This is not meant to knock anybody's choices in anyway, just some observations from my recent tractor shopping both in person and over the internet. And yes I could be described as "old school"
1. Tractor manufacturers are forcing us into machines with less weight and more HP. I suspect there are many reasons for this, one is people are using tractors more like lawn mowers and they don't want to mess up their lawn. I think from the point of manufacturers, it's because they can fit more small tractors on a container ship than they can big ones. I've seen some amazing things done with older tractors in the 30hp range (because they have the weight to get the power to the ground). Nowdays most 30hp tractors look like lawnmowers and weigh about the same as one.
2. There is a huge move to hydrostatic transmissions. I'm not going to debate which transmission is best (they each have their place), but hydrostatics use more hp and they are more expensive. You can't hardly buy a manual transmission in a car nowdays. I see this bleeding over to the tractor segment in the next few years. People are getting lazier and people don't understand how a tractor clutch works. If you want a hydrostatic that's fine by me, but don't try to tell me I have to buy one.
3. People think you HAVE to purchase a tractor with a loader. I'm not debating that a loader is a very handy tool. What I am saying is people are spending a lot of money on loaders that the average person gets very little use out of. You do not have to include a loader in your initial purchase, it can always be added latter. A lot of farming was done before loaders become common place. How did they manage? They were resourceful and they used their brain. Dealers are automatically adding the cost of a loader in my package without even asking if I want one. I don't know but I suspect this must be a high profit margin item.
4. Tractor dealerships are looking more like car dealerships. And most of the employees know very little about tractors.
