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Posted by David Sherman [24.32.202.83] on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 03:35:13 :
In Reply to: Apparently they protect their "pricing structure" so w posted by Hank [64.119.43.114] on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 at 00:00:02 :
Trying to stick to the 1950s retail scheme of licensed dealers and restricted territories. We have a saw shop here (Larry's in Smelterville), but Stihls are SO much more expensive than the other makes and not very convenient to buy, and I'm beginning to wonder whether they're even really all that much better that the other decent makes. I hear the Husqvarnas are actually made in the same factory as Stihls. I have a couple of big Stihls that I bought well used. They have plenty of power and start well, but they're not perfect. Either one of them will suddenly die on me at random times if I don't keep it revved up. I've had a McCulloch and a Homelite which I hated, but they were 1960s vintage so probably they new ones are better. I've had good luck with Echo, at least in the smaller saws. They're not well known, and parts were hard to find until I finally found the right dealer, but they've always been reliable for me.
Stihl clearly makes a good saw, but their high prices and their old-fashioned dealer setup is not doing them any good. For now, they're cruising on reputation and the fact that for a logger who's using the saw all day long, $1000 isn't much money (not to mention he'd get laughed out of the woods if he showed up with anything else). Eventually they're going to have to make some change in how they sell them, though, because there's nothing magic inside a Stihl saw that a Chinese factory couldn't copy.
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