When you are looking at ride-on mowers available in New Zealand, it is easy to get caught up in the marketing hype around different brands, styles, and sizes. When you have a well-designed brochure with flashy pictures and cleverly positioned buzz-words, combined with a commission-hungry salesperson telling you everything you want to hear, it you may be tempted to buy a mower without trying it first.
There are a few reasons why this could be a mistake and these are the same reasons why a good dealership will always offer you the chance to try before you buy.
It sounds obvious but it’s still worth saying: the first and most important reason to try before you buy is to confirm that the mower will achieve the result you need. Just because a mower has certain features and specs doesn’t necessarily make it the right tool for the job you are doing. Likewise, just because a salesperson or brochure claims a certain result doesn’t mean you should trust it blindly. Get on the mower and cut some grass with it, you will quickly be able to judge if it is everything it claims to be.
When you've requested a test run of your mower, the next step is seeing it operate in a realistic environment. For example, if a salesperson mows one quick strip of short, dry, manicured grass on a perfectly flat surface, it won't be a fair trial for the mower's abilities. Ideally, the dealership would have a test-ride area that is a little more realistic, with slightly longer grass on undulating ground, along with a few bumps and obstacles. This is more of a real-world test and will give you a far better idea of what the mower is capable of.
In an ideal world, the demonstration would take place at your property, so you can see it working on your specific landscape and dealing with the actual challenges you face. Many good dealerships will offer this as an option, and where possible it’s a great idea to do this, but sometimes it’s simply not feasible. You have to bear in mind that there is a cost involved to the dealership to come to your house to demonstrate the unit, so in fairness to them, you shouldn’t accept this unless there is a fair chance of a sale happening as long as the machine performs as expected. However, there’s no better way to confirm that the mower is right for your home and your type of grass. It also gives the salesperson a chance to see your property and offer more specific advice about mowing techniques or machine setup.
Our ride-on mower selector tool can help if a demonstration at your property isn’t possible. By inputting details about your property, such as its size, and your personal preferences, the selector can help you narrow down the options to find models best suited to your needs.
A mower that cuts perfectly is worthless if you hate the driving experience. There are several different driving styles to choose from between steering wheel and lever steer options and after trying both you may find you have a preference. Many mowers include features that are going to completely transform the experience for the operator, the most notable feature would be suspension – if you haven’t tried a mower with suspension you are doing yourself a disservice. As well as (or in some cases instead of) that, many mowers will offer some kind of seat suspension or different versions of a ‘comfort seat’ and you should try at least a couple of different ones to see which one suits you better. Armrests are another thing that can change comfort levels on your test drive.
At the end of the day you may simply gel with one mower more than another, and seeing as you’re going to spend a few hours on it you will want to get this right, and a quick test drive is the easiest way to do this.
It is unnecessary, and in some cases unfair to the dealership, to clock up hours on a mower during a demonstration. Most questions can be answered within 10 to 20 minutes of trying the machine in a few different areas so the idea of a demonstration does not require a massive time commitment from you. You can spend hours reading brochures, watching YouTube reviews and reading forums, but oftentimes, you can learn more about the mower by spending just a few minutes on it yourself and forming your own opinions about its performance and comfort.
Most of us wouldn’t buy a car without giving it a quick test drive first, and with good reason, so why should a ride-on mower be any different? Rather than relying on information or opinions from other people, you can spend just a few minutes answering most of your own questions and confirming if the mower is what you want it to be. After a quick drive, you will be able to formulate much more specific questions which the salesperson can then answer for you and all of this will aid in making you feel far more confident with the purchase you are about to make.
Lastly, I would describe the offer of a test ride or demonstration as the least that the dealership can offer. A dealership that isn’t willing to put in this level of effort to help you is probably not very deserving of your money in the first place.
Happy Mowing!
Steve Gregor
Commercial Ride-On Mower Specialist