1/2011 John Deere X300 after 666 hours

It has prompted me to write this review after noticing my X300 hit 666 hours. Satan may indeed be in this machine for better or for worse. Id like to start out by saying we do more with our mower than it was designed for. We use it twice daily, without fail, to pull a small cart with which we use to feed our horses.<br><br>
I got my mower after our last one bit the dust (we got second place in an ugly lawn mower competition). We let our dealer know right away we need to use it for more than just cutting, and he recommended the X300. Its a very easy to use mower and it cut well, sort of. The dealer said it had to be broken in before it would cut at its best. We eventually noticed the dealer had actually mis routed the deck belt, resulting in left blade spinning the wrong way. It was about as difficult to fix as changing out a belt on your car, so it was well within my abilities to fix. <br><br>
Mowing Ability:<br>It does cut grass. And doesn't do bad job at it either I suppose. Living on a farm there are a quite a few areas where our tractor's brush hog can't be used. Also living on a farm mowing the grass is a very low priority. When the grass gets growing past 1'  we considering mowing it. Well thats a a lot of grass to cut it it can grow kinda thick in some places. We set our deck to 4" so that there is still something for horses to graze on and it can help hide the more sparse areas. We can just about blaze through tall grass at full speed leaving only  a few blades standing, going at full speed. All in all a solid mower.<br><br>
Cons explained.<br>It maybe use or design/quality failures but there is deffenatly room for improvement on X300. If you think about it, the following failed components are probably used on other/most/all john deere mowers.
1) The seat. I not sure when this started but it was fairly early on. one day the seat had a big split down the vinyl. Now it looks like a rabid dog went all out on it. I got one of those covers from john deere and it only lasted a bit longer than the seat. 
2) Throttle control. Who ever decided attaching a cable straight to a plastic lever was a moron. further more who ever decided to a make it a single piece was an even bigger moron. Feeding horses there are a lot of stops and starts. To save on gas we lower an raise the throttle constantly. If you're ever a bit too vigorous increasing the throttle you can actually strip the the throttle wire out of the plastic lever. To replace this you gotta buy the whole setup cable and all. Did this 4 times.
3)Ignition system. In a world where a well sized screwdriver can start your mower, a key is stupid. extra stupid. The start/run should be on a rocker switch, much less likely to wear out. The ignition on the x300 does wear out. it got so bad that we had to start it about 10 times to keep it on and often put it into the "light" position because "run" didnt work. This key is cheaply made, our current key, (3rd) looks like DNA strand its so twisted up. Also having the lights as a key position only adds to the wearing out of the ignition. Very disappointing. Also the engine will crank but wont start until the hours have loaded on the display ~2 secs. You can test this by turning the mower on, wait for hours then it starts right up. 2 extra seconds really adds up in the long run and I worry about replacing the starter.
4) Gas Gauge. There is none. I can't tell you how many times I've had to walk back to get a wheel barrow to finish feeding. The tank is not-so-clear plastic and since its in the back under the seat/fenders its hard to have enough light there to see the gas line. If you plan on just mowing with it , I suppose theres no harm in filling it before each use. 
5)Mower lid is cheap. You don't notice this till it breaks. such a large piece of plastic should have lateral ribs to reinforce it, but it doesn't. Ours is now shattered from people falling on it/ against it. Combine this with the confetti seat and we could be in the running for ugliest lawn mower again. 
6) Mower deck height adjustment knob. I don't know if you've ever dismounted a john deere before but its never graceful. You either have to swing your leg up over the steering wheel or fall out the side and drag your feet across the adjustment knob located between your feet. Another design flaw combined with cheap plastic. A lever would have been good for this. Needless to say, ours broke off, and the cost of replacement was absurd. Also since its a knob on the floor you can adjust it on the fly. For this you have a separate deck lifting pedal, so in essence the knob is just a stop that prevents the decks from going lower. 
Those are pretty much the big things. Not because they were problems but because they will continue to be problems.

A few other quirks:-You may not do much mowing in winter but our mower has trouble staying on in freezing temps before the engine had warmed up. It'll act like it running out of gas.-The stock tires are not very good at getting traction in the mud. However, I have gotten stuck less than my last mower.-Choke is necessary for cold startup-Clippings/dirt/hay can work into sliding seat rails freezing up the seat.-Steering wheel is purposely crooked so its hard to keep hands in symmetrical places.
Bottom line:If you want a mower get this mower. If you want something to hual you and stuff around get something else.