Spike,
You raise good points, and I'm sure the OPE mfgrs are struggling with fuel issues. I feel sorry for them, to a certain degree.
But the bottom line is that, if the customer does everything by the book with his saw, and he used the saw for its intended purpose, then no, it absolutely is the manufacturers' burden to bear.
If their saw will not run on the fuel available in the state in which they sold the saw, then the mfgr has the responsibility to do two things: (1) Stop selling saws with known defects, and (2) make the current owners of their saws whole.
Yeah, it sucks, and yeah, I think the fuel issues in this country are badly out of hand. Too many blends of too much useless crap (oxygenates, etc.) cause price increases, legal issues, and the like.
But the mfgrs know the score on the fuels, and if their equipment will not handle the fuels which are available for sale, then they have the responsibility to quit selling until such time as they will handle them. That is simple, basic, tort law.
The fact that the primary "consumers" of gasoline are automobiles is immaterial here.
As an example, the primary consumers of gasoline also happen to be mom-and-pop passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks. But what if a boutique sports-car mfgr sold a vehicle that required 115 octane, and then failed to notify the consumer that it did? The consumer starts filling the tank with commercially available fuel, and his car won't run. Does he have a case in court? You bet he does. Unless notified otherwise, the customer has a right to expect the vehicle to run on commercially available gasoline, and if it will not, then it is unfit for the purpose for which it is sold.
10% ethanol is nothing new in this country...we've had it for twenty years, and some states have (silly) laws that require the sale of nothing but 10%.
According to Lake, Stihl is warning customers not to let ethanol sit in the tank more than 60 days. That shifts the burden back to the customer, because the saw will run on the available fuel, and the customer has been put on notice as to how to properly maintain the saw while using that fuel.
As a test, try to get Husky to put the reason they are denying the claim in writing. I bet the reason changes by the time it gets to paper.
And for the record, I don't like class-action suits either...they generally get used by blood-suckin' ambulance-chasing bashterds to extort money which they then pocket themselves...consumers get lots of "coupons." Whoopie. But they do have their place.