Splendor In The Grass

Mike McCall tends just a small garden on his quarter-acre plot outside Tampa, Fla. But he owns the Hummer of all yard machines, what he calls a lawn mower on steroids. Cradled in the plush, high-backed seat of his John Deere X595, McCall, 34, manicures his lawn in a quick 20 minutes, smoking a cigar while he cuts the grass--thanks to an automatic transmission, cruise control and power steering that makes one-handed driving a snap. He can plug a CD player into the 12-volt outlet and sip a beverage from the cup holder. There's enough juice under the hood--with a "high torque," liquid-cooled 24-h.p. engine--to tote his three sons in a wagon. "If you ask my wife, it's a toy, and she's right," he says. The price of his fully loaded lawn chariot: $17,000, same as a Chevy pickup.

A few years ago, it was the $5,000 barbecue grill. These days it takes a luxury mower if you want to be a backyard baron. Home-owners are dumping their old, bone-rattling lawn-and-garden cutters and trading up to fancy models with brawny engines, lumbar-supporting seats and the now obligatory beverage caddy. "A lot of people buy a large lawn tractor and think they're going to till the soil and plant a big garden, but many never do," says a senior executive for a major mowermaker. "They use it to cut grass. Buying these minitractors--it's a status symbol."

That helps explain why sales of riding mowers are soaring. Shipments in the $3 billion market were up 11% last year, according to the Outdoor Power Equipment Industry association, double the growth rate of the broader mower segment. Zero-turn models, which facilitate cutting around trees and flower beds, have proved especially popular, and dealers report brisk sales of $3,000-plus premium models. That's good news for retailers and manufacturers, given that profit margins on pricier models tend to be higher than on budget versions. Those trends helped prompt Kubota, a Japanese brand, to launch its first gas-engine residential mower this season with zero-turn steering. Starting price: $7,500.

Industry experts attribute the buzz in higher-end mowers to several factors. As the average suburban lot size has increased--up 5.7% from 1992 to 2002--homeowners have been trading up to riding mowers. Baby boomers hitting retirement are dumping their old push mowers and warming to the back-friendlier seats and softer suspensions on many models. Folks in a rush are buying models that reduce gardening time. And there has been plenty of cheap credit to grease sales. "Consumers are voting with their pocketbooks," says John Jenkins, president of Deere's commercial and consumer division, which forecasts an 11% to 13% sales hike this year, to about $3.6 billion (including sales of equipment besides mowers).