I got this drill set as a Christmas present about ten years ago. It has been a good unit, before I purchased my 18 volt cordless, I used it almost exclusively as my primary drill. There are a few things that it did not do well, such as drilling through concrete, and other heavy work better left to a corded drill.
It kicked around in the back of my work truck for a while, I used it to put up the drywall in my house, etc. It is comfortable to work with, not too heavy for overhead work, has good torque for starting hard to turn screws. It came with two batteries and a charger, which is pretty much standard these days for cordless equipment.
I have had two problems with it, first after about six years, the original charger stopped working. At first I thought that the batteries were dead, so I purchased new batteries. When that did not fix the problem (battery life was about 3 minutes) I purchased a new charger and that took care of it. I was able to find the batteries and charger at Home Depot. Now I have four batteries, which is good for long projects where batteries can run down quickly. I find with heavy use, a battery charge lasts about 15 to 20 minutes.
The second problem I had was with the speed selector. On the top of the drill there are two settings; I and II. The switch got loose so that it would slip between the I and the II and that would cause the key-less chuck to go dead. I took the drill apart and tightened a few things up and it has not happened since then. I think if it were a real problem, I could get another switch from Makita.
Overall it has been a good drill, reliable, durable with enough power to do medium duty work. It appears that this model is no longer made by Makita, however, there are several newer Makita models to choose from.
I to own this drill and have had it for many years. I cannot keep a charge in the batteries and was wondering how I could figure if I need new batteries or the charger since my charger lights go on when I install the battery. ?