my Dewalt gave up after only 1 1/2 years(occasional use), been trying to decide on new 1... I think i'll try Makita....

Yep, got 4 of those and they're from 15 to 20 years old and served me well on almost a daily basis. Not sure what I'd buy if I had to get new. Perhaps Bosch. Or more Makita although I can't stand the new graphics.

Sure leaning towards this:

Makita LXT211-R Factory Reconditioned 18V Cordless LXT 2-Piece Combo Kit

Still going to keep my 9.6v drills as long as they keep going but sad to have one of them stop working. Still have two more (we use them to remove screws from airplane covers) so hope to have the old version for a while longer.

I have an old Makita 9.6. One of the batteries finally has gotten to the point it won't hold a charge.

New 9.6 batteries are not that expensive. For the price of a battery I would get another one and just use it around the house for light duty. Drill is too good to toss...

Had a 18v Dewalt 1/2" hammer drill that I used for years at work on a daily basis... was dropped several times and just kept on working.... The Makita's and Milwaukee's are also very good drills.... from what I have been told, Dewalt is just a commercial grade Black & Decker... don't know the truth to that though....

A fine idea Joe.

You will love those Joe. We have an adapter to run 1/2" sockets on the impact... We don't use it to break the lugs loose but its great for spinning off lugnuts at autocross.....

I use a impact driver (milwaukee) to drive wood screws, best to use square drive. You can drive them all the way through the wood!!

It really depends on what yu are doing with the drill. Why buy a monster with a 1/2" chuck. It weights a ton. I am done with DeWalt. their batters are not the most durable in my opinion. I only have about 8-10 of their tools. We have purchased so many extra batteries over the years and this is the last time. All of ours are XRPs now. I can't really tell the difference in run time because we put the tool under different load doing different things. Makita has been the tool (cordless drill) we have been buying and my guys love it. Bosch seem to be OK too. The trick to making the batteries stay alive is to disconnect it from the charger and the drill itself if you know you will not use the drill for a good few weeks. That seem to work for us.

look like none of the 911 guy is using Rigid cordless drill.

How does Hitachi cordless power tools compare to the others like Makita or Milwaukee????

The battery for my Milwakee cordless was about $85 at Lowes. Thought about tossing it, then got a replacement from okbattery dot com for less than $50 shipped.

We had a contractor in working on our AC, and he was using a Makita Lithium-Ion Impact Driver. He said it's been great.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/image...N1T9Y-1-sm.jpg

+1 for the Dewalt XRP hammer drill/drill. Had mine for 10yrs. 1/2" chuck. Best drill I have ever owned.

For what its worth, Mike Holmes uses hammer drills when ever they drive screws. So I have to assume Milt is right and there is a real advantage to the hammer action. Of course, he is sponsored by DeWalt, so he would have the best drivers...

The old Hitachis are great, just as good as the others. We bought another 2 years ago and it lasted about 7 months. My men are using them so they are not so careful. I think Panasonic makes a great cordless tool, so does a company Festool. That's the one I always use when I am working in the shop. They are expenisve but are really balance well. Battery life is about the same as others. German made, but will not buy again due to price.

My list are as follows:

Festool
Makita
Bosch
Panasonic
Milwakee

If I were buying today, I buy the Makita.

The only Rigid product I own is an extension cord.

ok, at least one thing. How good is that extension cord? :D

I love my Rigid cordless drill. Have had it for 7ish years. Have used it to build roughly 150' of fence, a 300 sqft shop and countless other jobs. It'll drive 3 1/2" decking screws all day. Came with 2 batteries (one just bit the dust last month) that charge in 1/2 hour. It is a 12v model. A little heavy and bulky compared to some of the ones available today, but I paid around $115 for it and it's more than paid for itself. Oh, and it's been dropped several times from 8'+ onto concrete with no ill effects other than a few scratches.