i think IH sold cub cadet to mtd not because the line wasnt doing well, quite to the contrary. it was an attempt to keep the rest of the operation solvent. it didnt work so well because a few years later they sold the agriculture product line. if you ask me MTD is a sad american story just like walmart. they have bought up once great names and turned their products into cheap junk. they kept cub cadet producing a few good products for a while, but they pretty much discontinued the 3000 series which was at least an OK tractor. nothing built under the MTD name was as good as what IH produced. MTD never bought the worlds best transmissions from IH, so i think their produces suffered right from the get go. i dont want a cub cadet UNLESS it has "international harvester" stamped on the transmission. non of the products produced under MTD had that small farm tractor feel.
bolens on the other hand, really sad. they should just drop that name entirely. all the produce under the bolens name. its sad now the only thing produces is the cheap mtd lawn tractor with bolens logos on it. people remember bolens for the products the used to make when they were independent and now people buy them expecting the same quality and strength. man do they get suckered. they are a cheap lawn tractor with a thin gauge frame, a cheap aluminum trans, and cheap vertical shaft briggs engines. i think they have degraded bolens name to cheap junk so they are not competing amongst themselves(cub cadet). well if they dont want it to compete with cub cadet that just end the product line entirely. dont drag that once great name through the MUD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQKLt...feature=relmfu