So here's the reality check that might upset you (I hope not, but some folks take it the wrong way), but seems to be almost a universal truth here: You can ask for the advice of the forum all you want, but in the end, whatever you're thinking right now is 99% certain to stay the same regardless of what anybody posts here....it always seems to work out that way. The related reality (say that three times fast) is that it's your money, so whatever you think is always going to be the most important opinion...as it should be.
If I were making that decision, the one overriding thing I wouldn't be able to work around is that factory cabs are vastly superior to aftermarket cabs....no comparison. You can read horror story after horror story about problems with even expensive aftermarket cabs, and almost never hear anything similar about factory cabs. In short, if you want a cab (and there are a lot of reasons to want one) get a factory cab if you want to be happy with it in the long run.
All the other stuff about different dealers, factory phone receptionists and possible area managers, etc really doesn't mean much. I've learned that very rarely does a salesman at a dealer know as much about their own machines as I do. One time I told a salesman that I was hung up on the fact that X had 11" more FEL lift height than Y did, but he didn't believe me (he had both machines on the lot) until he went to the sales brochure rack and looked at the specs...."by golly, you're right." Yeah, I know that...I'm not an idiot, and looked it up before I came here...thanks. I've also learned that when you try to negotiate a price based upon what another dealer is quoting you'll often get astounded answers like "I don't know how they could sell at that price...it's almost our cost on that machine" and at that point I know they have no idea what they're talking about. Many dealers aren't used to educated customers who walk through their door with research and knowledge in their back pockets.
I'm not all that surprised the one dealer wasn't familiar with the new model...I saw that happen with a Kioti dealer late last year. I previously bought a tractor from them, and called to get a price on a new Kioti NX. I called three times, and they knew exactly who I was, so they knew they'd sold me a tractor 15mos prior. They never got back to me with a price....when I went past their on the way to another Kioti dealer, I saw they had a bunch of the prior model still on the lot, and none of the new NX models. I know they were familiar with the NX's existence, but hadn't even sorted out pricing yet, so I never heard back. The other dealer gave me a quote literally within seconds. That's not all that different from what you experienced, just with a different brand. I don't think it's all that unusual....unfortunately.
Two things about LS that I've noted that seem to apply. One, they seem to put some sort of mild pressure on their dealers to keep them from stealing sales from dealers in other areas. If they're careful about spacing out their dealers based upon some sort of objective criteria, that might make a lot of sense for the overall brand...keep sales local, and all the dealers get a proportional amount of the business without hurting other dealers. Second, they've been really good about communicating on their Facebook page, and responding to consumer queries, but that might be from the parent organization rather than the U.S. side of things...not sure.
