I've had this mower for about six weeks and I am really impressed with it. Previously I used a Snapper Hi-Vac that I didn't think performed very well. I like that this mower is pull and go, meaning it starts on the first pull with no choke to mess with and there is no engine speed to set. The Personal Pace self-propelled system is awesome, I couldn't imagine going back to one without that. The take-off's and stops are very smooth, and it truly does adjust to your walking speed.
I have only used the mulching feature on the mower, which I think works really, really well - especially for a single blade system. I tend to mow fairly often and at a fairly high setting but my lawn is thick tall fescue so there is plenty of grass being processed. I will say that occasionally on turns where I lift the front tires that small clumps of grass can appear but it doesn't happen too often. The cutting is even, and it does a great job even with minimal to no overlap. My snapper was really bad about leaving stragglers along the edge of the cut path so I had to overlap quite a bit more with that mower to get everything even.
All in all, I would recommend this mower. It's a great value for the money. I picked mine up on sale at Home Depot for right around $300. Cuts like a champ and is very smooth to operate.
EDIT - Updated 8/3/11.
Okay, after using this product for half a year I have to update my review. In my initial cutting last fall I did not use the bagger. Using the bagger caused a multitude of problems. One, the mower leaves a lot more stragglers. So much so that I have some areas I have to mow twice. It's a total pain! On top of that, a lot of grass shoots out the top of the bag, right at the operator. The mower works pretty good for mulching but not so much for bagging.
Also, the "GTS" system is kind of a joke. Another thing I discovered when bagging is that when you stop the mower to empty the bag it is very hard to restart. When I first start mowing it starts on one or two pulls but once you stop, it's often game over. I sometimes have to walk away and let it cool down for several minutes before it will start again. Very frustrating. I actually contacted Toro about this, and ultimately my local service center, and I was told that Toro has added a list of "ideal conditions" that must be met for the GTS guarantee to kick in. Included in this are things like the weather (temperature), mowing conditions, and many more. The mechanic basically told me that Toro knows they have problems with this but instead of addressing the issue to fix it they are trying to give themselves an out with a list of exclusions for the guarantee. BS if you ask me.
I only had this mower for about six months and hit a small stump and bent the crankshaft. It would have been more expensive to fix it than to buy a new one! I hit many a small stump with my old craftsman and never had any problems. That tells me durability is an issue. I replaced this mower with a Honda and won't be buying another Toro!
