Right on! It’s surprising to see how many people nowadays have only known Poulan chainsaws to be pieces of junk due to the last couple of decades of their homeowners stuff. Most are either are too young to remember, or have just plain forgotten that Poulan chainsaws once upon a time we’re some of the best, right on up there with Stihl, Homelite, Jonsered, and Husqvarna, before they owned Poulan.
Some people I’ve I’ve known have said that Poulan used to be even better than most of the above. For me, it looks like It’s hard to tell because once upon a time, most known American and German manufacturers all had their share of making top notch saws, even the homeowner stuff back then trumped a good bit of pro grade stuff of today in terms of build.
I was not really born in the premier, all magnesium muscle saw era, I’m about to turn 40 in a couple of days, but I grew up using older saws, and the majority of my property maintenance career, I was mostly running saws made in the 1960’ to early mid 1980’s.
I really grew to dislike using most modern plastic saws, including a couple of husqvarnas who’s chain brakes would melt due to poor choice in exhaust outlet placement, and the plastic Poulan chainsaws that were voided of warranty if you even touch the throttle and carburetor adjustment screws. I’ve got a Stihl ms290 at the job and I”after using it a bunch, to me it’s not really a whole heck of a bunch better than a modern Poulan of comparable size…. I’d say overall it’s a little better but not worth the price difference…because for its size and weight, it leaves more on the table than desired.
I’d take a good Poulan 3400-5200, 245a, 306a, or 361 anyway over pretty much anything that’s being made nowadays short of Stihl and Husky’s 100 plus CC saws.
Ok, sorry, I’m done with my meaningless little op-ed.