My parents never had a snow blower. Every snow storm we were out there shoveling the long driveway. There was a massive heavy snowstom the month after my wife and I purchased our first house. Thankfully our neighbor came to the rescue with his snow blower. At that point I bit the bullet, went out to farm and fleet, and somehow managed to get a snow blower in the trunk of my 1988 Toyota Celica (they had to take it out of the box - not fully assembled - and it was a long nervous ride home). To this day, I still tell my wife every winter that it was the best purchase I ever made. Although, it was unable to get through the end of the driveway yesterday (pure slush - I noticed the neighbor across the street had the same issue).