It may seem strange for someone to say that a $4000 ellitpical is a good value, but when you compare this machine to its competitors from Precor and Octane it is easy to see that the X8 is far and away a better elliptical and a better value. While the managers of Octane and Precor were smoking crack this year I guess the management at LifeFitness decided to stay sober. This is the best value at the top of the elliptical market.
General Information
A division of Brunswick Corp. (but maybe not for long), Lifefitness is the 800 lb. gorilla in the commercial market and is known for the famous club Lifecycle stationary cycle. These are typically well designed products but have been overpriced in the past. Life has become aggressive on value in the home market and the T and F series are very good. It has been well publicized that Brunswick has been closing boat factories like crazy so we wonder how long it will be before they want the equity out of Lifefitness. We have heard some rumors that Brunswick would like to sell this division but Life always holds their cards close to the vest.
Quality / Philosophy
Their philosophy seems to be to engineer the product well and then price it very aggressively. Post warranty parts are expensive but with the new warranties, they won?t be needed for a long time.
Outlook
Lifefitness dominates the commercial equipment market and has always had plenty of horsepower in the marketing side of the business. Their industrial design is always sleek, if not complex, which helps them use components that wouldn?t work in an average design. We expect Life to be around for a long time to come...maybe not under the parent Brunswick but they are a huge fitness company.
