THALL10326
The Champ
Of the 75-100 029/290's that come in a year I might get 5 that are set up. And usually 3-4 of those have been straight gassed, and only 1-2 are seized from from running lean due to an air leak. I've only had one setup due to a factory issue, and it was 100% covered under the warranty. In general the 290 is no more, or no less reliable than any other saw out there.
Good point and the 290 gets treated just like the pro saws, they get the same service and backing as a 1100.00 pro Stihl.
I replaced a cylinder, piston and seals on a MS290 this past week. It didn't cost the customer a penny and his wait was a whole one day. Odd thing about this saw was he bought it in Feb 07. Here it is Oct 09, some 20 months out of warranty. One simple phone call was all it took for Stihl to tell me fix it. None of this well we need to send out a rep to have a look, or how much ethanol was in the fuel and countless other excuses, they took what I told them and said fix it, I did. I love working on the 290 series saws. I used to consider them tuff, now years later and a few under my belt they aren't even a decent challenge anymore.