Heh, that's quite a collection of cars! A Cobra? Awesome.
For the original question, I'd expect that cost is certainly half of the issue (probably more than half). But as was said, the usage situations probably also factor into the generator being quieter. A machine that might run 24 hours a day is going to have more motivation to be quiet (especially when the neighbors may not have their own ability to even make white noise!). Nobody wants to listen to something roaring away at 2AM. While the snowblower will be used for a shorter period of time, and probably during waking hours.
A few years after we bought our house, an ice storm hit, and we lost power for 3 days. We didn't have a generator, of course, so were sitting in the cold and dark. After a day, our next door neighbor procured a generator, so we got to listen to that (rubbing salt in the wounds
). The kicker was that it had a bit of a carb problem, so it surged the whole time. It's a bummer trying to sleep in the cold house, listening to a generator facing the bedroom that's going vrrrRRROOMM-vrrrRRROOMM-vrrrRRROOMM-vrrrRRROOMM.....
Now we have an EU2000i setup, so the lights stay on, and they just sit there and purr. Ahhh, much better. To each their own, but I'll happily take quiet equipment.
