Strengths Shaft drive transition is awesome. I bought this mower because I had burnt up the belt drive transmission on a John Deere after only 5 years of service. The cub handles the incline on my yard great and is still running strong after 5 years. Vacuum system is good....don't need any vac assist on my 42 inch deck.

Weaknesses It does backfire on low throttle shut off but this is no big deal to me.

Overall Would recommend. Mine is 380 hours and still going strong.

Strengths Good overall tractor and mower. Plenty of power

Weaknesses Sometimes hard to start.

Overall Good machine

Strengths Hydrostatic drive works well.

Weaknesses This machine is a piece of crap. They painted the bare metal with out using any primer. Has been garaged since purchased. Every panel on machine was rusting out after 1 year. Starts hard in the winter.Blower has no bushing just bolts in drilled holes. I have seen better junk come from China. Stick with John Deere or Simplicity.

Overall Piece of junk!

Strengths Used year round, mowing, snow plowing the driveway, plus plowing our road occasionally. Also light grading of a 1 mile long dirt road, road repair work with the blade. No problems moving up to 6 inch snows (more if light snow) with the weights plus tire chains. (turf tires) Gator blades work nicely for mulching.

Weaknesses High amount of front wheel scrub when turning, tears up the lawn. When the bagger is on or the suitcase weights are installed, I cannot pull our little trailer when I need to do so - a major irritant if you just want to move something quickly. Poor fit and finish. In order to put the snowblade on, you need to loosen the control arm for the blade, as it sits directly on top of the necessary bolts. Then you need to loosen another smaller bolt to allow its frame to flex enough to fit in place. Plus, two bolt holes for the blade were drilled in the wrong place (approx 1/16 inch off), making it difficult to install. This I had to "adjust" with a grinder. The (cheap) installed battery died within 6 months. It was not strong enough to start during an upstate NY winter. Replaced with a better one, no problems since. Front tires needed tubes immediately. Backing up kills the blade rotation. You then need to turn the switch off and on again to restart it. I'll bet the switch/clutch dies in another year or so, given the number of cycles it gets.

Overall No reliability problems so far. (120 hours logged) It handles the hills on our 1 acre of lawn well enough (approximately a 30% grade in three spots, with an 8-10 foot climb) though the turf tires will often slip a bit when wet on those hills. I would probably not buy this machine again.

Strengths None

Weaknesses Mower Deck chips and flakes easy and fast - very poor paint job on deck does not hold for long will chip and flake before first year is up, does not cut smooth leaves grass standing high in spots, have to mow same area two to three times to get a level cut, 1 cyl. 16 hp is worse than an old lowe's mower I have that is 12 hp - mower sounds thirty years old even though it is serviced on a regular basis, deck belt breaks at least once a year if not more and deck drive belt breaks a least twice a year if not more (and these belts are not that cheap to replace), mower deck is the worse I have ever had, If you lift a cheek the seat shut off control shuts the mower off so in my opion it is to sensitive, Choke will vibrate to full choke position while running and if you forget to push it back down it will choke itself out, As I saw in another review yes it will back fire is shut off with the throdle in the slowest setting the is corrected by leaving the throdle is the medium to full position to burn of the extra fual left in the engine (this is the case for some other brands as well but does seem worse in the cub)

Overall Worst money I have ever spent and will not recommend to anyone. I was told this mower was rated for 3 to 4 arces by the dealer and I am only mowing 2.5 arces with it (have 10.5 arces total but horse pastures are mowed with New Holland TC29 and 5' brush hog, TC29 is wonderful and does everything I ask it to and then some) Cub 2166 is very poor model (I can't speak on other models but know that I will never purchase a cub cadet again) If your smart you put your money elsewhere, for what I spent I could have put some more money with it and gotten a commercial zero turn mower vs. spending the money money is did and now after 3.5 short years looking to spend money again to purchuse something else. I have 206 hrs on the 2166 and resale is horrible on these tractors as well, I can't get a good trade-in value from anyone.. My recommendation is to stay away from cub cadet or at lease the 2166.

Strengths very good vacuum system on mower, very quite

Weaknesses back fires when shuting off

Overall very good