Another merger: Makita buys Panasonic’s Power Tools division.

[Davefr]

Here are a couple of Panasonic's last drills. The one on the left is a 15.6V, 3.5Ah, Ni-mH. The one on the right was one of Panasonic final drills. It was rebranded Greenlee and is 14.4V Li-Ion. They both perfom like new. The Greenlee version has the best feel of any drill I've ever handled. The Greenlees were a great deal on clearance. I think Greenlee threw in the towel in trying to sell rebranded cordless tools and Panasonic was more of a consumer electronics company trying to sell tools and couldn't gain name recognition against Milwaukie, Dewalt, etc.

 

[Jawn]

Just another example of DISTRIBUTION IS ALL THAT MATTERS. Flex, Bosch, and Panasonic all made (or make) superior tools but without the Home Depot and Lowes nobody gives a **** because you can't buy them anywhere. Bosch makes some of the best cordless tools in the world and they are about as rare as hen's teeth.

Lowes still has Bosch, do they not?

 

[lund]

I worked with a guy that had a Panasonic drill & impact set and they were high quality tools. But other than a better ingress rating, I wouldn't say they were noticeably better in performance or build quality than the Makita I was using at that time. We spent quite a bit of time comparing them in real world use. I do remember they were expensive and had limited distribution in the USA, both reasons I never pursued them. The limited selection of other available tools in the line was another negative.

Makita is a major player in the specialized manufacturing assembly tool market and probably a big reason they grabbed Panasonic.

This is the set my co-worker used:

I have essentially this set and I left it in my 2nd house that I rent. I travel there 1x to 2x a year and do jobs large and small in keeping it up. I bought it around 2008. It was super for the time. I think that Panasonic hex impact is *still to this day* better than my ~2022 Dewalt Atomic line 20V hex impact: lighter, more control, super good balance, compact, etc. The Panasonic drill is not as super (chuck on mine had a plastic shell and got very nicked up). But, relative to the DeWalt Atomic series drill, it is also quiet, better balanced, and has better peak rpms that are most welcome if you use small drills. I think I drove around 50 gallons worth of screws with that Panasonic impact while doing extensive renovations and the impact driver still continues to work to this day as good as it did when new. The Li-Ion batteries still work well, recharge, and hold a charge long while in storage (which is a good sign of quality). If I visit the home with a year in between, I do not even need to top off the batteries before putting the impact and drill to heavy use.

Panasonic battery tools had a good rep around the time I bought them around 2008. But they were very hard to find in stores (I ordered online after looking up comments) even at that time. The impact driver may be one of my best tools all time.

It would be good if Panasonic battery tools become available again or if better aspects gets incorporated into the Makita line. The batteries, if they are still made in the same place, seem as good as they get.

 

[WordMan]

Lowes still has Bosch, do they not?

I was in my local Lowe's just yesterday, and they still had Bosch.

 

[IndyGarage]

I have some panasonic cordless tools.

They invented the brushless drill and the impactor I believe. At one time they were the best, but I think most everyone caught up by now. .