New Weed Whacker?

I just went through the search for a new trimmer myself. The old Craftsman, which is a Ryobi, is 9 years old. It's getting rough to start and the guard broke off. So..........
Craftsman, Echo, Stihl, Shindaiwa, Ryobi were all looked at.

Craftsman, either Ryobi or Poulan, have mostly gone to easy change line. But you have to stop the trimmer and replace line instead of advancing more with a bump and feed head. Yes they still have the bump and feed but only in the smaller cheaper units. There was one on sale that came with a brush cutter attachment that I liked.
Echo seemed decent but for some reason just didn't fit right in my hands. Didn't seem balanced for some reason.

Almost bought a Stihl FS80. The local guy had some on order but none in stock. The FS90 will replace the 80 but it's listed as a 4-mix. A 4-cycle that you still feed 2-cycle mix to it.
Didn't look too long at the Ryobi after I tried out a Shindaiwa. Most of the landscape guys I know use Shindaiwa. I went with a Shindaiwa T242X which is one of the "professional" models, brush cutter blade compatible. It already has the larger deflector which is supposedly needed with a brush blade. Shidaiwa also sells a Tornado blade that has chainsaw teeth mounted on it for saplings/trees, which will work on this trimmer. It has a Speed-Feed® head. You can reload 20-25' of line in 30 seconds, or so they say. It seems well balanced and little vibration at all. It's really quiet and no smoking at all, even for a 2-cycle. The shop (or Shindaiwa) had a promotion going in the spring and this was the last one they had bought at the promotional price. They wouldn't dicker much on price, but it was priced right for me.

Hopefully, this will be my last one. I've heard everyone say Buy Local and give the neighborhood guy a chance, but maybe I'll never need him for service.