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Cripes! I received the TD170D yesterday. Slapped on an old BL1830 battery, fully charged, put in an Apex ACR #2 PH bit, and drove about 35 - 3" coarse gold "general purpose" screws into a piece of well seasoned old 4x4 I had in the garage that I'd been using for punching out bushings on. I snapped off 5 of the heads. 4 separated 1" below the head (right where the threads start) and 1 at about 1-1/2" below the head (about 1/2" below where the threads start). Most broke while using the 4th / high setting, but a couple broke using the Assist mode. I only recall a few times that happened with my nearly decade-old Mak BTD140 (pushing 2300 RPM & 3200 IPM, vs 3600 RPM / 3800 IPM for the TD170D in high gear) running at full bore and that has singularly built a half-dozen large pergola's by itself and helped put together many dozens of concrete form setups. I then drove a dozen of the same style screws into the 4x4 with the BTD140 and none of them broke off. I could definitely tell a difference on how much kick & snap the new driver has vs the BTD140. It's not huge, but it is noticeable. I will have to pay attention to screw / fastener selection and dial down on the settings accordingly! Yes, I know the gold bugle-headed GP screws are predominately meant for light stuff like fresh pine & Douglas fir & hanging drywall (doh! ...but we've all done it....don't say you haven't :-/ ). Besides dedicated Phillips & square / Robertson drive deck screws I'd already been switching to star-drive screws (GRK, SPAX, etc) for my impacts on some projects (and switching to better quality PB Swiss / Apex / Zephyr / Shockwave / Mak Gold bits several years ago). But still, I almost never did that with the old driver. This power upgrade may necessitate switching more or most of my screw fasteners over for the bigger stuff. I noticed in some of the online literature the drill is pictured driving "hard wood" in setting 3. Setting 4 is shown driving hole saws and lag bolts.

From what I've discussed with Makita tool reps and online, apparently there were complaints about the large step-up in rpm/ipm between the medium setting and the high / max setting (3rd position) on the TD148 / XDT09Z. The TD170 / XDT12Z has a fourth step inserted in between med/hi that alleviates this concern. Again, from much time researching online, it appears the "A" - Assist mode is meant for longer fasteners, where the screw will be driven more slowly at first start until it hits the required resistance, then it will speed up and start impacting. Slow 'n go at first, then rock n' roll. "T" / Tek / Tech mode is the opposite. It speeds up initial rotation so self-tappers can get started, then it starts impacting. I have a TD170 in green coming from Japan from the same seller as listed above. Besides the cool color and uniqueness of having Japanese lettered buttons, I wanted to be sure to get an impact made in Japan. My concern appears to have been misplaced, because so far from what I've seen all of the XDT12Z's sold here in the U.S. have also been made in Japan. So was my Mak XWT08Z 1/2" Impact Wrench. Unsure of what the actual made-in-Japan component % has to be in Japan to qualify to be listed as "Made..." there, but its nice to start to see more and more tools coming out from there instead of China. P.S. What's interesting is that on most sites or through most eBay sellers, the TD148 has a higher list price and is selling for a bit more than the TD170. Wonder why...?