Do yourself a favour and get the blower...it is faster,does a better job,you never run out of room to put the snow,you don't end up with lingering piles of snow.Get something half way decent and it will last many years with a little bit of care.Bought one of those 2 stroke little Toro's for my Daughter for 50 bucks and fixed it up.They have been using it for 5 years.I was amazed at how well they worked.If you get alot of wet snow and the end of your drive gets plowed in I would get a 2 stage model.