I Got The Saw From A Local Shop To Try It Out Its There New Line And The Price Was Right Its A Solo 651 I Got It For $430.00 And They Offered To Sell Me The 694 90 Cc For 790.00 To Try It Our For Them. And See How They Hold Up. I Like It Its Simply And Starts Even When Its Really Cold Out.
There are two Solo dealers within 50 miles of where I live. One dealer only carries Solo brand saws and sells very few. The other dealer stocks zero Solos and will go out of his way to explain to you why. He calls them "weak" and "unimpressive".
The are very nicely priced and for most people would probably be just fine. I do not like the throttle and choke set ups on the smaller saws. Every used smaller Solo I see has some of those pieces missing or broke.
I think they run nice but nothing to write home about. Price is good out of the box.
I just bought a Solo 694 for my portable mill and I am very happy with it. It seems to have better speed and torque then my 070 and is lighter and uses less fuel mix. It also makes less noise, I hope it holds up as well in the long run as my old Stihl. I don't know how their smaller saws are built I never used any of the other models.
I have 2 nice Shindaiwa saws (500 & 377) and they are a fine machine but now it is hard to get parts for them , thats what you have to think about in the long run. I just bought my first Husky (ued 44) just in case something breaks on the Shindaiwa's , now I have a backup plan. Will theses Dolmars have parts available in 5 or 10 years ???