The "Lowes" 100 series "John Deeres" are not Deeres at all. They're MTD garbage licensed by Deere. Deere got sick of getting their butts wiped by the discount store tractors (MTD) so they figured they'd get in on that action somehow. Pay attention to a lot of the parts on the Deere/Cub/Husqvarna tractors at these stores... notice that a lot of parts between them are common or at least obviously built in the same way. That's because they are.
