(I wrote this a few years ago, however as the machine in question has once again been revived and is just a spiteful as ever, I thought it would be amusing to repost it here)

This is the Toro cr20E snowthrower, an early-to-mid 90’s model. It has a 20″ clearing width, a 2-stroke engine and electric start.

This particular version of it is a spiteful machine fueled by gas, oil and hatred. It only runs when the operator despises its very existence. My family bought this thing new, and it was terrible then, an the intervening years have done nothing it improve its disposition. It will fail to start during terrible storms, or develop some malady or another at the point when said malady would be most problematic. If you make the mistake while using it of being glad of it because it is easier than shoveling, it will chose just then to clog, or run out of gas.
Every fall is a fight to fix whatever new and inventive issue(s) it has come up with while in storage. After leaving it behind the shed for at least a year or two in favor of a newer machine, my mom passed it off on me. Whereupon I got to try and revive the damned thing from its slumber, and put it back to work trying out all the new terrible ideas it had.
Parts were replaced or cleaned, things were adjusted, fettling was done and it was convinced to run. This angered the snowthrower so much that the first storm it simply died every time it was asked to move more than 2″ of slush. This resulted in it being thrown across the driveway in favor of a regular shovel.
The 2nd storm of the season (after having the bent axle resulting from said toss straightened) the electric start packed up, and the pull start handle started cracking, lying in wait for an uncareful pull so it could snap in half. Despite these efforts it was manhandled into clearing the driveway, and stuffed back into the garage to plan it’s next assault on my blood pressure.

So if you don’t want to actually shovel your driveway, but want to overwork your heart and keep your heart attack risk dangerously high, this is the machine for you.