Last year after the first big snow storm of the season, and spending all morning shoveling the snow, I told my wife "we can either plan on paying for my heart attack or buy a snow blower." At 57 I was just getting too old to shovel snow.
My son had bought a Husqvarna ST224P a couple of years before from Lowes, I went online and there was a Husqvarna dealer not two blocks from my house, went down and talked to them, they had to order one, but he said he would assembly, deliver and gas it up for $1,050.
One of the best purchases I ever made, even though I only used it 3 or 4 times this past year. It's a two stage, electric start. I can now clean my driveway in 45 minutes, it used to take me 3 or 4 hours shoveling the snow. Works well on the rock portion of the drive way.