The "Great' lawnmower legal settlement

[Robert Reed]

Well its finally is settled- the rebate sum for all of us that bought lawn mowers with falsified horsepower ratings.The cap payment was touted at $35 for walk behind and $75 for riding mowers. As a walk behind model owner, I received a check today for a whopping $10.19. You riding mower guys will receive $21.84. There is a letter attached that explains the reduction in payment that is full of legal BS. I'm thinking the lawyers got all the rest. And these guys don't even own one of these machines as they probably hire the local lawn guy to mow their lawns. Maybe the next class action suit should be directed at the lawyers involved in this one!

[MrAl]

Hi Robert,


Oh so it sounds like you'll be getting some money then? That's always nice

Did you notice the discussion about the remotes? I thought you might be interested in that too since you had a similar problem in the past.

[Robert Reed]

Yes, have been following that thread. But this TV is scheduled for the scrap dump in less than a year, so I hope my efforts will keep the remote functional long enough to last for that period.

[Dean Huster]

King of Torts by John Grisham is a pretty good inside look at class-action suits.

Down here in SE Missouri, a gal having a baby had been on all sorts of drugs, got punched and knocked off her front porch by her boyfriend and sued the hospital and OB doc a few years later because the kid tested a little slow. Of course,she's on the dole, Medicaid, etc. and the lawyer had her settle for $12,000. Of course, she thinks she's in the big money now, then the lawyer takes his cut leaving her with $4,000 which was blown in a couple of months on computers, TVs and drugs.

[haklesup]

The purpose of this kind of class action suit is not so much to compensate the consumers but to punish the company and discourage other companies from from doing business unethically or illegally. The payout for the consumer comes from the fact that the laywers can't rightfully keep all the money, the plainteiif must recieve some compensation if they prevail.

In other cases it allows smaller gtroups of victims to pool resources against an otherwise wealthy opponant. In those cases where damages, negligence or intent is high, the class members can get quite a large payout. I many cases the realistic damages suffered is far to low for any individual to be able to justify the cost of a lawsuit.

At least it's not a stupid coupon for money off your next mower.

[dacflyer]

what was the deal ? were the engines putting out more or less than indicated HP ?
and which brand engines ?

i really miss small engines that had adjustable carburetors, now they are all preset and no adjustments.
i also miss the points ignitions too.. you were able to start a engine much more easily. the new electronic ignitions, you have to spin the engine over much faster to get a spark out of them.
the old points type.. you barely moved the flywheel and it would throw out a mean hot spark.

anyone else agree ? i know the electronic type is maintenance free, but a whimpier spark.

[Robert Reed]

Dac
"what was the deal ? were the engines putting out more or less than indicated HP ?
and which brand engines ?"
The deal was these companys were putting inflated HP ratings on the lawn mower engines. Quite a few big name companys were cited and I think it was Honda who raised the bitch about it. Funny thing is I never believed it even when I purchased mine 2 years ago. It looked like the identical Briggs engine of the last 40 years that were rated at 2 HP. It had the same power and mowed the same which was adequate and satisfactory, so I did not care if they rated it at 1000 HP. As to the newer engines of the last ten years my Toro always starts on one pull even coming out of winter storage. My Toro snow blower died after 22 years of service and I never once used the 120vac electric start feature. One pull and it was running - much less effort than going to the garage to fish around looking for the special electric cord for that feature.

[haklesup]

I just assumed they were using smaller horses these days.

[MrAl]

I just assumed they were using smaller horses these days.

Ha ha, that's funny but also too true for these days where they rather stretch the truth in advertising than make a really good product.

Petty soon instead of seeing "5 HP" we'll be seeing "5 PP" ("PP" of course being "Pony Power")

[CeaSaR]

...Petty soon instead of seeing "5 HP" we'll be seeing "5 PP" ("PP" of course being "Pony Power")

[Rant On]
They are already doing idiotic things along similar lines.
Since when did they come up with "empeegee's" in automobile
ads? I know what M.P.G.'s are (Miles Per Gallon), but this hipster
empeegee's is annoying. Listen to the next car commercial on
TV. See if you hear it too. It's all in the context. This is what
happens when you let people write copy who don't know a d*mn
thing about what they are supposed to be writing about. It makes
me not want to buy a new car. AND, if I ever hear a salesman say
it that way, I will call him/her an ignoramus and leave, never to return.
[/Rant Off]

CeaSaR

[Robert Reed]

How true Ceasar. Where did all the tech writers go that we had in the 60s,70s,80s? And I mean in any field.

[jimmy101]

It is not like the tech writers from the 60's, 70's etc weren't above wildly exaggerating claims either. Over claiming car engine horsepower is a decades old 'trick" of car makers. Extravagant claims of audio power ratings have been around since the 50's. Is that watt rating "peak" or "RMS" or ...? At what level of distortion was the power rated at? An amp that can realistically claim 20 watts RMS, both channel driven with less than say 0.005% THD may well be labeled as a 200 watt amp.

[CeaSaR]

It is not like the tech writers from the 60's, 70's etc weren't above wildly exaggerating claims either. Over claiming car engine horsepower is a decades old 'trick" of car makers. Extravagant claims of audio power ratings have been around since the 50's. Is that watt rating "peak" or "RMS" or ...? At what level of distortion was the power rated at? An amp that can realistically claim 20 watts RMS, both channel driven with less than say 0.005% THD may well be labeled as a 200 watt amp.

I don't dispute that at all. In fact, over exaggerated claims and just plain outright lies have
been around as long as deceit has been around. But at least the tech writers mentioned
above put the claims/lies in correct context or at least made a decent attempt to make it
sound like they knew what they were talking about. Today, it's not even a half-a**ed
attempt to get anywhere near right. Here's a fictitious example based on current commercials:

"Buy the new Chryforletsanya Iquad with 50 empeegees..."

Are these empeegees an accessory? Can you get it without them? And just what the f*** is an empeegee?!!

Now, if they had said that it gets 50 mpg's, then I wouldn't b*tch about it, as they would
actually be talking about the abbreviation of the unit of measurement that mpg stands for.
But noooo, they change it from a very long standing unit of measure to some catchy object
fit for the texting, IMing, miniscule attention span set and have really dumbed it down!! That's
what has gotten under my skin about all of this. I am sick of the dumbing down of the country,
and the world for that matter, by those in the media. And advertising is media.

All right, enough before I really blow a gasket.

...CeaSaR...

[Robert Reed]

The tech writers that I read from back then (not maketing people!) were very proficient at their work and their explanations were a learning experience. Almost everything I see today is full of typos or stupid glitzy crap to make them appear cool. I will read complete articles and hardly glean any worth while info out of it. The internet is loaded with too much data and not enough worth while information. And too add to Caesars remarks - the world today is literally upside down in every walk of life!

[Joseph]

How true Ceasar. Where did all the tech writers go that we had in the 60s,70s,80s? And I mean in any field.

Maybe one of them helps run http://www.sciencedaily.com/

That place has good, easy-to-read research summaries. I like to access the headline page every day.