I had thought of upgrading my mower recently. It is a battery charged electric, and for as small as my yard is, I can barely get two mowings out of it. What I found is John Deere's are expensive and so are their parts. As I was looking for a riding mower, I'm not sure if this is true for push behinds, but it seems like there were only two engine makers. Briggs and someone else. There were maybe three different actual manufactures, who the sold under three or so different names.
When my brother ran a lawn care company he used toro, but he just bought a craftsman rider for his home.