As far as I know, the old North American-made brands all fell victim to being bought out by huge international conglomerate companies only interested in making a quick buck. So rather than producing a long-lasting, quality item they produce cheapies overseas and ship them in to be sold at big-box stores. So while they may stand up to some intermittent use by the average homeowner, there's no way they could take the abuse that most of us here would throw at them and LAST. Husqvarna was actually a very late comer to the chainsaw game, late 60s if I remember right. But they were bought up by Electrolux, along with Jonsereds, Partner, Pioneer, and Poulan (and I may be forgetting a couple others). Fortunately they had the sense to continue to make a good, professional-quality line of saws, though why they chose to disgrace Poulan is a mystery to me. There are others here with much more knowledge about the recent history of saw brands though. Everything's made disposable now, so it can be sold at Wal-Mart for a bargain because everyone's been conditioned to prefer cheap over quality. Same thing that's happening to almost everything that used to be made here at home - cars, tools, electronics, you name it.
