Snow blower/throwers?

Ok, Keith and I have decided to break down and get a snow blower. (We have alot of sidewalk and a big driveway.) I have been researching snow blowers, but have not seen a model that jumped out at me, although I have figured out they are expensive. I am really hoping that I might get some recommendations for a snow blower that can handle some wet snow as well as powdery snow. And reliability is a must. I am very frustrated at the moment and any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

If you have a local ACE hardware they can help ....

Thanks Sharky!

We have had our 8hp John Deere for 20 yrs!! We have a enormous driveway (holds about 20 cars or so!). We just had some work done on it this fall and it runs great.
You want a 2 stage snowblower and perhaps electric start-but we don't use our electric start as it pull starts easy enough.
Ariens (which are made about 20 minutes away from me) is another good choice.
You will have this for a long time so getting a good brand name is important. Prices haven't really changed much since we bought ours as it was about $1000 back then.
As for handling wet snow-that is what we had a couple of weeks ago and there isn't a brand that handles it that kind very well (as the person who tuned up ours informed me).
I wouldn't waste my money on any non-gas models as they don't have enough power.

Hope this info helps.

I hire a guy to come plow my drive and snowblow my walks. My dad has a John Deere, 2 stage, electric start that he loves. Sorry I'm not much help!

John Deere, eh? I will definitely look into a 2 stage snow thrower - thanks!

This makes me laugh. I am from the south. When I moved up north for a while and heard about a "snowblower", never seeing one, I imagined it to look like a leaf blower!! I was surprised when I really saw one. Funny how you imagine things to look when you have never seen or heard of one before!!