I don't get it. All equipment made after a certain date has to meet those emission specs. The advertised hour life is the guarantee that the engine will continue to meet those specs if maintained correctly. Since these saws have no hours, let alone more then the guaranteed emission compliance guarantee, I don't know how this can be done legally.
I didn't claim I thought it was legal. I have just seen some "remanufactured" Poulans Pros that look absolutely brand new. And there was a post on here about 690 Solos along the same lines.
I wonder if any of these were sold through servicing dealers or if its all through box stores. It could be the box stores are just recycling the stuff people used one time and returned. It became a common problem for box stores to have people use stuff once and bring it back for a refund and claim it didn't work the way they expected, not that there was a real problem.
These people just didn't want to pay a rental store for a one time use. The box stores out here have become a bit more restrictive on returns because they were getting burned so often. A one time use machine can still look new but need to be sold as other then new.
Occasionally we'll take something back if the customer wants to step up to something better but we then re-sell it as a demo rather then re-conned.
NevadaWalrus, you are correct. The large stores like Sears & Walmart take a unit back no questions asked. I don't agree with this as it drives down the component manufactures selling price, so the retailer can offer this deal.
For my part there are two issues with that;
(1)sounds like any distributor doing that will tick some of their dealers off because that may dilute new unit sales possibilities
(2) some saws are going to be out there that won't meet EPA specs.
personally, I think chainsaws contribute a tiny fraction of pollution, so I am not worried about that. But, I wouldn't mind picking up a deal on a shiny new saw...even if it was last year's model!
