Well I went with a box store John Deere, why? The dealer was selling the same item for over $100 more, and many more miles to drive to get it.
Kind of a no brain er, it was in a crate and never sat outside for kids and weather to play on it. All the JD's now have an all metal hydrostat transaxle no more plastic. The box store tractors are the same exact thing as the ones at the dealer, and same with both places it all depends on who they have that is setting up the machines, as to what condition it will be in.
I was going to poo poo the talk about recommending a 2 cylinder engine over the single cylinder 17.5. I don't know about the newer ones now, but not in the too distant past the single cylinder engines had problems with ACR breaking causing difficult starting and possible other related problems from the parts that let loose, as well as head gasket troubles. But then you pay $200 or so more for the extra cylinder.