My understanding of John Deere is along the lines of the same thing. Most of their small garden tractors and push mowers are not made by JD, but they carry the name.

Appliances are in the same boat too. Maytag used to make high quality units, then they started selling their Neptune and Atlantis series W&D units that were made by another company. There is no comparison in quality of these units to the old Maytags. They bought out Amana appliances a few years back and now the whole company is owned by Whirlpool. I've heard the Maytag repair man is no longer taking extended breaks.