G'day Arfur The trade supplier that I usually deal with no longer stocks makita as the quality has gone down the tubes and too many failures. Dewalt, hitachi, aeg, metabo are good brands. I have a couple of bosch that have done ok. Got a good deal on a 12v dewalt with 3 batteries (use 2 and 1 spare) for my son recently heaps of guts, I think it was $325? Some brands have different quality ranges (bosch for eg) so make sure you compare apples to apples. I mostly have quality stuff but a couple of occassional use tools I bought gmc (generator for $98 last week, rediculously cheap) they don't seem to bad for cheap crap, 2 year warranty for home use. Don't believe the cheap has "same guts as dearer brands" line, except perhaps makita, now made largely in china. Hitachi often represents great value with quality at a reasonable price. Usually best to by quality and cry once :-) cheers Rod
