Good Value Workhorse We're a large B&B with multiple lawns, some flat and presentable, some sloping, some rough. This was a second mower, adding to a conventional roller mower, for use primarily on the sloping and rougher areas where the weight of the roller, and the hassle of emptying, were a problem.

Assembly was easy enough for a practically-minded person - the instructions are rather minimal. A nice touch was to find it already filled with oil and the oil supplied by MowDirect.

The Stiga handles all the various grass lengths and densities very well. It's light, manoeuvrable, and starts reliably. The 'self-propelled' drive is pretty basic - the front wheels are geared to the motor by a simple clutch - drive is either on or off. There is no speed control on anything, it's either running, or not. The instructions imply that the clutch/gearing might not be that robust ('don't pull the mower backwards with the wheels turning' etc) but no problems so far. If you've level-ish lawns, you could probably work fine with the non-propelled version as it's so light.

Fuel consumption is surprisingly low (compared with my other mower). The cutting chamber stays very clean even when cutting significantly long and damp grass. Adjusting the height of the cutters isn't great, but perfectly workable. The (spring'y metal) mechanism here looks like it might be one of the first areas to fail.

When mowing, it's not at all obvious that the cut grass is still there after mowing, so it does the job it's intended to do extremely well. With perhaps some doubt over the long-term robustness of the wheel drive and the height adjusters I'd otherwise have no hesitation in recommending the Stiga, and at this price it's an easy choice.