A few years back I went for a very highly rated John Deere. I like everything about it EXCEPT that it is front wheel drive. Seems so dumb, but so many push mowers are front wheel drive these days, so I thought "must be OK." I hate it. Any amount of slope to your yard, and the front wheels do nothing for you. After all, you are pushing down on a handle that applies a downward force (even when just pushing forward) on the rear wheels. Makes sense if the propelled wheels were in the rear.
OK, so I can muscle through the fact that I tend to have the front wheels spinning a lot and not helping me propel the unit, but there is another pain.. You can not push the mower straight up to something and cut within about 5 inches. By that I mean that the drivetrain mechanism is up front, preventing the cutting blade from getting really close to whatever it is that you are trying to cut close to. I've got a corner of my yard that has a fence on each side. I can't get into that corner for crap to get it cut because there is 5-6 inches of drivetrain up front. I find that this is a problem around a lot of the yard actually and then I have to get the trimmer out for more and more of it...
So whatever you pick, make sure that it is rear wheel drive.
