that. To get their three year 0% financing I would have had to step up to their 300 or 500 series, which runs $7,000 to $12,000 for the mower alone. The other issue: the nearest John Deere dealership to us is in Edmonton. An hour and a half each way for warranty work or repairs is not a realistic service model.
Riderz in Edson — Cub Cadet, 54" deck, leaf sweeper, bagger unit — roughly $7,000 all in
I stopped in the Saturday before the long weekend to get pricing. The package I was after came in at roughly $7,000 taxes and fees included. Cub Cadet's financing options were straightforward: 12 months at 0.9%, 24 months at 1.9%, or 36 months at 2.9% with 20% down. The warranty is three years and 120 hours — better than the John Deere options I was looking at. And Riderz is about 30 minutes from the property, which means warranty work and repairs are actually accessible.
Why Riderz won
The financing was reasonable. The warranty was better. The proximity matters for service. But honestly, the customer service sealed it.
During the week I called in, spoke with the sales rep, got my financing sorted, and arranged a pickup time for the Saturday of the long weekend — when they were not open. They made it happen anyway. I had 20 guests arriving Sunday and the grass had not been touched yet. They did not have to do that, and I did not forget it.
Home Depot, for the record, I have nothing against. I buy the majority of my materials there and know some great people in the Edmonton locations. But we have all been there — you need help finding something, you find a ladder, and you just do it yourself.
Some places make you feel like a problem to be managed. Riderz made us feel like a customer worth keeping. That is not a small thing when you are going to need service and support for the next three years.
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