snorunner

I have taken my 1998 POS MTD tractor in to the my local lawn equipment retailer/repair shop because it has a drivetrain problem...again.  While there I was browsing their new lawn tractors, Simplicity to be exact, as that is what they sell.  I know  Simplicity has maintained an excellent reputation over the years.  My father  still owns the one I cut our lawn with as a kid and it is still going strong...23 years later.  The owner of the shop said he had a hand full of a particular model left that he is trying to sell at a greatly reduced price.  I am not completly sure if it is the Broadmoor, but it is 10 gauge steel, Vanguard 18HP engine, 38" deck, etc.  Not a lot of extra frills though, pretty much just a cutting machine.  I think it may be a 2005.  Anyway after looking at consumer reports I was hoping to get feedback on if the John Deere products are as good as they say they are.  Consumers say they are better than simplicity, but they are comparing a different product than I would be getting.  The deck on the Simplicity is 4" shorter than I have now on my MTD (42"), but evering else on it seems so superior to that piece of junk I don't think it would make a difference.  I have about 1 acre of  lawn to cut, and a lot of it is big long stretches.  I always told my self if I ever got another tractor, I would get a bigger deck, but now I don't know.  Takes a lot of muscle to use that MTD, and the turning radius is terrible.  I am possitive that any new unit would be better.   So would the Deere be as good as Simplicity with total cost being nearly the same?  Would the bigger deck really cut that much off of my mowing time?  Any experience or comments with either of these tractors would be appreicated.

I will premise this with the statement that I have just found this site today, and did as much power reading as I could on snowblowers do for about an  hour straight.  I have needed,  and known I needed a more powerful snowblower for years now.  I currently have an inherited 1979 Toro, 2.5 hp (yes I said 2.5 hp) true paddle (not rubber auger) single stage 2 cycle.  Unbelievably it has functioned as my main method of removing snow, albeit it usually took me about 2 hrs to snow blow my moderate to large paved drive way.  (I live north of Detroit, where we've been hammered by heavy snowfall the past few years.)  Anyway, anticipating heavy snow again this year, I went out and placed on order a Ariens 7524 from home depot yesterday.  I made the choice primarly on the information I found on other websites as well as the Ariens website.  I now wonder  after reading the other  posts here, if I made the right choice.  It would seem If I could clear the drive way with my little 2.5 hp, anything bigger and more advanced would be better, even if it's not one of the leviathan I've read about in some of these other posts, i.e 9.25 to 11 hp.  I'd consider the 926DLE but its 2X the cost.  I guess my question is: Does anyone own this model or something comprable ever have any "real" trouble removing snow with theirs?  I've gotta believe this 2 stage 7.5 hp would make a world of difference over what I've got.  I do get this EOD build-up as I'm off a main road, but even my lil' Toro could manage through 18" of that...it would just take 45 minutes.  I just don't want to spend all this money and wish I would have purchased something bigger, although I can't see that happening.  Any advice would be appreicated while I can still change my order.