If you don't have challenging snow conditions and don't need to blast snow 40 feet away a made-by-MTD machine is fine as long as you pay attention to proper maintenance and monitoring, otherwise they tend to deteriorate quicker than more more expensive makes. I'm referring to the maintenance of parts other than the engine, the engine itself is the same as that on many costlier machines and shouldn't be much of a source of concern if basic precautions are observed.
Honda HS928 TCD - If you lived where I live you'd have one too
