Why on Earth would someone buy a snowblower in the middle of August. Well, you would do so if the model you are interested in has been sold out for the past 9 months. When we moved to our new house, I sold all of my gas powered outdoor equipment including my huge tracked Honda snowblower. In my opionion, this 2-stage Ego model is the first electric snowblower that has any chance of standing up to a New England winter. Our new driveway is relatively flat but considerably longer than our last one. I am hoping that two sets of batteries will be adequate to handle most snow events. Time will tell but having made the expenditure, it is a virtual guarantee that we will have an unusually mild winter.