If keeping it forever, why would resale even be a consideration?
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Yep, good catch. Forever meant forever to me. The resale factor has to do with once I am gone, I don't want my heirs to have a tractor (brand) that they can't sell or will have a difficult time doing so.
Someone above said need to know how big. In my OP, I mentioned "compact," and that means 25-40hp to me. My Mahindra is 50hp and the power is nice, yes, but it's too big for the woods. At this time, I am thinking 38-48hp but it's not certain yet. If I buy such a dream tractor it will take awhile, lol.
As for the "find a good dealer" mantra, I certainly wish for that but I have no idea how one can do that. When you visit a dealer, you probably deal with one person, a salesman. So, you end up basing your opinion on that person's personality. The salesman might just be a good talker and the service is actually not good.
More on the dealer issue... it took me a 2-3 YEARS to figure out I do not care for the dealer for my zero turn mower. I have fixed just about everything needing a repair over ten years but, it's been a time or two it was beyond me at the time of the repair. Partly due to his prices, I learned to fix more, lol. But it's not just price, they are all high. But he seems to go too far with extra charges. And I just feel I know the owner now, he can be a real jerk, and I do not do business there any more. I have come across too many people who knew the owner way back and it's not good. My point is, finding a good dealer is hard to do. I also feel like times have changed in that regard. I grew up on the farm, my dad was a farmer/rancher and we used big tractors. Back then, you certainly knew the dealer!