How did you like your first mtronic or autotune saw????

[peterpaul]

Well I just pulled the trigger on a new 261 CM as my 30+ year old 036 pro finally called it quits. Whether the auto tune is good or bad only really comes down to my experience whether I get a good one or a lemon.  At 71, I need something a little lighter.  I like technology, try to stay current and embrace it.  I like my truck with nearly 100K miles on it, it's almost broken in, haven't had to do a brake job yet. 

With this in mind, I remember an interview on the radio, in Maine back in the 70's.  The radio host was interviewing a local 93 yr old bachelor who had just announce his plans to get married.  The host asked "After so many years as a bachelor, why get married at this late date?", the response was something like:  "Ayuh,......... well if I get a good women, she's worth waiting for, if I get a bad one,..... I won't have so long to live with her.  

[customsawyer]

I have had a few of the saws. Most good and one bad. I compare these saws to when fuel injectors replaced carbs on pickups and cars. Folks were scared to get some of the first ones, but look where we are now. The first one I was involved with was a '85 F250 with a 302 engine. Last I seen of that truck was when it was sold with over 400K miles on it.
Could you imagine one of these modern mechanics trying to tune a carb in a pickup now days.

[caveman]

I was thinking along the same lines as Customsawyer regarding vehicles with fuel injection rather than carburetors.  My first fuel injected engine was a 2.9 liter v-6 in an '86 Ranger.  The other similar advancement to fuel injection would be electronic ignition.  I only have points in one vehicle now ('68 Bronco).  The electronic ignition is pretty much trouble free.  

[lxskllr]

In the bad old days you could fairly easily work on any part of a vehicle. Problem was you were always working on vehicles. On the side of the road, in the garage before you got groceries, in the coldest days of winter, and the hottest days of summer. 100k miles was an old vehicle and ready to be sent up the road. When was the last time you saw a dead car on the side of the road? It hardly happens anymore. 

I'll trade all that nonsense for blackbox reliability every time. Yea, it can be a bit of a mystery when things go south, but that doesn't happen much. If my computer saw has to go in the shop, I'll pay the money and put it in the shop. Otherwise, I'll just run it, and it'll work great. No twiddling controls when my real purpose is cutting wood. I suppose some people enjoy the process of getting machines to behave. I'm not one of those people. To me, fixing machines is a tedious chore.

[doc henderson]

The problem is when you take it to the expert and they run a test that they do not understand, and the computer says all is well, and they send you home with a machine that still does not work.  You take it back and they say, "we can run the test again, but the black box say it is working fine."  now what?  I guess I should be honored that Stihl has recruited me at my expense to do research and development for such a prestigious company.  

[lxskllr]

Well, that's a dealer/mechanic issue. There's been bad mechanics since the first machines were created. I've run into them on dead simple vehicles like an aircooled Vdub. If you can't diagnose and fix one of those, you have no place in the business.

[DHansen]

Understand how it works and repairing it is a whole lot easier.

[doc henderson]

I think when they came out, they had some glitchy ones, and the techs got reports and learned to do the test.  but if the test was normal, they could not go beyond that.  even great saw mechanics were at the mercy of the technology, and Stihl prob. had not really fully developed the tech in the saw and had not fully trained or developed the testing.  I have had two saws with a bad solenoid.  one I traded in after 3 dealer visits full credit towards and 881, and the other they changed to a newer solenoid despite a normal test.  It was not covered under warranty because the test was normal, but the dealer got it approved from some regional rep.  It has worked ever since.  so, the company problem was, for a while they denied there was a problem.  so, in my case it was a company issue, and the dealer saved my ash.  I have a JD dealer that now carries the saws a few miles from me, and I still drive 20 miles to the Amish dealer. there is good and bad to nearly all new advances. 

[Hilltop366]

To me as a former equipment dealer if the saw is not working well and test good the next step would be a call to the manufactures service department and make them understand that it is not working right. The next move should be to be told to swap out the suspected component with a known good one to test then narrow down from there. 

The problem is especially with newer designs and issues or older designs that get get manufactured out of tolerance due to equipment wear (I've seen both issues)  the dealer ends up caught in the middle and can end up the biggest looser if the manufacture is not stepping up. Options are satisfy the costumer at dealer's expense or not satisfy the costumer at dealers expense.

[Hilltop366]

I will also add (and I'm sure I said this before on here),

I like to be on the trailing edge of leading technology.

[barbender]

 I do too, but once it's working I'm not going to be a dinosaur either. Husky had the 562's out for probably 10 years before I got one.

[khntr85]

Well taking the 261c with the 18" bar to cut up white oak tomorrow, can't wait to see how she does

[Spike60]

My shop was in the prototype program and I got an early look at most of the AT saws. Not counting the 576, the first eye opener was an early 560XP with a gray top cover. Upon removing that cover, my immediate reaction was, "look at all those wires!"  The next stage was getting the little black box and plugging saws into the computer. OK, I guess things are going to be different from here on out. But there was never any hesitation to embrace these changes. On the contrary, we jumped in knowing we'd be ahead of the other shops.

There were some hiccups as all this was rolled out to the market. Keep in mind that in addition to the AT, the rest of the saw was also radically different from everything else in the catalog. And most of the issues with the early 562's were not AT related. Things like adding the extra case screw to prevent the oil leaking past the gasket under the muffler, and some bearing/seal or heat problems had nothing to do with AT. Some were vendor problems, such as seals with bad lips. 

Some new carbs and coils quickly arrived to address things that could be considered AT related, such as hot starts on some saws. Many restart problems were the result of what you guys have already mentioned: running the saw out of fuel. 

But of course any unexplained problem was immediately blamed on AT. if the radio reception in your truck was bad, it must be that dang auto tune!. Also has to be remembered that most saws ran fine, and many still do. But there were issues that occurred frequently enough that they needed to be addressed at the manufacturer level. 

Thing ya gotta keep in mind is that every new design goes through some teething issues. Log into service documents, and you'll find service bulletins and IPL updates for every saw you can think of, even our favorites, that we don't remember. All of these saws are fairly well sorted out at this point. Just enjoy them and not worry about carrying the little screwdriver in your pocket. 

[teakwood]

If i remember correctly Stihl did several years of testing before the 500i was even available for a normal customer. i remembered some Sweds loggers making youtube vids about the 500i they where testing for Stihl and how impressed they were. Stihl sent saws all over the globe to do testing and they sure had their flaws in the first versions. When the saw came available it was pretty much bullet proof, at least mine is. i think the 500i is quite the success story for Stihl